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Rick's List
Michael Steele in Hot Water; Where Is U.S. Economy Heading?; "Whale" of An Oil Skimmer; Oil Cleanup Complications; War in Afghanistan
Aired July 02, 2010 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's going to court today to try to figure out at 1:30 how they got out. So, I think that kind of proves, you know, he would be denying these were real if that was going on.
But just so you know, the other thing that he said -- and this is -- to women, this is his baby's mother, Oksana, we're talking about -- he says, you look like an f'ing pig in heat. These are the kind of things that Mel Gibson says to the person he loves, to his baby mama.
Guess what, Mel Gibson, if you're listening. You have a lot of fans out there, including African-Americans, women, Jewish community, Jewish people. I can't believe that we're actually going through this one more time.
Remember, Joy, I worked on that DUI at TMZ when we broke that story. I was there. I feel like I'm going through deja vu right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Well, turning back to that 2000 deja vu case, 2006, it was the Gibson tirade which occurred during a DUI arrest. Jesse Jackson is telling TMZ that Gibson has a -- quote -- "fundamental character flaw" and that he -- quote -- "truly needs help."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will tell you what. I have talked to Reverend Jesse Jackson today, the NAACP. And guess what, Joy? They're saying he's out of control. And -- because Mel Gibson is wealthy, Mel Gibson is famous, he is one of the biggest people in Hollywood, but he's out of control.
JOY BEHAR, CNN HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And if he's an Anti-Semite or a racist, I don't know if you can control Mel Gibson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Gibson and his ex-girlfriend have recently taken out restraining orders on each other. We do expect more details on this story in a special segment during our next hour.
Meantime, let's begin this new newscast, where I am honored to say that we are the news of record for American Forces Network. And we welcome all the troops that are watching us overseas, especially on this day, where we have video from Afghanistan of our troops overseas.
Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Here's what is making the LIST today.
New numbers are out. Where is our economy going? Unemployment, housing, what you need to know.
How mad is Mad Max? First, Jews, then women. Now blacks? Now another rant, this time with a very liberal use of the N-word.
JOHN WATHEN, HURRICANE CREEKKEEPER: Nothing can live in these rainbows of death that cover the entire horizon.
SANCHEZ: The pilot's video you saw here that garnered a huge reaction. But is he violating the no-fly rule?
He says he isn't stopping.
The lists you need to know about. Who's today's most intriguing? Who's landed on the list you don't want to be on? Who's making news on Twitter? It's why I keep a list.
Pioneering tomorrow's cutting-edge news right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: OK. I have been looking forward to and wanting to show you this piece of video that has come in today, which is as much -- as good an action footage from a war as I have ever seen.
But we have to first put it in perspective because of the political climate in our own country, part of the national conversation over whether we should be in Afghanistan.
And it's a Republican, Michael Steele, who's talking about this on this day, and in hot water with his own party for what he has said. Let me catch you up.
There are calls right now, right now, for Michael Steele to resign, step down as the RNC chairman over these remarks.
I want you to listen carefully. This is amateur video. Here we go.
Rog?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL STEELE, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Keep in mind again, our federal candidates, this is a war of Obama's choosing. This is not -- this is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: I mean, listen to what he is saying there. What he said certainly seems to run counter to what the Republican Party's position has been since -- well, since 9/11, especially when he starts saying that Afghanistan is unwinnable.
Did you notice that Steele seemed to be signaling to Republican candidates, look, here's our talking point on Afghanistan? It's Obama's war, not America's war. That's interesting, because he's getting pushback from Republicans, saying, no, we don't want to say that.
Now, this is all very abstract -- abstract politics really. So, before we go into -- in that direction, let me do something for you. I want to show you something now. This is not abstract, something very real. This, my friends, is the war in Afghanistan.
