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Rick's List
CNN Poll on the Economy; Empowered Patient: Trusting Your Instincts; resident Signs Small Business Bill; New CNN Polling on the Economy; Deval Patrick in Trouble in Massachusetts Governor's Race; SNL Playful Swipe at O'Donnell; Alleged Killing For Sport; Pentagon Destroys Copies of Memoir
Aired September 27, 2010 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here, now, hour two of your national conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN (voice-over): here's what's making the list today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, it's up to the floor board.
BALDWIN: Raging flood waters crushing a levee on the Wisconsin River, many not getting out in time. Now, they're trapped. And experts say there's no hind in sight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Israel must choose between peace and the continuation of settlement.
BALDWIN: A critical deadline passes in the Middle East. Can Israelis build settlements and peace?
The Pentagon buys thousands of copies of one book just to shred them all? What? Why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very knowledgeable people that told me flat out that this is not physically possible.
BALDWIN: After 500 years, Da Vinci's flying machine gets a second chance.
The list 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? That's why I keep a list. Pioneering tomorrow's cutting edge news right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN (on-camera): It is hour two. Time to pick up the pace of today's list. For those of you now checking in. Hi, there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Rick Sanchez will be back, 8:00 primetime. Number one of my list. New allegations that this rogue group of hashish smoking U.S. soldiers killed Afghan civilians for sport. That's not all. They posed with their dead bodies, even collected human bones as souvenirs. But the most surprising thing of all, these soldiers themselves are revealing these details.
Drew Griffin with SIU, special investigations unit, has been digging on this whole thing. And there's so many ways we can go with this. I think when you listen to the interrogation tapes, it's just kind of like, oh my God factor.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you want to not believe it, and you'll hear me just in a few seconds ask the attorney to say it's not true, but the fact of the matter is, these soldiers, themselves, are saying this. This isn't some group accusing soldiers of it. It's the soldiers that are admitting to it. CNN has obtained these interrogation tapes of four of the soldiers involved.
The U.S. military has charged five of them with premeditated murder. Seven more other soldiers face charges of covering up the killings and illegal drug use, all of them members of the same Fifth Combat Stryker Brigade Unit. They're base at Ft. Lewis, Washington but this happened in Afghanistan. Today, one of the accused has a precourt-martial hearing. His name, Corporal Jeremy Morlock.
And on this tape, you're about to see and hear, Morlock is detailing how on patrol earlier this year in Afghanistan and under command of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, who's also accused. He and others took an Afghan man from his home, stood him up, and killed him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what'd he do? Explain everything.
JEREMY MORLOCK, U.S. ARMY: We had this guy by this compound, and so Gibbs, you know, walked him out and set him in place, like "Hey, stand here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was he was fully cooperating?
MORLOCK: I mean, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was he armed?
MORLOCK: No, not that we were aware of.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you pulled him out of his place?
MORLOCK: Uh, he wasn't -- I don't think he was inside. He was just kind of by his -- by his little hut area. And Gibbs sent in a couple of people. He sent (EXPLETIVE DELETED) off a little ways. Mostly far side security, so I don't even know if (EXPLETIVE DELETED) was aware what was going on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How's that -- oh, OK, I understand.
MORLOCK: And then, um -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where'd you stand him? Next to a wall?
MORLOCK: Yes, it was kind of next to a wall. It was where Gibbs could get behind cover after the grenade went off. And then he kind of placed me and Winfield off over here where we had a clean line of sight for this guy. And, uh, you know, uh, he pulled out one of his grenades, American grenade, you know, popped it, throws the grenade and then tells me and Winfield, "Alright dude, you know, wax this guy." Kill this guy, kill this guy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you see him present any weapons or did he -- was he aggressive at you at all? Did he --
MORLOCK: No, not at all. Nothing. He wasn't a threat.
Michael Waddington, Cpl. Jeremy Morlock's civilian attorney.
GRIFFIN: I want you to tell me that this didn't happen. That this isn't true. Can you?
MICHAEL WADDINGTON, MORLOCK'S ATTORNEY: That three people were not killed?
GRIFFIN: That members of the U.S. military didn't go out and three Afghan civilians were killed for sport?
