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American Morning
Texas Fires Burn Nearly 500 Homes; Man Sues Coworkers Over Lottery Share; Big Banks Reportedly Offered Deal; CNN Special Examines Stories About 9/11; Mitt Romney Names Economic Advisers; President Prepares for Jobs Speech; Star Trek's Lt. Uhura; Family Turns Pain Into Crusade
Aired September 06, 2011 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello. Extreme weather creating chaos down south. Fires, flooding, tornadoes destroying homes and lives, all while Hurricane Katia makes some big waves.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. Turnover on the campaign trail. Michele Bachmann losing two of her top aids. That's raising new questions about her chances for the party's nomination.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Ali Velshi. President Obama giving us a hint of what is inside his plan to put Americans back to work. Details of his proposal on this AMERICAN MORNING.
COSTELLO: Good morning. Hope you had a terrific Labor Day weekend. It is Tuesday, September 6th.
ROMANS: Yes, but up first, Labor Day is over. Mother Nature is now piling on.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: Fires, tornadoes, flooding creating chaos across the south. In Texas, dozens of dangerous wildfires are burning across that state, fanned by winds from Tropical Storm Lee and fueled by the worst one-year drought in Texas history. Nearly 500 homes have been destroyed.
In suburban Atlanta, tornado sirens sounded throughout the night. Suspected twisters spawned by Lee damaging or destroying dozens of homes in one four-mile area. Trees are down everywhere.
Flooding is the big problem in Jackson, Mississippi. Several major roads shut down. Authorities say a man was killed when he was swept away by floodwaters.
All this as a category 3 hurricane now begins to approach the U.S. It won't come ashore, but, boy, Katia will than churning northwest in the Atlantic, bringing the threat of dangerous rip currents to the East Coast the next few days.
Rob Marciano is in the extreme weather center. He's tracking Lee's trail of destruction.
Jim Spellman is in Bastrop, Texas, just south of Austin, covering this record-breaking wildfires.
Let's go to Jim first.
Three and a half million acres, Jim, have burned since November. That's an area roughly the size of, I think, Connecticut. What's happening this morning?
JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: First, I want to show you this, Christine. Look, the sun has come up here and we are starting to get a look at this wall of fire here being caused by this fire. This particular fire is about 25,000 acres that will probably grow today and we are starting to get some other numbers in and near Houston, fire destroyed 20 homes in the last day.
Just down the road towards Austin here, another 25 homes lost on a separate fire. These conditions are just so extreme here. This drought is so extreme that the slightest thing is setting off fires and the afternoons, the winds pick up and drive them and before you know it, homes are gone and people are evacuating.
And the firefighters here are ready for this to keep continuing for weeks or even months. They have been fighting fires here for 290 days in a row in Texas. A lot of these fire crews going from fire-to- fire all across the state. They're even starting to worry about the fatigue of these firefighters having to deal with so much fire happening so fast all over the state.
Right now, we know they are about to do their shift change. The day shift firefighters are going to get out there and helicopters, airplanes dropping water and retardant and the hope today to get some containment, creating fire lines, using bulldozers to knock down trees and create a barrier between the active fire and the fuel of the homes of the forest and the homes they are trying to save. It's going to be a heck of a day here. They know that while the winds are relatively calm, they have to get at it and try to make some sort of progress -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Jim Spellman in Texas -- thanks, Jim.
COSTELLO: Rob Marciano, we forget that Texas underwent a terrible heat wave earlier this summer and I guess they're paying the price for it now.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That, plus lack of rain. You know, Austin, Texas, had 80 days when they were at 100 or higher. That's the most they've ever had and that's happened this year. So, a tremendous amount of heat obviously. No rain.
And then, Lee adding insult to injuries because the backside of Lee, which obviously didn't bring them any rain, brought even drier, even windier conditions. Good news today is that the winds are dying down and the temperatures have cooled off. But the front side of Lee is causing its own problems.
We had a tremendous amount of severe weather, as you mentioned. The flooding across Mississippi, flooding across eastern parts of Tennessee, including Chattanooga, and the rough weather yesterday last night across parts of Atlanta where a number of tornadoes touched down ,especially north of town.
We had a tornado watch that's in effect for parts of eastern North Carolina until 2:00 this afternoon. That's also with front side of Lee, which is also entangling itself in a cool front that's really moving very, very slowly across the East Coast. That's not good news because along the I-95 corridor, we are looking for the potential of seeing some flooding with this.