I beg you to watch. This is video shot in Helmand Province by a British -- by British soldiers for the newspaper "The Sun." Look at the guy on the right as you watch this video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(GUNFIRE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: You will be seeing him coming up right here on the right during this firefight which they are engaged in with Taliban troops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(GUNFIRE)
(SHOUTING)
(GUNFIRE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man down! Man down!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man down!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: "Man down." You hear that? "Man down." That's the guy who's down right there on the right. Stay with me.
That's Lance Corporal Smith. It appears like he's shot in the face. Not sure if it was part of a bullet or something that hit the ground. The good news is, he did make a full recovery and returned to the battlefield. That's what these guys are doing. Now, these are Brits fighting over there in Afghanistan. And you notice they're still taking fire. They are still taking fire from the enemy. So, they continue the firefight while they try to address his situation.
All right. Now let's fast-forward to today. I have got something else I want to show you now, OK? This is an attack against Americans. This is in Northern Afghanistan. The building you see there houses the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Let's pick this sound up, Rog.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(GUNFIRE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: ... for you. Here is the information we have received so far. This is in a place called Kunduz. And here's what's interesting about this.
This used to be regarded as a safe place for troops, for our guys or the Brits, but we understand no more. It's -- it's not safe anymore. Five people were killed in that assault, where insurgents just came upon the building.
What else can I tell you? It was a predawn raid, started as a suicide bomber on foot and then another, when a car detonated at the gate of the compound. That was followed by an assault. Four gunmen then stormed the facility with firing -- with machine gun fire, and they started hurling hand grenades into the area, again, five people killed. Some of them were Filipino. One was Filipino. One was German.
What have we got here? Filipino, Brit, and a German. It was a six- and-a-half-hour attack. And, once again, it happened in Kunduz. So, this is the reality of what's happening in Afghanistan. And it stands in stark contrast to the political conversation that's been taking place here today with Michael Steele's words.
And now Republicans are coming out, Bill Kristol, for example. Let me bring you this item. Bill Kristol is saying -- quote -- "Your comment is more than an embarrassment. It's an affront." This is Bill Kristol. All right? With -- who is the publisher of "The Weekly Standard," right? Yes, "Weekly Standard."
"It's an affront both to the honor of the Republican Party and to the commitment of the soldiers fighting to accomplish the mission that they have been asked to take on by our elected leaders."
Dan Senor tells journalists, Steele's comments are -- quote -- "utterly irresponsible." That's what's going on.
Now this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The oil will come into here and then get brought into these valves and get processed, where they will begin the process of separating the water from the oil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
The oil will come into here and then get brought into these valves and get processed where they will begin the process of separating the water from the oil.
OK. I want you to take a look at the world's largest skimmer. We have finally got pictures of this baby, largest skimmer in the world. Could be a huge asset to the oil cleanup, but it's not being used yet. Gee, what a surprise. What's the holdup, right? That's ahead.
Also, remember this video? A BART officer shot and killed -- shot and killed an unarmed passenger, big brouhaha after that. He says he was reaching for his Taser, but he grabbed his gun instead. There could be a verdict coming in, and we have got that situation covered for you. As soon as we hear the latest, we will bring it in as breaking news.
And then there's the Big Board. What happened on the Dow today? Was it up or was it down? Down again.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back.
It's time for yet another list. This is what we call our roundup list. Southern California on edge today. They're awaiting the verdict in the BART subway shooting case. I know I have been somewhat repetitive on this, but I just want you to know that we have got our own field forces ready to report in case anything happens out there in California.
So, this racially charged murder case has been handed to a jury now officially. It's a white transit police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man on a station platform on New Year's Day in 2009.
Security at the courthouse in Los Angeles has been beefed up. Police in Oakland are ready to use field forces if they have to to put down any type of unrest, should it develop when the jury comes back. Now, this is obviously a moving story. We will watch it as it goes.