WADDINGTON: You have the -- you have the -- from what I understand, the case file. I mean, you know what the witnesses in that file say and what they say in their videos. But I -- that's what it sounds like.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: The army alleges three civilians were killed between January and May of this year. Morlock's attorney says his defense is going to try to lay out a scenario with this 22-year-old soldier was brain damaged from prior IED attacks, was heavily using prescription drugs, and smoking hash under the influence and even feared his commanding officer, Staff Sergeant Gibbs. Gibbs' attorney, by the way, Brooke, has not returned our calls yet.
BALDWIN: I want to get in to the drug issues in a minute, but if we can just react from that interrogation tape. I mean, I think one of the things that strikes me the most is how Morlock is so matter of fact.
GRIFFIN: That's right. You know, two things. Number one, we have no idea what this man has been through. We don't know the condition that his brain is in at the moment. Number three, this guy's a hardened soldier, so substantially, he's seen a lot.
We don't know how many times they had questioned him before this. Was he going through this a third or fourth time when they finally turned on the camera? We just have this tape to verify it. Right.
BALDWIN: He mentions Gibbs. That is Calvin Gibbs.
GRIFFIN: That's right.
BALDWIN: That is one of the American soldiers, right? And so he is -- there's other fear, smoking hash laced with opium almost on a daily basis, these guys. So, we have another example. This is part of the interrogation. This is Corporal Emmitt Quintal. He is charged with trying to interfere with the military investigation, and as we discussed, drug use. Here it is --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long did the drug use in the unit continue?
EMIT QUINTAL, U.S. ARMY: The smoking hashish?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hashish, yes.
QUINTAL: Probably up until about a week and a half ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the way from the beginning of deployment until now?
QUINTAL: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prominently? Was it around consistently or what?
QUINTAL: Bad days. Stressful days. Days that we just needed an escape.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: And just to point out as we are listening, I was asking when he said, you know, they stopped smoking hashish a couple of weeks ago. I asked too then what does that mean in terms of how long were they doing the drugs and you said?
GRIFFIN: Yes, as for my understanding, it started back in November of 2009 when the new commander of this group showed up until May when they finally realized this was happening.
BALDWIN: Now the Pentagon, not commenting, is that correct?
GRIFFIN: They're not commenting directly on this case beyond what they have alleged in the charging papers, which we do have. We have the charging papers. The Pentagon was questioning CNN's use of these tapes saying it's going to interfere the due process of these men and was questioning our use -- be very transparent with that. But they are not commenting on the actual facts of the case.
BALDWIN: And you have more details?
GRIFFIN: Much more details we're going to have. Also, learning that the soldiers probably what is most perplexing, they took photographs. And these photographs have been described to us, Brooke, as almost like a trophy hunt photographs where they have a dead Afghan citizen, and they're holding him up almost like you would hold up a deer that you have shot.
In the charging papers, Sergeant Gibbs is accused of having containing fingers of victims, bones, perhaps even a skull. And at one point was using these fingers, threatening others to not tell on him because this would happen to you. That was what is being alleged here.
BALDWIN: Fingers, bones, holding up this dead Afghan civilian?
GRIFFIN: It's almost grotesque to believe. Mike Waddington, the defense attorney that you saw there said, look, this is almost too hard to believe, which is going to be a bulk of his defense that these kids were under either the psychological terror of their commander or drug abuse and who was supervising them beyond this? Who else in the military knew?
BALDWIN: Is it one of the young men saying about the people who are above him, hey, they weren't watching us.
GRIFFIN: No, it's the defense attorney basically (INAUDIBLE) a picture. Now, I'm not a hashish smoker, but I understand it smells a lot like marijuana. And if you got a unit, a group of men, 12 men every night smoking hash every single night, walking around in a stupor on a base, a forward-operating base --
BALDWIN: How could you not smell it?
GRIFFIN: At least whiff that as you walk by and understand what was going on. There was some bragging going on as well. So, the attorney is going to question the chain of command here, you know? Does this stop with this particular group of young men or was somebody just dropping the ball over there in a much higher rank?