So how much rainfall do we expect in the larger cities? We could see anywhere from one to two inches. But you go north and west, you'll see brighter colors here on the forecast weather models showing anywhere from two to three, maybe as much as five or six inches of rainfall with this particular system.
Behind, it's nice. It's dry. It's cool. Very cool actually for this time of year. But on the front side of this, we are looking at stalled frontal boundary.
But that's going to help kind of Katia out to sea. Category 3 storm, it was a cat 4 at one point last night. Winds with 125 miles an hour.
It is forecast to continue to trek towards the U.S. but the same front associated with Lee that's impacting the Eastern Seaboard right now, will nudge Katia out to sea. Big-time waves and rip currents as well. Very dangerous conditions along the immediate shoreline and probably some coastal flooding also. But Katia itself won't make a direct hit.
COSTELLO: We love that classic curvature.
MARCIANO: We didn't get it with Irene but we'll take it with Katia.
COSTELLO: Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right.
VELSHI: OK. I shake down inside Michele Bachmann's campaign, a campaign that is struggling to keep its momentum. Her campaign manager, Ed Rollins, is stepping back in an advisory role and her deputy campaign manager is leaving the campaign altogether. Rollins told Anderson Cooper he's giving up his day-to-day duties because of health reasons.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
ED ROLLINS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I am 68 years old. I had a stroke a year-and-a-half ago. And so, you know, it's just -- work 12, 14 hours a day, it's wearing.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VELSHI: Bachmann's campaign says its campaign strategists will take over for Rollins.
COSTELLO: We are getting new details about Mitt Romney's plan to create jobs. In an editorial in this morning's "USA Today," Romney writes, "Our country has arrived to a fork in the road." Quote, "In one direction lies the heavy hand of the state, indebtedness and decline. In the other direction lies limited government, free enterprise and economic growth. I know which direction lie the millions of jobs we need," end quote.
The Republican presidential candidate will outline his vision for getting America back to work at 3:00 p.m. Eastern in Las Vegas.
ROMANS: And President Obama is also giving a brief preview of his jobs plan. He was speaking in Detroit. And the president said one way to boost employment is for Congress to get on board with rebuilding America.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've got roads and bridges across this country that need rebuilding. We've got private companies with the equipment and the manpower to do the building. We've got more than 1 million unemployed construction workers ready to get dirty right now. There is work to be done and there are workers ready to do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: I think the White House would likely -- it's easy for say this -- but like the stimulus talk a couple of years ago, doesn't it? Get out there, shovel ready. We've got projects on the books. We want to get our hands dirty.
You can see President Obama's speech to the joint session of Congress this Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
VELSHI: Well, the high unemployment rate winning the blue collar vote might be a challenge for President Obama -- though he got help yesterday from the Teamsters Union president, James Hoffa. Speaking before the president, Hoffa had some fiery words for the Tea Party.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES HOFFA, TEAMSTERS UNION PRESIDENT: President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let's take these sons of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong. Thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: On Sunday, Hoffa called American companies that don't spend their money in the United States unpatriotic.
COSTELLO: And if you are wondering if James Hoffa apologized for those remarks, he did not. And if you're wondering if the Tea Party is making money off of James Hoffa's remarks -- it is.
VELSHI: Are they running commercials?
COSTELLO: Yes, they sent out an email asking for money in response to James Hoffa's questions. So, there you have it.
To Libya now, a new speculation about where Moammar Gadhafi may be hiding. Two Libyan military convoy have been spotted passing through Niger in the past two days. Nigerian military sources telling CNN one of the convoys has already reached Niger's capital city. And the other is on its way.
There are reports Moammar Gadhafi and one of his sons are considering joining that convoy.
In the meantime, Libya's National Transition Council will meet with tribal leaders today to make it clear that pro-Gadhafi forces will not be harmed if they peacefully surrender.
ROMANS: All right. New this morning, four former News Corp executives will face a powerful British parliamentary committee today. This is all in the ongoing U.K. phone hacking scandal. Committee members will question two former lawyers, a former human resources manager and also an ex-editor with News Corp's newspaper division. They are trying to find out if News Corp engaged in a corporate wide cover-up to hide the phone hacking practices of its reporters.
VELSHI: More forensic testimony expected in the Amanda Knox's appeal of her murder convection in Italy. Prosecutors are defending the DNA testing that helped convict the American student and her former boyfriend in the killing of Knox's British roommate back in 2007. Defense lawyers claim the DNA evidence used in her trial is inconclusive.