Number two, they are paying tribute today to the late longtime Senator Robert Byrd in his beloved West Virginia. Byrd died Monday at the age of 92. President Obama, Vice President Biden, former President Clinton, just to name a few, shared their memories of Byrd with the crowd at his memorial service. Byrd was the longest serving senator in U.S. history, who will be buried next week. Number three: Overseas in Pakistan, police have now recovered the remains of the culprits behind two suicide bombings at one of the country's holiest shrines, at least 50 people killed, more than 200 others injured, one bomb detonated in the shrine's courtyard. Minutes later, the second went off in the lower level of the shrine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN WATHEN: Then we found this guy. A sperm whale swimming in the oil had just breached. Along his back, we could see red patches of crude, as if he had been basted for broiling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Look at these pictures as they continue to come in. We have been following these for you. They're haunting images of whales, of dolphins, other animals from the Gulf of Mexico, in some cases covered in oil, in other cases just devastated by the oil itself.
What do these pictures say about the future of the Gulf itself? And what's holding up some of the efforts to try and clean things up? We will have that for you in just a little bit with an explanation of the newest tool that's arrived there. It's the biggest skimmer in the world. We will break it down. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez. This is your national conversation.
One of the big stories on the LIST today is the situation out there in the Bay Area around Oakland, California. It is the trial, again, of a white California transit police officer. He is accused of killing an unarmed man. He says he was trying to reach for his stun gun, but he accidentally -- there's the video -- but he accidentally reached for his gun instead and just shot the man in cold blood.
And this thing has been a -- a real brouhaha ever since it happened. Now the jury has the case, and they could be coming back within the next couple of hours, maybe sooner, maybe later. We're covering the trial for you. Let's do this.
Let's go to KTVU's Claudine Wong. She is joining us now by phone just to kind of set the scene for us.
Claudine, do that for us, if you would. What's going on there now?
CLAUDINE WONG, KTVU REPORTER: Well, hi, Rick.
Yes, we are outside in front of the courthouse right now, where it was a pretty busy day in court. We have been waiting for the attorneys for both sides to finish up their closing arguments. The defense went for a little bit this morning, about 45 minutes. And then the prosecution wrapped up its rebuttal.
Today, jurors just heard the final word from these guys, as they both tried to frame this up as common sense, the prosecution obviously saying, look, you don't need anyone, any of these defense expert witnesses, to tell you what you're seeing in that video. You can see an unjustified killing in that video. And that's why you should convict Johannes Mehserle of second-degree murder.
The defense is saying, yes, it is common sense. If you take a look at the video, certainly, there were aggressive police officers, but Johannes Mehserle wasn't one of them. And, so, given all of that, why would a 28-year-old guy who wasn't angry, who wasn't confrontational, who everyone has said is a good guy, under all those lights, with that full train and a crowd, why would he just pull out a gun and shoot someone?
And they said, that defies common sense. That's not common sense, so, you should acquit him on all charges. It is very dramatic. In court, it's a full house.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: What about -- hey, Claudine, let me ask you a question.
You know, look, anybody can make a mistake, even something as dreadful as this that could result in the life of someone being taken like this, but it goes beyond that. If the community feels that the police officers, their -- the guys who are supposed to be protecting them, the guys whose payrolls they pay for, are bullies or have a tendency to do this in the past, then the pulse of the community will say that they will either fight back, protest, do something.
You live there. We don't. Is the feeling in the Bay Area, that cops are a little out of control and need to be kept in check? And, if that's the case, and this jury comes back and clears this cop, what are the chances that we will see some kind of backlash, maybe even disturbances on the streets?
WONG: Well, you know, certainly, we have already seen rioting. We have already seen backlash. In the last week or so, we have seen graffiti going up that says, you know, if L.A. doesn't get it right, we will.
The family has said they don't condone violence, but they say one way or another we will get justice.
And, clearly, this is about more than what happened on New Year's Day 2009.
SANCHEZ: Right.
WONG: This is about people who are angry about injustice in general. This is about people who say, look, police do this all the time. The only difference is, this time, it got caught on tape, and because it got caught on tape, something should happen.