BALDWIN: And just briefly, briefly, article 32, that basically it's like a grand jury to the evidence to go to trial, where do we stand?
GRIFFIN: That's going on right now for Cpl. Morlock, the person you saw initially in the tape. Article 32 hearing at Ft. Lewis, Washington. That's near Tacoma. About 20 witnesses called today. We have a producer inside. She has not been out of there yet. So, I assume that is still going on. But basically, we're going try to find out if there's enough evidence to move this to a court-martial.
BALDWIN: I have a feeling this is just the beginning of many more meetings you and I or you and Rick will have on this story. Drew griffin, thank you very much.
They have facing crisis conditions in parts of Wisconsin. Flood waters have overwhelmed this levee. Look at the water. Forcing evacuations near the town of Portage. Chad Myers has the latest on conditions there. That's ahead.
Also, remember that prosecutor who made RICK'S LIST you don't want to be on recently? Guess what, he was caught sending sexy text messages to this domestic abuse victim and there has been a new development today in this particular case. That is next. You're watching RICK'S LIST. As you would say, this is your national conversation. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: And welcome back. Time now for the "Roundup List." Number one, this huge merger that affects how each and every one of us flies, Southwest Airlines today announcing plans to buy AirTran. Executives say the merger will allow the airline to expand into major airport hubs. I'm talking about Atlanta, D.C., Boston, Baltimore, New York. The deal valued at more than $3 billion.
Number two is the latest round of Mideast peace talks possibly on the brinks of collapse. It seems possible since Israel is now refusing to extend its freeze on a settlement construction in the west bank. The moratorium, by the way, expired at midnight. The Palestinians are threatening to pull out of talks should Israel not continue the freeze. Talks between Israelis and Palestinians began earlier this month.
Coming at number three, the DA in Wisconsin accused of sexting a crime victim is expected to announce his resignation next month. That is according to King Krutz's (ph) lawyer. Many lawmakers of groups have called on Krutz to resign. You remember this story, he denied any wrongdoing but later apologized and said, quote, "my behavior was inappropriate."
At number four, take a good look at this book. This is a soldier's memoir about fighting in Afghanistan. Well, the Pentagon confirms it destroyed nearly 10,000 copies of it, shredded it, made recycled paper out of it. Officials say it could harm national security and give away military secrets. The author causes the response ludicrous especially since people can buy the book on-line. And that is "Your Roundup".
Listen to this, parents. They take their daughter, this little girl to the hospital. And doctors say, no problem, nothing's wrong. Go home. Well, not so fast. The parents' worst nightmare is realized. That is ahead.
Also, parts of this levee fail in Wisconsin. Now, flood waters threaten dozens of homes there. Chad Myers next on the list. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: All right. Breaking news with regards to the situation in Southern Wisconsin. People, of course, have been urged to take higher ground. We're just now hearing, I have in my hand, from the Governor Jim Doyle today declaring a state of emergency specifically he says in Columbia County after heavy rains pushed the Wisconsin River near Portage to an all-time high. So, we see the pictures of people perhaps evacuating.
Let's roll over, if we can, quickly to the Twitter board, guys. Let take a look at the tweet we're getting from the South Central Wisconsin Red Cross now (ph) to bring Chad in. They say, volunteers have been deployed to near Portage to set up shelters for people whose homes have been affected by the failing levee. Chad, I know you've been watching this all day. It's the south levee. I heard you talking to the mayor of Portage earlier today.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. BALDWIN: That's the levee in question. The river is how high and at what point might this thing break?
MYERS: The river is high enough that it is butted up against to what was an 1890 sand levee that farmers built to keep the sand and the water out of their fields.
BALDWIN: 1890 as in the year?
MYERS: 1890 like in yes as 120 years ago.
BALDWIN: Ooh. Wow.
MYERS: And no one decided that we need to build this thing bigger or stronger.
BALDWIN: OK.
MYERS: So, yes, it's bubbling. And so I talked to the DNR. And the DNR said that water is coming under this levee, it's going to bust at any time. But that doesn't mean that all of the houses are going to be flooded. What he's concerned about is that people are going to be cut off from leaving. Their island will be their subdivision. Their roads will be underwater. Not their houses so much. There will be no way to get out of this. >
BALDWIN: How you get to your house. You can get there.