ROMANS: All right. The David Petraeus era begins today at the CIA. The newly minted civilian will be sworn in as the agency's new director. Petraeus retired from the Army last week, after four stars and 37 years of service, which included commanding U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He now succeeds Leon Panetta at the CIA. Panetta is now secretary of defense.
That's some retirement. Retire for a week after that long stellar career and you go on to another very, very big challenge.
VELSHI: As a kid, that always the term used to confuse me when somebody retire from something to go to something else because I just think retirement meant kicking back and not having to go to work anymore.
COSTELLO: It's increasingly less so these days, isn't it?
VELSHI: Yes.
COSTELLO: OK.
Now is your turn to talkback on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you today: is the Postal Service obsolete? Neither rain, nor sleet nor gloom of night -- OK, so it's not the Post Office's official motto but we as a culture have come to see our friendly neighborhood mailman. He or she is always there with birthday cards from grandma or that bill from the telephone company. That is so almost completely over now.
The postal service is in trouble. Not only because it's running a $9 billion deficit, but because the world has changed. The rise of FedEx, UPS, and e-mail are giving Mr. Mailman a run for his money and he is losing.
The Post Office delivered 171 billion pieces of mail in 2010. That's a big number but that's down 20 percent from 2006. But that's the least of its problems.
The Postal Service is also required to deliver mail wherever it's sent no matter what. And by law, it's forced to pay for retiree health costs the next 75 years.
I tell you this because the Postal Service says it can't make the $5.5 billion payment for retiring health costs this month and it's in danger of defaulting. So, the postmaster general will be asking the Senate today for help and maybe the answer to that plea is in our talk back question this morning: Is the postal service obsolete?
Facebook.com/AmericanMorning. Facebook.com/AmericanMorning. I'll read your responses later this hour.
ROMANS: I think it's obsolete as we know it. It's going to have to have changes, big changes, smaller work force, fewer delivery days. I mean, that's even what people at the Post Office had said, you know? It's going to have to change.
VELSHI: It's not so different from the discussion we used to have about the autoworkers, about American auto factories. And you know what? They have changed and they have become very competitive. So, maybe there is an answer in there.
COSTELLO: Right.
ROMANS: All right. Up next on AMERICAN MORNING, President Obama says that when it comes to creating jobs, Republicans must put their country ahead of their party. But will the president's jobs plan really make a dent in the nation's unemployment rate?
VELSHI: And why an Ohio man is suing for his share of a $99 million lottery jackpot even though he didn't buy a ticket for it.
COSTELLO: All right. Let's face it. He is the franchise but now the Indianapolis Colts are facing the reality of a Sunday without Peyton Manning. Ouch!
It's 11 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It is 14 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
President Obama offering just a hint of the ideas he'll be putting forth this Thursday to create jobs. He said the country's infrastructure needs work and the time for action is now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is work to be done and there are workers ready to do it. Labor is on board, business is on board. We just need Congress to get on board.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Joining me now is Hilary Rosen, a CNN political contributor and Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and editorial director at the "National Journal." Welcome to both of you.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: GOOD morning. Hi, Ron.
BROWNSTEIN: Hi, Hilary.
COSTELLO: Hilary, let's start with you, because we've heard that infrastructure thing from President Obama so many times, and maybe some people might be at the point where they say, oh, whatever! Give us something new.
ROSEN: Well, they might be, but, in fact, you know, the last time he did push a lot of infrastructure spending, it actually did stimulate the economy some, and, I think now that they're making another effort at it, but it's going to be more. He's got to figure out a way to get spending going without depending on the Republicans.
COSTELLO: And get people excited about his infrastructure idea, because, frankly, I don't know many people are saying, oh, my gosh, we really need to improve the infrastructure in that country and get people back to work.
ROSEN: You know, people don't say it, but when they go over bridges that don't work or they're waiting in lines at airports because that have too few slots, they understand the value of the investment. But most importantly, I think what people need to hear from the president is kind of a path forward for the next several months. The president should not and I don't think will be in re- election mode when he speaks this week.
COSTELLO: Really?
ROSEN: I think he is in presidential mode. And that's what people need to hear from him. COSTELLO: Because a lot of people say this will be the start of the 2012 campaign, this speech on Thursday, but we'll get to that in a second. Ron, what I wanted to ask you, Senator Carl Levin reportedly showed President Obama a give them hell-style speech that Harry Truman gave 63 years ago.
BROWNSTEIN: Right.
COSTELLO: But it seems that fire is coming more from the people around the president like Teamsters president, James Hoffa. Let's listen again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES HOFFA, PRESIDENT, TEAMSTERS UNION: President Obama, we want one thing -- jobs, jobs, jobs!