The family makes a very -- the Oscar Grant family makes a very repetitive point that says, if it had been one of us that got videotaped on camera shooting someone like that, we would get murder. And, so, that's what Johannes Mehserle should get.
Now, Mehserle's defense has come back and said, look, we give these police officers guns. We give them Tasers. We tell them to run in when everyone is running out. And they make mistakes. But if they follow policy and if they follow their training, which they say has some flaws, the defense arguing, look, he didn't have enough training, he wasn't told properly how to do this, he hadn't practiced enough. We know he had only had Taser training three weeks before. He maybe fired that Taser maybe once.
They're saying, if you give those police officers, and they follow their training, and they follow the law -- keep in mind, they said, they should be held accountable. There are civil cases, there's things like that, but they should not be criminally held liable.
And that's the distinction in this case. That's why this is the first case of its kind in California, because it's not like this hasn't happened before. But, usually, they're just charged civilly and they lose their jobs and everyone moves on.
SANCHEZ: But this is the kind of thing, you know, what do they call it? The long, hot summer. It's not just where you are. It's in other cities around the country. And communities are frustrated. The economy isn't necessarily good. And the last thing they want to see is their tax dollars being used by people who give the impression they're not necessarily on their side.
Now, that's perspective. That's not necessarily reality. But, sometimes, it's just as important as reality.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Listen, we will get back to you in a little bit, because we have got to get going. Good stuff. Great report.
Claudine Wong there from KTVU following this story for us, we certainly appreciate your time and due diligence.
Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said to his baby mama, if you're raped by a pack of N-words, then it's probably going to be your fault.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Well, we're doing more today with this story, because first it was Jews and then it was women and now it's blacks, the question about Mel Gibson, and I'm just wondering if you know what list you think he might be on today, and how that's going to be posed for you. Stick around.
And then there is Michael Vick, who was on that list. He says he wasn't anywhere near the shooting outside the restaurant, but there's a new video that suggests otherwise. And now the NFL is saying, we want to know more. Not again.
That's next right here. You're watching your national conversation.
More video coming in, by the way, as we share it with you from Afghanistan, and we're trying to get ahold of our Pentagon unit. We hopefully will be able to talk to them in just a little bit.
I'm Rick Sanchez. This is RICK'S LIST. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: I want to bring you up to date on what's going on now in the Gulf of Mexico. There is no question this thing is a crisis. And it has been made more so by the impact from Hurricane Alex.
Hurricane Alex may be gone, but, according to folks who have been watching, including BP themselves -- last week, Chad Myers, I mean, he was taking a conservative estimate when he said that you would probably see six-, seven-, maybe eight-foot waves. Well, we're getting reports they were 12-foot waves, some of which have just been still hanging around.
Let me bring Chad back into this.
How is it possible that the hurricane is gone, they're still seeing waves out there and they're not in a position where they can go in and do the skimming that they want to do?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, you're still at four feet right now, four feet from...
SANCHEZ: OK.
MYERS: And those are still waves that are propagating in from a 105- mile-per-hour storm that was hundreds of miles away.
Those waves just don't stop just because the wind stops. Those winds were generated, those waves were generated, and those waves keep rolling until they hit something, which would be the shore, and sometimes they even splash back. It's kind of like this big bowl, right?
SANCHEZ: Right.
MYERS: You're sitting in the big bathtub called the Gulf of Mexico.
SANCHEZ: And you throw a pebble.
MYERS: And all of a sudden it goes in and it goes out and it goes in and it goes out. So, this -- it's still shaking.
SANCHEZ: Right.
MYERS: And even yesterday we saw this cap wobbling around. It was just moving back and forth. It was supposed to be sitting on top of the blowout preventer. It wasn't sitting there by itself. Because the ship above was moving, it was moving, the water was moving. So that has settled down a little bit today.
But you want to skim literally three millimeters of the ocean's surface.
SANCHEZ: Well...