MYERS: Right. Right. If you have a rubber boat, you can go back and forth or a little water taxi.
BALDWIN: Sure.
MYERS: They don't want that to happen. This is not a water town, right?
BALDWIN: Sure.
MYERS: They want the river to stay in the river itself. And so, as more water butts up against the sand levee, an old, just an old dome of dirt that they built to keep the water back 120 years as that begins and continues, as he said, to fail. Eventually, the water will spill into the neighborhood. you Want to see it?
BALDWIN: So, what does it look like?
MYERS: Well --
BALDWIN: I see pictures.
MYERS: We see pictures. We'll get to pictures from Minneapolis back down here, and here's Eau Claire and then to Black Rock(ph) and to La Crosse. So, we're talking about areas around Wisconsin dells. Kind of a picturesque area of Wisconsin. And that Wisconsin dells area, specially to the north here, along this river, along the Wisconsin River did flood a little bit. But even this area here, Portage, Wisconsin, along the Wisconsin River didn't get that much rain. You think, well, of course they do, they're flooding. No, they didn't. The river went all the way back up this way and all the way back up to where the rain was. And so days ago, it rained north of there. Now, finally, the water is down here to where the flooding takes place.
BALDWIN: This is water from days and days ago.
MYERS: Absolutely. You always have to watch, if you're living in Atlanta, wherever, and it rains above you in the mountains, and the water is going to come to you. Watch how many days it's going to happen to get to you and see where that water level is going to be. Just because you didn't see all of the rain, other people did, the flood could get to you. This is a -- this earth and this sand levee, we're talking about. This is a red line right through here.
And this is the little neighborhood that they're worried about right there, about 150 houses in there. And the problem will be this little stream that's near here. It's near Black Hawk road, and if this does continue to break, this levee, this road will be completely cut off. So, these people won't be able to get back out of their neighborhood and will be stuck there. They're saying just get out. What's the point of being stuck there for days and days until the water goes down.
BALDWIN: But not everyone is getting out?
MYERS: Of course not. Even mandatory evacuation never means you have to leave. I don't get that. When emergency managers say it's a mandatory evacuation, does it mean mandatory? Technically, no. You can stay if you want. I don't get that. Get out of there. 29 feet that's what it's going to be, and eventually here, by the noon hour tomorrow afternoon, the water starts to go down, finally.
BALDWIN: Chad, come back over here because I'm told we want you to talk with this story with me. And there is no segue. So, let me just put that out there. I got nothing for you. We're going to talk aliens.
MYERS: Yes.
BALDWIN: What do you think about aliens?
MYERS: I believe they populated the world.
BALDWIN: We're all going to be overtaken by aliens?
MYERS: No, we are aliens.
BALDWIN: We are aliens.
MYERS: They came from outer space, and they dropped us off.
BALDWIN: OK. Remember Fox Mulder, this is the "X-Files," very funny, by the way, how they used to say, the truth is out there. Maybe it really is. In Washington today, OK, this is legitimate, this is national press club stuff, all right. This group of former air officers and researchers held this news conference at the National Press Club in D.C. to make pretty surprising claim. I want you to react to this with me. Why don't I just let the research, this is Robert Hastings to tell you what he's found.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT HASTINGS, UFO RESEARCHER: I believe, these gentlemen believe, that this planet is being visited by beings from another world who, for whatever reason, have taken an interest in the nuclear arms race which began at the end of World War II.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Taken an interest in the nuclear arms race. Hold on, I got more.
MYERS: OK.
BALDWIN: OK. Now, he said he thinks, indeed, that we have been visited by aliens, and he's not the only one. I want you to listen to retired Lt. Col. Dwyne Arneson -- excuse me, pardon me. He said the 1960 or 1970 read the classified message about the sighting of a UFO hovering over a missile silo in Montana.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. COL. DWYNE ARNESON, U.S. AIR FORCE (ret.): I am convinced that somebody out there is trying to send us a message. If I knew who they were, I would not be here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: I'm going to break away some script and just get your reaction because, look, there's a lot of stuff going on out there. I'm talking planes. We don't know what maybe Russians are doing, what we're doing, right?