Everybody here has got a vote. If we go back and keep the eye on the prize, let's take these son of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: OK. So, he's talking about the Tea Party. We also saw Joe Biden. He was in Ohio. He was pounding on the podium saying the middle class was under attack. Look at that, Joe Biden. So, is it the people around him are going to use this kind of language or is the president going to join in at some point?
BROWNSTEIN: It's really not his style. And, you know, when people talk about the Truman analogy, they're asking the president to do something very specific, a lot of Democrats. They want him to put forward a program that is really big, bold, sharply ideological that he recognizes as he releases it. The Republicans have very little prospect of passing and then use that to run against them in effect as a do nothing Congress as Truman did in 1948 with great success.
I don't think that's what you're going to get from the president. I think, you know, the White House is saying that the speech this week is going to be ambitious in the sense that it adds up to a significant amount of job creation if it was all done, but it's not going to be some ideological litmus test. I mean, it's not going to be the big, giant public works program that many on the left prefer. It's probably going to be more of a hodge-podge of ideas.
Some tax cuts, some new spending, for example, rehabbing schools, perhaps, as you say the infrastructure bank idea, but the president really isn't comfortable moving into that mode, I think, at least not yet. And there's an argument which we can talk about that, ultimately, that kind of populous politics no longer reflects what the Democratic coalition really is today and who might actually vote for the president --
COSTELLO: But that's the world that we live in right now.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. COSTELLO: I mean, it's a culture war, and that's been going on since 2008. So, you don't think even the president will look Congress in the eye. He kind of did that in Detroit. He said, you know, I'm going to put out these bipartisan plans , and if you don't go along with me, I'm going to say it's your fault.
BROWNSTEIN: And that's right. I think he is going to do something like that, but in a different way than I think that Jimmy Hoffa and other Democratic activists have in mind. I think what he is going to do is basically the same posture he's had during the debt ceiling. It's basically trying to present himself as the adult in the room willing to give on some areas that are important to his party and asking Republicans to do the same and then holding them up if they don't.
COSTELLO: OK. Well, Hilary, let me put to you this way. I interviewed a union president from Allegheny County in Pittsburgh. He's from Pittsburg. And he says, this bipartisanship thing doesn't work. When will the president get it through his head that it doesn't work and he has to take the gloves off and he has to come out fighting?
ROSEN: Yes. Well, he's not going to get that through his head. I think he wants to fight, but I think the way he thinks about fighting is fighting for people, not fighting for Democrats. And this is not going to change. Ron is exactly right, that this is a president who was elected with a very large independent vote, not just Democratic vote, and he really believes that his role is to bring people together.
He thinks he is successful at it, and that that's his best shot. And I think, again, I said this before, this election, his re-election is 14 months away. Yes, he knows that unless this economy recovers, that he is going to have a hard time getting reelected. On the other hand, there's a long way to go and his best chance at success for his re-election is success for the country. That's what he's going to be focusing on. Not partisan battles. He is going to try and stay above those.
COSTELLO: We'll see. Hilary Rosen, thank you so much. Ron Brownstein, thanks to you.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.
COSTELLO: A great conservation -- Ali.
VELSHI: All right. I have a great conversation for you. It's not nearly as significant, but it is for the Ohio man who is suing for a share of a $99 million lottery jackpot that 22 of his coworkers won. Here's how this goes. Employees at a cabinet making firm in Middlefield, Ohio have been pooling their money for years.
They hit the jackpot last month, but one of the regular players, 39-year-old Edward Hairston, failed to contribute to the jackpot pool, because he's been out of work with a back injury. He says he's entitled to the $2 million share anyway. ROMANS : Because they've been doing it for years. Right.
VELSHI: Last week, a judge ordered the Ohio Lottery Commission to set aside $2 million. That's his share if he were to get just in case he prevails in court.
ROMANS: I don't know. You got to pay to play, but all the guys on our crews are like, you got to protect your coworkers.
VELSHI: See. I should have thought about this earlier. That would have been a great "Talk Back" question today. Should this dude, Hairston, get his $2 million? There's a lot of controversy about this. I don't know. How do you feel about that?
ROMANS: I don't play consistently enough to be able to really --
VELSHI: They say, you wouldn't have a case.
ROMANS: No. I wouldn't have a case. I wouldn't have a case. So, I don't do it, you know, rain or shine. I only do it when the Powerball is above $200 million or something.