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: If you have waves that are doing four feet and the bow of your boat is doing this, you're not skimming anything.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Watch this. Watch this. There's -- I don't know if you've heard about this. There's A new piece of equipment. It's supposedly the biggest skimmer in the history of the world. You know, you and I are sitting here going, well, where's it been? Gee, it's a good thing it finally got there, right?
MYERS: Does it -- you can't move the Queen Mary in a day. It came from the other side of the world, but OK.
SANCHEZ: Well, let's see. This is -- this -- who put this piece together? Oh, this is Eddie Lavandera's piece.
MYERS: This is Ed.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: All right, let's watch this together. Here we go.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is how you get on the world's largest oil skimmer, quite a feat, and quite an adventure.
So, now we are on board a massive vessel called A Whale. And this is a giant cargo ship that has been retrofitted to skim oil out in the Gulf of Mexico. This kind of technology retrofitting never been done before. So right now, the Coast Guard hasn't given this ship permission to go out and skim oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
We are on the navigation deck of this vessel. And from this perch, you can really get a sense of the magnitude of this ship. It is almost four football fields long, one football field wide. And as you look at those other massive ships out there on the water, they look small from this vantage point.
But underneath this massive deck that you see right here below us, underneath there is where the crucial work will take place, if indeed the technology aboard this vessel does work. Underneath there is where the containers and where the oil could be skimmed into is being held right now.
So we're going to go check that out. Those slits that you see on the side of the ship are called the jaws. That is the critical component that has been retrofitted to help the ship collect oil.
So the oil is going to come through here into these valves and into a series of five tanks and that's a process of separating the oil from the water.
What you see here is called the jaws. Essentially when this ship gets the clearance to go out and start skimming oil, the oil will come into here and then get brought into these valves and get processed where they will begin the process of separating the water from the oil.
(voice-over): Right now the crew of the ship is waiting on final permission from the Unified Command to start skimming oil in the Gulf of Mexico. There are a couple issues there being looked at right now.
First of all, one of them is a safety issue, a ship this big out on the Gulf of Mexico needs about a half mile radius all the way around to operate safely so they're trying to figure out if that's possible.
There are also some environmental concerns. Part of the way the ship works is it brings in oil and water. It separates that and the water gets thrown back out into the Gulf of Mexico and they keep the oil. They're also looking into whether or not that water is going to be discharged, what is the environmental impact of that?
So that's one of the things slowing it down, but everyone aboard here thinks that it's just a matter of time before this vessel is put in to fight the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RICK SANCHEZ, HOST: What's frustrating about this is it doesn't appear to have an end in sight. We know now that they didn't have the due diligence before this happened. And we seem to know now that they really didn't have the requisite preparations to deal with it after it happened. As we say in baseball, 0 for 2.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 0 for 2. I heard a lot of people complain about how much oil is coming out of the well. We didn't know how much was coming out. Remember three weeks ago when I said, they're going to cut the top of that kink off and a lot more oil is going to come out and they went oh, no, only 20 percent.
Well, guess what? Those numbers went from 5,000 barrels to 45,000 barrels when they cut that kink off. That's more than 20 percent. You know, I could do calculus and I can diff-eq and that's more than 20 percent.
SANCHEZ: What?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never mind.
SANCHEZ: What do you say?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's differential equations. It's the reason why I'm not a mechanical engineer anymore.
SANCHEZ: Well done, Chado. All right, thanks, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
SANCHEZ: Let us know if anything changes here and there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.
SANCHEZ: Here is the big story that we're following today. A firefight in Afghanistan and you watch this as it goes down. Hours before General Patraeus takes up his new command. That's just one video we have for you. This is interesting.
Coincidence or foreboding and then there's the political situation here with what Michael Steele has said, which has Republicans furious. Also, there is something that you don't see every day. A gas station on wheels. Talk about a tight squeeze. That's next. Right here on your list. Your national conversation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: No, we're not going to let you down. After all remember the flying cars and the Jetsons? God I loved that cartoon. I really did. Right there with the Flintstones. I think the same people made it. Certainly the music right?