MYERS: We don't know what we're doing. Not only did we not know what the Russians were doing in the cold war. They didn't know what we were doing. They were reporting that they were seeing UFOs, probably made by us. We were reporting that we were seeing UFOs, probably made by them. I'm interested in this -- they're interest in our arms race.
Like, we are so far head of the aliens that can visit us. We have nuclear power, but they must not. How did they get here if they didn't have far and away more intelligence than we do?
BALDWIN: You would wonder.
MYERS: They have a fast ship.
BALDWIN: Another former air force officer, Captain Bob Salas, says he was ordered to keep quiet about the time one of his guards reported seeing a UFO hovering over his launch control facility security fence gate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB SALAS, FMR. AIR FORCE CAPTAIN: There's also a member of the air force office of special investigations in the room. He ordered us to not ever talk about this. He even signed a nondisclosure statement to that effect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Now, the air force says not so fast. Let me quote them, "no UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the air force was ever an indication of threat to our national security."
MYERS: OK.
BALDWIN: Never a threat to our national security, but more than 12,000 unidentified flying objects were investigated under project blue book, all the way from 1947 to 1960s, and 71 remains unidentified. So, is there something out there? Chad Myers? Maybe only the little green men know that answer.
MYERS: I think if there were 702 unidentified, then that would be for sure.
BALDWIN: That would make a huge difference. 701, 702.
MYERS: Yes. But only 701 were not over the threshold.
BALDWIN: We heard about the story today, and it was at the National Press Club. We thought, we have to cover this. Chad Myers, thank you.
Me and (ph) "Saturday Night Lives"" new political punch line. Delaware Senate candidate, Christine O'Donnell. What's so funny about her, you think? Her thoughts on witchcraft, evolution, a whole lot more. If you missed it on Saturday, we're going to bring it to you right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: We let you go too early. I was just tweeting if anyone out there is watching in L.A. because it is hot, hot, hot out there. Record temperature of -- what?
MYERS: 112 at USC, probably 113, and there's not even a heat advisory.
BALDWIN: How is that possible?
MYERS: There's a red flag warning, and yes, it's going to be warm. Be careful if you're outside. Certainly, don't burn things at 113 degrees, right? Because you don't want firefighters have to go up and put things out.
BALDWIN: Right. MYERS: But we thought, OK, is there just one spot up? Could there be like some kind of a blow drier --
BALDWIN: Just that one particular part of L.A.?
MYERS: USC is 112. Santa Monica is 102 right now. Hawthorne is 110. Beverly Hills, south winds at 6, checked in at 116, Torrance, 109, Long Beach, 109.
BALDWIN: So what is, I mean, I don't think I've ever felt 112 degrees. What does that feel like? Have you?
MYERS: It's not a dry heat. There is some humidity in L.A. today. It's scorchingly hot. People have all of their convertibles down, leave them outside, you sit down all of a sudden because it was 80 this morning.
BALDWIN: 80 in L.A. this morning?
MYERS: So, it cooled down, 74, 64, closer to the water you got. It was a beautiful morning. No indication that this area was going to be so still. This high pressure was going to drop down on them. The more pressure you get on you, the hotter you can get. Like a pressure cooker can be hotter than a regular boiling water. So, this hot air is sinking, and it's getting hotter and hotter and hotter. And look at the time. It's 1:30 in L.A.
BALDWIN: So, that means it could get even hotter.
MYERS: There are still two or three more hours to go yet.
BALDWIN: They're not at peak heat.
MYERS: Exactly.
BALDWIN: Yikes.
MYERS: Hot day.
BALDWIN: Well, I now suddenly have 20 new tweets. We'll see how people in L.A. are feeling it. They're feeling it. All right, Chad Myers, thank you, thank you.
Take a look at this. Listen to this story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She started crying.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell me what you heard?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said my head is hurting, my head is hurting.