All right. To celebrate his streak in the NFL looks like it's a bit (ph) over this week. Colts quarterback, Peyton Manning, now listed as doubtful for Sunday's opening game because of lingering pain after off-season neck surgery. Manning has started 227 straight games for the Colts.
VELSHI: Wow.
ROMANS: Ali Velshi had hair when this guy first started.
VELSHI: That's right.
ROMANS: Regular season and postseason games. They drafted him back in 1998.
VELSHI: Unbelievable.
ROMANS: Every game since then, he has (INAUDIBLE).
VELSHI: All right. We're going to take a break. Just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, a blockbuster deal that guarantees and you'll see NFL coaches getting those Gatorade showers on the sidelines for years to come.
ROMANS: And she was a television pioneer playing Lt. Uhura, communications officer of the Starship Enterprise. We're going to speak with her, yes, in the flash about Star trek anniversary, NASA's latest mission, her love of all things, space. It's 22 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Twenty-five minutes after the hour. "Minding Your Business" this morning. U.S. markets open today after a three-day weekend. Stock futures are down sharply across the board this morning. Investors are concerned mainly about debt problems in Europe. Another potential market mover today, though, is an economic survey of nonmanufacturing industries like retail, health care, and finance. Economists are forecasting a dip in the so-called ISM index. Not a good signal for growth in the economy.
European markets are making modest gains this morning after a huge sell-off in stocks there yesterday because of rising concerns about worldwide problems about debt problems in Europe. The worst hit was the German Dax Index which lost more than five percent yesterday.
Some big banks reportedly offered a deal to settle lawsuits related to so-called robo signing of foreclosure notices during the mortgage crisis. The "Financial Times" is reporting that some states attorneys general have offered to limit the bank's legal liability in exchange for multibillion dollar settlements. Robo signing is a practice of banks signing up on bundles of foreclosure documents without properly reviewing the paper work.
Hurricane Irene could have an effect on cotton and tobacco prices. This storm destroyed the large part of the crops growing in North Carolina. Farmers saying this year's crop was weak going into the storm because of a drought.
Today, Pepsi and the NFL expected to announce one of the largest sponsorship deals in U.S. sports history. The "Wall Street Journal" reporting this morning the deal is worth $2.3 billion over the next ten years. AMERICAN MORNING back right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Star-date 090611. Lieutenant Uhara communications officer on the Starship Enterprise is here with us this morning. She is talking about the "Star Trek" phenomena on the 45th anniversary of her TV series. And she's working closely with NASA as it readies a new mission to the moon on this AMERICAN MORNING.
I get the shivers saying that!
ROMANS: It's 31 minutes after the hour on this Tuesday, September 6, if you don't know the star-date. You are looking live at Central Park right outside of our studios here in New York. It's going to be rainy most of the afternoon, highs in the 60s. Rob will stop by with your full national weather forecast.
VELSHI: It looks like it's raining right now, which is good, because when I came in, it was --
COSTELLO: It was pouring, wasn't it? I know. But high in the 60s. I'm not ready. Fall is coming.
Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. There is a lot going on. Here are your top stories. Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign shaken up after losing two of its leaders. Campaign manager Ed Rollins is stepping into an advisory role due to health concerns, and her deputy campaign, he's leaving the campaign altogether.
The worst one year drought ever in Texas has become the worse fire season too. More than 60 fires are burning right now across the state of Texas. The largest in Bastrop County near Austin and destroyed 500 homes and has now scorched 25,000 acres. Governor Rick Perry is asking for federal assistance.
And for the first time in 37 years David Petraeus is going to work in civilian clothes. The now retired four-star general starts his new job today as the head of the CIA. He'll be sworn in as the agency's 20th director. He replaces Leon Panetta.
VELSHI: Did he go shopping, do you think, or do you think he kept enough civilian suits around?
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: I think his wife went shopping for him.
VELSHI: I think that's what it is.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: All right, after almost a decade after 9/11, Drew Griffin of CNN's Special Investigations Unit, has been meeting with eight people who woke up and went to work on that fateful day only to become part of history. His special report "Footnotes of 9/11" airs tonight on CNN. Drew is here with a preview. Good morning, Drew.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT: Hi, Ali. We tried to find stories never told until now, average, everyday Americans who literally were forced into circumstances they never trained for, never could imagine. Their stories are found in the footnotes of the 9/11 commission report, but each one a story on its own.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: They came to work expecting just another ordinary day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy doesn't look like and Arab terrorist.
GRIFFIN: People living ordinary lives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I know there was trouble and I wanted to warn everybody.