Well, the future folks when it comes to things like flying cars is here. Let's do "Fotos."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Ladies and gentlemen, a flying car. I'm not kidding. This is the transition. The Terafugia transition, it poised to soar into production after clearance by the FAA. It's totally street legal and it's very green, too. It gets 30 miles to the gallon.
If traffic is bad then the wings just fold out and the propeller winds up and you take off. If the weather is bad, you fold up the wings and you drive it home. I mean, it depends on traffic.
Look, you're driving down the road. All of a sudden you decide you want to fly instead of drive. You just go to the nearest runway and you're up in the air. Price tag only $200,000, which is good compared to some cars that don't fly like a rolls.
Convenience stores have never been so convenient. For a fill-up and a steaming cup of coffee just pull in. But wait, this one in Iowa is blocking the road. That's not convenient at all. Crews moving an historic gas station had to stop when the chimney almost got stuck under a bridge. Come on. Looks like we need Chad there doing his DQs.
Look out, Portland. There is -- no I'm not saying this again. Four police cars, two game wardens, trucks, and a state wildlife biologist were no match for this beast. Yes, it's a moose. After several hours of pursuit and several attempts to try and hit it with a tranquilizer the moose disappeared into the woods. OK, I'll say it but only one time. Moose on the loose! There I said it. You can see them all every day on my blog, cnn.com/ricksanchez.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Michael Steele has come out and said what has many Republicans furious with him. He has essentially said that the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable and he says it's Obama's war, only Obama's war, which is very different from what most Americans know given the history of that 9-year-old war since 9/11.
So, now the question is this. How will words like that play with the troops? What's being said at the Pentagon? The way to find out? We'll go to the Pentagon. Barbara Starr is our Pentagon correspondent. I'm going to be checking in with her in just a little bit on what is the buzz story in Washington today. This is your national conversation. We'll be right back with Barbara.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back. Just hours before General David Patraeus took up his new post as U.S. commander in Afghanistan, there was as you're about to see a very brazen attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ (voice-over): This is crazy to listen to. Those shots rang out as Taliban terrorists attacked the compound of an American agency subcontractor. At least five people were killed. We're told 20 others were injured. This went on for hours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: A bloody day, another grim reminder of the challenges that are facing David Patraeus and this as well on the day where the leader, the chairman of the Republican party, has come out and said that this is only Obama's war and that it's essentially unwinnable.
All of this intersecting as we watch the developments in light of what happened with Commander Stanley McChrystal's removal. So all of this comes to a boil and Barbara Starr is joining us now.
She's there in -- at the Pentagon. With all of this going on, I know that there's got to be a flurry of activity and a buzz going on. What are people saying? What are the expectations especially with this new wrinkle today of Michael Steele's quote?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Rick. I think everything right now is of concern for one reason. The commanders don't want the troops demoralized, upset, any more stressed than they are already.
Of course, they lost their commander last week through a series of circumstances. Patraeus is just on the ground now. But just consider one statistic alone that will tell you what is going on with the force, Rick.
Did you know that this past month 400 U.S. troops on the ground were wounded or injured in one month alone in the war? It's because of this level of violence. So, you know, for Patraeus, he's got a tough road ahead. The troops are really taking a battering, but they're keeping at it.
Four hundred U.S. troops a month wounded and 1100 roadside bombs in the month of May alone. June was the worst month ever for fatalities in the war for the entire coalition. They're on the verge of proceeding with that offensive into southern Afghanistan.
That's going to be very tough. So the last thing anybody at the Pentagon wants is the troops hearing anything back in Washington or from the politicians that would be demoralizing or show any lack of support for the very tough work these young kids are out there doing.
SANCHEZ: There's no question. They're the ones who have the burden and, by the way, that's not to say that America should not have a conversation, a smart conversation about what the goals are in Iraq, in Afghanistan.
It's when someone steps over themselves or maybe I should say steps over the line and says something as blatant as Steele has said, maybe that's why he's getting so much pushback from his own party.