BALDWIN: A little girl, she got whack in the head with the baseball, but doctors told her, told her parents, no problem, there's nothing wrong. Well, not so much. It is a good thing the parents did not believe the doctors. That's ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Also John King is standing by with brand information just in from the world of politics. "CNN Equals Political Ticker." That is next. You're watching RICK'S LIST. Stay right there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Time now for "CNN Equals Politics" update with John King with the Best Political Team on TV. John King, take it away.
JOHN KING, HOST, "JOHN KING USA": Brooke Baldwin, how are you on this Monday?
BALDWIN: I'm great.
KING: Everybody is working hard here. It's a big week, the president today signed into law -- he actually signed to law, yes, the Congress passed a law and sent it to the president.
It's the small business bill the president signed. It's about $42 billion the overall price tag. The goal here is to pay the $30 billion fund run by the Treasury Department to encourage lending to small businesses to help them hopefully expand and hire people help to get the unemployment rate down.
It's $1.5 billion in grants and $12 billion in tax breaks over the next 10 years. The Democrats, Brooke, are trying to say this is proof. They're trying to help people still hurting in this tough economy in the election year.
But moving on to our next item, you can see the problem for the Democrats. Check it out in our new CNN polling today and go to the Political Ticker and look closely at it.
When voters were asked who do you blame more for the current economic problems? They agreed with the Democrats. They say the Republicans are more to blame. But then when we asked them the question, who do you trust more to fix the economy, guess what? The voters trust the Republicans more even though they blamed them more.
That is a huge problem for the Democrats as we're now five weeks away from Election Day. Finally, a moderated debate in the Massachusetts governor's race last week so I'm keeping a close eye on that one.
New polling shows a tightening race and more trouble for the Democratic incumbent, Deval Patrick Globe. The University of New Hampshire poll out just today, the incumbent Deval Patrick at 35 percent, his Republican challenger Charlie Baker now right there behind him at 34 percent.
The independent candidate Tim Cahill at 11 percent so a very tight race there in Massachusetts heading into the stretch, Brooke, one of the many fascinating governor's races.
You can see that story right here on the Political Ticker. A whole lot more, a lot about of our polling. Anything you want to know, this is the place to go.
BALDWIN: We are in the final stretch, John. Thank you, thank you. See you in a couple of hours. Reminder, another political update in the next hour and as John pointed out, you can go to Political Ticker and get the best political news. Just go to CNNpolitics.com or hop on Twitter at politicalticker.
Now you're looking at these pictures, this is Christine O'Donnell. She is running for Senate in Delaware, but she has also admitted to dabbling in witchcraft and she denies evolution exists. So you know, "SNL" had a little fun with those comments. We'll have that part of my trending block next. The list rolls on. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Welcome back to RICK'S LIST. Here is what's trending. Here is what are you talking about. You are talking about "Saturday Night Live" and you know those comedians are not shy when it comes to taking shot at political figures.
A little while ago, last hour, I showed you the skit when the real governor, David Patterson showed up on the show, but this weekend, they also took a swipe or two again at Delaware's Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This race is going to tighten up and when it does, it's going to be a real dog fight. You need to understand that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look, please don't tell me about dog fights. I know all about dog fights. For your information, gentlemen, I used to run a business staging dog fights.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dog fights, like Michael Vick?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, much better than Michael Vick's. I've been to Michael Vick's dog fights. They were lame. Mine -- mine had action, hard core dog fighting action.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really?
UNIDENTIFIEF FEMALE: You know, it taught me a lot about leadership and about running a business. Anyway, I was like 28.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks for coming in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks for having me. OK, my pleasure. Good to see you guys, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good luck.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: I hear you guys laughing in here about that. She flies away on a broom, referencing the dabbled in witchcraft comments. Now, did it go too far?
Some people around the blogs are saying it did. I want to know what you think, shoot me a tweet or hop on our blog, cnn.com/ricksanchez.
Now from that to the fact that I know you're Twitter hip, but do you know about Foursquare. Maybe you do, maybe I'm the last person on the planet not to do it yet.
But here at CNN, we're embracing it just in time for a week-long series we call "Eatocracy," someone who is very foursquare hip. CNN's digital producer, Derek Dodge who's made it his mission to make me want to do Foursquare, Derek, it's all you.