GRIFFIN: Suddenly thrust into one of the more horrific days in American history.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They said we have some planes. We clearly had a hijack in progress.
GRIFFIN: There are 1,742 footnotes in the official 9/11 commission reported.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just said be prepared to shoot down the next hijack track.
GRIFFIN: These are the stories buried in those footnotes, many never before never told --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They kept coming. And then at one point, we got under a minute and I think terry said it's about 30 seconds out.
GRIFFIN: -- about their experiences that day and the days and years that followed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do I see Mohamed Atta driving by me looking from a car?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should I have said something else? What is more to the point than beware of cockpit intrusion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I go out on a beautiful day, I look up and I go, that sky is September 11th blue. That is what was taken away from me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Ali, it's taken 10 years for a lot of these people to even discuss this. They haven't discussed it with their families for the most part. The people who interacted with the suicidal terrorists that morning, the last people to talk to the flight attendants aboard doomed flights, the first to warn the pilots, and that one fighter pilot literally asked if he was prepared to shoot down a U.S. commercial airliner. Their raw stories of what they had to deal with that day, many being told for the first time, are part of our documentary on the footnotes of 9/11.
VELSHI: Drew, what fascinated you, because when you look back at all the things that didn't go right that we've hopefully since fixed, there were so many things that your documentary points out that did go right, and that was people using their instincts to get into the right mode to do the right thing?
GRIFFIN: You know what fascinated me and always does, is people, and I should say Americans, but I think people across the world do the right thing when they don't ask permission to do it or authority to do it. And a lot of these stories, these people just reacted knowing exactly what was happening at that moment and they decided I'm going to act.
They have regrets about how they handled it. Maybe some didn't say the right thing or thought they didn't say the right thing, but they acted without authority and trying to do the right thing and at that point trying to contain the damage. VELSHI: We see that around the world. Drew, I look forward to seeing it. It's something everybody should watch. It's the unseen side of what happened on 9/11. Be sure to catch Drew's report tonight at 11:00 p.m. eastern. Then on CNN will have special live coverage of the remembrance events throughout the day on 9/11.
ROMANS: All right, presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has just named his economics team this morning. Greg Mankiw, Glenn Hubbard, both former advisers to President Bush, also former senator Jim Talent and Congressman Vin Webber. In a guest op-ed today Romney presented a classic conservative economic model rooted he said in the believe that government cannot create jobs. Cut regulation, cut taxes, reform the tax code - that's what he says.
Quote, "Marginal income tax rates and tax rates on savings and investment must be kept low. Further, taxes on interest, dividends, and capital gains for middle income tax payers should be eliminated. Our corporate tax rate is among the world's highest. It leaves U.S. firms at a competitive disadvantage and induces them to park their profits abroad, benefitting the rest of the world at our expense."
The president gives his jobs speech Thursday. Perhaps not surprisingly the "Wall Street Journal" this morning has low expectations. William McGurn says in his op-ed for the journal that he expects the president to essentially try to pass off another stimulus package as a jobs plan. Quote, "The truth is that there is practically nothing Mr. Obama could do to gin up better job numbers before next year's election without massively increasing the deficit, and Republicans won't let him do that. Even with the word "stimulus" banished from his remarks this week, no one will be fooled in new calls to invest in roads and bridges and infrastructures or by the expected hodge-podge of other proposals from extending the payroll tax holiday to tax credits for new hires."
VELSHI: Can I throw out an op-ed.
ROMANS: Go, Ali.
VELSHI: It is simply we have got to decide as a smart nation not to make "stimulus" the bad word. You may not like it. You may not think it's the right thing to do but if you cut taxes or the government puts money into the economy, it therefore stimulates the economy and, hence, it is stimulus.
ROMANS: And the Tea Party would call you a Keynesian hack.
VELSHI: I'm not saying you have to agree that's the right thing to do. I'm totally fine with people saying and that is the last thing the president should do or that's what the president should do. But it is interesting how we're not going to hear the word "stimulus" for the wrong reasons.
COSTELLO: We cannot argue like adults in this country any more.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Let's argue like adults. And let's argue.
ROMANS: One side what is the president going to do? He has to go big. The other side says he has to undo what he has done and where they have drawn the lines.
VELSHI: Rob is here to comment on this.
ROMANS: Rob, could you give us a weather forecast on the president's speech?
VELSHI: Without using the word "stimulus."
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST. OK, if we are going to take money and put it into the economy, let's do it smartly, OK? Let's not repave a road that doesn't need to be repaved. We don't have time for this, do we?
ROMANS: Common sense from the weather center.