STARR: Well, I think that for most of the military they see a very clear difference between, as you described, a smart conversation. Is this strategy working? Does the U.S. military need some different tactics on the ground? Is there enough support from the diplomatic side? Enough economic aid? Are we really cracking down on the drug lords as much as we possibly could?
All of that falls under the heading of smart conversation. I don't think anybody objects to that. What concerns military commanders is when the war gets politicized. When it becomes Democrats versus Republicans, the military stands back, especially after the General McChrystal incident, and says, look, we follow the commander in chief. We follow the president.
Congress just taking up this week more funding for the war, billions of dollars at stake, the Speaker Nancy Pelosi making it very clear she wants to see a deadline in this war. She wants to see when the troops are coming home. All of that, part of the conversation, up to everybody to decide I think when smart conversation becomes politics.
SANCHEZ: The usual politics. Well said, Barbara. I'm glad we had a chance to reach out to you and get a perspective on what's going on there at the Pentagon. My thanks to you, have a great weekend by the way.
STARR: You, too.
SANCHEZ: All right, he's made our list before for his really bizarre and sometimes ugly rants. Now apparently he's at it again. You won't believe what he's said. Guess which list we are about to bring you, which includes Mr. Gibson. That's next.
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SANCHEZ: Someone just tweeted me and said that I have George Jetson's hair. George Jetson. I don't, right? You guys think I have George Jetson's hair? Come on. You guys just -- no, right? Right? Maybe more like what, Gilligan or the Skipper?
Now we're all dating ourselves. Welcome, guys, by the way. Nice to have our audience here today. As usual folks love to come in and be a part of "Rick's List" during the summer. We're glad they're here.
Now on to, whoops, Mel Gibson. He has found a new target for his venom. Here now the list you don't want to be on.
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SANCHEZ (voice-over): Mel Gibson is the guy who brought you the movie "The Passion of the Christ" great flick. Antagonists of that movie would not approve of his latest actions, but then again, he wouldn't approve of his past actions either.
Five years ago, the world only knew of Gibson the movie star, a religious man who won the title sexiest man alive at one point, but in 2006, in a drunken meltdown, he referred to a female officer's breasts with the word sugar in front of it and he didn't use the word breasts.
And then he went on to blame all the Jews because she said she was Jewish for all of the world's problems and all of the world's wars. Gibson was reported to be a member of an extreme catholic sect called the "Holy Family." They are distanced from the main body of Catholicism and are not affiliated with the Roman Catholic diocese.
His father was exposed as a holocaust denier who some articles claim believed that the World Trade Center was destroyed by remote control.
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SANCHEZ: While one may think that his father is not an issue, Gibson, for his part, has never affirmed nor denied the opinions expressed by his father. And now with all that in the background one would think this guy is going to be careful what he says, right? Wrong.
In a recorded conversation, not with his ex-wife, but rather with his ex-girlfriend, who is the mother of his 7-month-old daughter, he allegedly has said the following. Quote, "you are an embarrassment to me. You look like a blanking pig in heat and if you get raped by a pack of insert "n" words there, it will be your fault.
Ouch. Gibson's ex-girlfriend is reported to have recorded the tape when her relationship with Gibson started to go sour. They are in a bitter child custody battle. The tape appears to include Gibson allegedly calling his ex-girlfriend the "c" word and at one point even threatening to burn down her house.
Gibson and his ex-girlfriend have recently taken out restraining orders on each other for his latest rant. Mel Gibson, today, is at the very top of the list that you don't want to be on.
By the way, this has been one of the biggest topics on Twitter. I'll read you some things that are being said on this day. We'll be right back.
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SANCHEZ: I promised a couple of your tweets. I had a couple people say leave Mel Gibson alone. Others are hammering Mel Gibson. Take this one. I guess Mel didn't like her dress. There's another one we have on there that we had a moment ago.