(WEATHER BREAK)
VELSHI: Still to come this morning, forget Captain Kirk or Mr. Spock. She was the real reason that "Star Trek" fans thought space travel was hot. The original Lieutenant Uhara actress Nichelle Nichols joins us after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Wow, look at how young Captain Kirk's looks.
ROMANS: I so had a crush on him.
COSTELLO: I wanted to marry him as a child.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: Nichelle Nichols in her breakthrough role as Lieutenant Uhura on the original "Star Trek" series, a character that inspired future generations of African-Americans to look to the stars.
VELSHI: Nichols also worked closely with the real life space program recruiting thousands of women and minorities, including the first African-American in space. And on Thursday, when NASA launches a new moon mission, she will be on hand. Thursday, by the way, is the 45th anniversary of the first "Star Trek" episode.
Nichelle Nichols joins us from Kennedy Space Center now. We are told that she is sitting in the actual chair, Captain Kirk's actual chair. Is that true?
NICHELLE NICHOLS, PLAYED LT. UHURA ON "STAR TREK": That's true. Good morning.
VELSHI: Good morning to you. How do you even come to terms with the fact that this is 45 years ago? We watched that clip and it feels -- it just takes us back to our childhood and it feels so current, and it was so forward-thinking.
NICHOLS: It was amazing. Fortunate enough to live at the right time and in the right place and to have an innovative mind of the genius of Gene Roddenberry to create a world in the 23rd century to become a platform, a pattern for us to create our own and wrap ourselves in that wonderful imagination and make it a reality and go forth in space where no man or woman has ever gone before.
ROMANS: We love that. I think it's amazing that -- I mean, was it "Star Trek" that inspired your interest in working with the space program, or did that come later?
NICHOLS: It -- I was always fascinated with the space program 50 years ago when Kennedy said, "The moon in this decade and back again safely." And -- and even the finest minds said, "We can't go to the moon and back in this decade". But the President said it would be done and so they said, well, then we will do it.
ROMANS: Wow.
NICHOLS: And here we are today, beneficiaries of that.
ROMANS: Indeed. And you -- and we are beneficiaries of the recruiting that you have done for NASA. I'm told that, you know, Sally Ride, someone that you helped recruit, also a guy Blue Ford (ph), the first African-American astronaut.
Tell me a little bit about what your sales pitch would be now if you we're trying to recruit, recruit people into the sciences and into these important fields?
NICHOLS: If I were recruiting today, I think I would do the very same thing I did to begin with. What the mind can imagine, the mind can achieve. And as long as we -- as long as there's space out there, there's a -- there's background on which to paint our genius and to go where no woman or man has gone before beyond the beyond.
We have only just begun and being here at the Kennedy Space Center in anticipation of the GRAIL rocket launch on Thursday makes me know that you can do -- you can do what the mind tells you, if we -- if we believe in it and go after it.
VELSHI: And I know you're trying to push the interest in this, because it's a little bit different now without a manned space program, there -- people have to be reminded NASA is still involved in stuff.
We're -- we're actually sending these rockets up there to take some measurements of the moon and things that we don't know about the moon or we're trying to figure out.
NICHOLS: Well, we're -- we are talking about the inerts of the moon because we stepped on the moon several times. We know it's there. We know we can do it. And now we are going back. And the space program has gone -- has not -- did not die with the space shuttle program. Shuttle did what it needed to be -- to -- to be done to move us on and now we have the International Space Station which we have built and we are turning our attention to what is available out there that we need to attend to, and we are going to be going back to the moon and with the GRAIL rocket, it's not the only thing that's going to take us where we want to go.
COSTELLO: I was just going to ask you before you go. And I know I should be concentrating on these rockets to the moon, but I need to know your favorite moment from "Star Trek".
NICHOLS: Oh, my goodness. I think it was just before "Star Trek" as Gene -- as I had been selected and Gene asked me to have lunch with him to talk about a book that I was reading which was a "Treatise on Africa" by Rourke and was so popular. It's a best-seller that I walked in with -- with -- to the -- to the interview and -- and it was called Uhuru (ph) which is Swahili for freedom.
And -- and he was fascinated with it because he talked to me for about 20 minutes before we got into my interview about why it was there.
ROMANS: Wow. That is awesome.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: And that's how the name came along.
COSTELLO: Yes, that is awesome.
VELSHI: Well, it's great to see you.
ROMANS: That's awesome.
COSTELLO: I know, Nichelle Nichols, thanks so much. It was a pleasure to see you.
NICHOLS: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Come on, let's all do it.