Mel Gibson needs to be committed to Bellevue. He is crackers. Bellevue, by the way, is the mental hospital in New York and then going back to my hair thing, I don't know why this is a constant theme, but all of a sudden it is.
One guy saying my hair looks like George Jetson's. Another one is saying no your hair looks like George Jefferson. Then finally someone says Fred Flintstone maybe? I don't know. What do you think?
Plays of the week, the best. This is like watching ESPN when we come back.
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CALLER: Hey, Rick. This is Carl. I want to wish you a happy birthday. Saturday, July 3rd, is the big day and I hope you enjoy your family. Have a happy birthday. Love you.
SANCHEZ: That's my father-in-law, by the way. I recognize the voice. Love that. Boy, I tell you. That's good Carl or is that bad Carl? We have a nickname for him in the family. I love that man.
Time for our '"Plays of the Week" now. Dominating the news was the confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan and we heard the phrase "judicial activism" mentioned an awful lot. It usually comes from the right, but this week, no, it was coming from the left and being hurled a lot. We touched on this here.
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SANCHEZ: Some of these Democrats are saying when are we going to get our Scalia, our unambiguous lefty who will get there and go toe to toe with the Scalias and Chief Justice John Roberts and the Samuel Alitos?
That's what they're saying. I mean, that's the folks on, you know, the far left or the left. Let's go ahead and listen to the man from the land of 10,000 lakes, Senator Al Franken.
SENATOR AL FRANKEN, (D) MINNESOTA: Whether you're a worker, a pensioner, a small business owner, a woman, a voter, or a person who drinks water, your rights are harder to defend today than they were five years ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SANCHEZ: Senator Franken said the high court had displayed conservative activism -- conservative activism. Remember it's Conservatives saying there's too much Liberal activism in recent years, something that actually you don't usually hear.
We wanted to present both sides. He cited the example that Citizens United decision had expanded the rights of corporations and campaign finance and was met with objections from the left. So there was also a discussion about Kagan's connection to former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
And it showed the racial tension that sometimes abuse this issue especially during questioning by Senator John Cornyn that perhaps told us more about what Republicans are concerned about. They didn't want to come off looking like they're anti-black for example, which they may have perceived.
Here, take a listen on how we covered this.
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SANCHEZ: Here's my question. Let me just cut right to the chase. Isn't John Cornyn really defending himself and his party against accusations that they are besmirching the reputation of the nation's first minority, the first African-American justice of the United States of America and here they are whether directly or indirectly hammering away at this guy?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: You know what? I think that's exactly what they're doing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, sure.
TOOBIN: I mean, here you had this procession of middle aged, white, mostly southern men, the Republicans on that committee, and they have been using the name Thurgood Marshall as a synonym for something sinister, something bad, something inappropriate in a judge.
It is true that his views were not accepted by many of his colleagues during the, at least in a lot of high profile cases, during the '80s particularly, the 1980s. But the idea that he should be treated as someone of disdain is something people are taking offense at.
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SANCHEZ: I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm a frustrated lawyer, but I loved following the Kagan hearings this week. I'm glad we were able to share it with you. I'm told Chad has something. He has to bring up, something maybe going on with the situation in the Gulf of Mexico?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. I got you --
SANCHEZ: Stop this!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got you a no weather radio because we couldn't afford candles for your cake. So that's your CNN radio there.
SANCHEZ: This is nice, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And a happy birthday, Rick. This is from bad Carl.
SANCHEZ: Bad Carl in Milton, Georgia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that right?
SANCHEZ: Yes, if you're going to get a cake, make sure it comes from south Georgia. You ready?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You look good for 60. Really.
SANCHEZ: Thanks. Are you guys ready? Happy birthday? Start them. Go, Chad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Rick. Happy birthday to you.
SANCHEZ: You got to love this. Ready? Thanks, guys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy birthday, sir.
SANCHEZ: Appreciate it. Suzanne Malveaux standing by. Here is your "SITUATION ROOM."