ROMANS: I can't do it.
NICHOLS: Let's go do it. Thank you very much.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Nichelle Nichols on the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday to watch the launch and meet with visitors and sign autographs. For more information, please go to KennedySpaCenter.com.
AMERICAN MORNING will back right after this quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: It's a disease that takes away a child's chance of growing up to be an adult. But one family didn't give up on the face of it. They fought through their pain and they're helping others to fight too. Here Dr. Sanjay Gupta with their inspiring story in today's "Human Factor".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jeff and Dina Leider are the proud parents of three beautiful children. People would say they were living the good life. And they were until the beginning of this year when things started to crumble. It began with reports from school.
JEFF LEIDER, FATHER: They said things are not quite right with Jason.
GUPTA: So Jeff and Dina took their oldest son 4-year-old Jason to Hackensack University Medical Center. The diagnosis was devastating.
J. LEIDER: Jason has MPS2 there is no cure and Jason will probably be gone by the age of 15 years old.
GUPAT: MPS2 also known as Hunter's Syndrome. It's a rare inherited disease that causes stiffness, unexpected seizures, facial changes and respiratory problems and eventually brain failure. Those who are diagnosed with it usually don't live long enough to graduate from high school and since it's genetic they feared the worst for their younger son, 2-year-old Justin.
DEENA LEIDER, MOTHER: My thoughts just kept going to Justin. I'm Sorry. He wasn't even 2. And all of the symptoms and signs and things to look for that they were explaining about Jason, I just kept seeing in Justin.
GUPTA: Justin was also diagnosed with the fatal disease. Now the Leiders faced their challenge head-on. They were determined not to let these terrible events change their family life. They began a routine taking the boys to weekly hospital visits to get muscle juice, a special concoction of medicines that helped them fight off the illness's side effects.
They tried to do their best in making their children's lives as normal as possible but it's not easy. They have decided another way to overcome their setbacks is to give to others. They have created an organization known as "Let Them be Little Times Two". Designed to raise awareness about Hunter's Syndrome and to help provide financial resources to families who may also be faced with the MPS2 diagnosis.
J. LEIDER: And that's what I live for, is for trying to create some type of awareness and cure that help of doctors for MPS diseases.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: A tough story for sure, Christine but also an example of a family really trying to do something. They say live for today, hope for tomorrow and pray for a cure. Now, that's sort of their mantra, Christine. And that's what they are trying to do for their boys.
ROMANS: Take care of your babies and hug your family and be thankful for what you have and try to help people who don't have as much, I guess.
GUPTA: That's right.
ROMANS: Sanjay, thanks so much.
GUPTA: Thank you.
ROMANS: Fifty-five minutes after the hour. AMERICAN MORNING will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Just about 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
Welcome back. We asked you to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. The question was, "Is the Post Office obsolete?"
This from Phillip. "The postal service as it exists now is obsolete. On the user with services I see the need for it to change. Electronic delivery for everything is on the rise. So the problem they're experiencing now will not go away. The focus needs to be on innovation and a forward thinking change to its infrastructure that makes its existence continually viable.
This from Ty. "I would say yes. The only thing I get from the postal service is junk mail and I don't -- and I do not use it to mail anything either. Why should so many of us use our tax dollars to support this service? I know. It says that it's self-supporting by stamps alone but its yearly deficit has to be paid by someone and we all know who that is. The taxpayer.
And this from Mark. "No. For less than $1 I can send a message to anywhere in the country. My personal message payment for whatever can be carried from Key West to Nome for less than a dollar. Quit whining, America. You pay more than that for a soda.
VELSHI: I don't think that person mails anything from Key West to Nome. I'm just saying but -- but the point is well taken.
COSTELLO: Mark you can message Ali.
ROMANS: You know it's interesting Robert Cutter (ph) on Friday, who is a cofounder of the American Prospect, he said that the post office is so important. Because for many, many people this is their first entree into the middle class. It's an important --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: As a worker.
ROMANS: As a worker. It's an important bastion of employment in this country. He was even pointing out this comes at a time when many people want to cut spending. At government jobs, that's means
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: You fix it. That's what you do. And that's what the Postmaster General wants to do. He wants to fix it.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: And the number of your respondents seem to say that.
It's probably something the post office has thought about, right?
COSTELLO: I'm pretty sure it has but it is going before lawmakers ask for help. There you have it. .
ROMANS: All right. That's going to do it for us.
"CNN NEWSROOM" starts with Kyra Phillips right now. Good morning, Kyra Phillips.