DEREK DODGE, CNN DIGITAL PRODUCER: I want to make you fall in love with Foursquare.
BALDWIN: Fall in love with Foursquare, I know it involves a Blackberry or an iPad in checking in places. That's about all I go.
DODGE: It's a mobile app on your phone. We want you to come to foursquare.com/CNN and follow us. Brooke, I want you to be one of the 17,000 followers we have on Foursquare.
And then you can go to one of over 6,000 farmer's markets in the United states, we're trying to promote healthy eating all this week.
When you check in if you're following us, you'll get the CNN healthy eater badge and you can take to some of the vendors and they may choose to give you a reward or a discount.
BALDWIN: So you get the badge and from what I understand, I've been doing research on this Foursquare thing, you get these and badges so it's like bragging right or it's also something that you use to get free stuff? Or a little bit of both?
DODGE: A little bit of both, supposed to be fun. Really cool badges out there like the jet setter badge, I want to get that one. I got to earn it, though.
BALDWIN: That means you've flown a lot.
DODGE: Yes, go to all of the airports, but these are all 6,000 of our farmer's markets you can check in to.
BALDWIN: OK, excellent. That's "Eatocracy." Briefly, what's the web site if folks want to learn more about this?
DODGE: Eatocracy.com or foursquare.com/CNN.
BALDWIN: Good deal. Derek Dodge, thank you. DODGE: Thanks.
BALDWIN: Have you worried about getting the wrong advice from your doctor? Well, two parents did, and, in fact, it saved their daughter's life. That story ahead on the list.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A very good friend of mine, the guy who normally sits here who has the show named after him, he's got a cool opportunity today to talk to an amazing woman.
And this is the lady he spoke with, meaning Rick Sanchez, spoke with in New York today. This is Ingrid Betancourt. She's shown here, this was just after her release from six years of captivity at the hands of FARC rebels in Colombia.
Rick spoke with her that's why he's off, he's in New York, did this interview. He asked her how on earth she found the courage to endure that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK SANCHEZ, HOST, "RICK'S LIST": You had people with rifles and guns pointed at your face and you defied them? How did you pull that off? Some people would say there are bigger, stronger men who wouldn't have that kind of courage in that situation. Yet, you did.
INGRID BETANCOURT, "EVEN SILENCE HAS AN END": I think I wasn't aware of how people could see me -- would you say that to me, I'm just a little --
SANCHEZ: You don't believe you did it? It's all right here in the book.
BETANCOURT: Yes, but I was pretty scared when I was there. And sometimes when there was -- I mean, when there were moments that I felt I wasn't the hero type I wanted to be. It was sometimes very fragile and shaken by everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Wow. That was just a snippet, just a tease of an interview that Sanchez did with Ingrid Betancourt, you have to watch the whole thing tonight. You got to watch RICK'S LIST primetime at 8:00 Eastern. You can see the conversation, of course, between Rick and Betancourt.
President Obama taking his economic recovery pitch on the road again. What is he expected to say to all of the voters out there who are pretty worried. Wolf Blitzer has the answers next as the list scrolls on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: There is a new CNN/Opinion poll out with some bad news if you're a Democrat. Forty-seven percent of those surveyed think the Republicans in Congress are more likely to improve the economy. That is compared to 41 percent who say Democrats and Congress are more likely to make the economy better.
Wolf Blitzer, not in D.C. -- I see him in New York today -- he is joining me to break down the nuances of the poll. Of course, next hour in "THE SITUATION ROOM."
But Wolf, the Dems, they're not having so much success here as they to blame the Republicans for the economic situation that we're in now.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And the irony, Brooke, as you know from these polls, is that more people blame the Republicans for getting the U.S. economy in this mess. Yet, at the same time, they think the Republicans might be able to do a better job, as that poll shows, in getting the economy out of the mess. And that's why it's so frustrating for President Obama and other Democrats right now, because they're going forward.
They're saying look at al of these Republican ideas that are coming out in this "Pledge to America" that came out last week, for example. They say there's nothing new there, these are the same policies that helped create the disaster in 2008 and earlier, in 2007, and now you want to go back to the disaster.
But the American public, they're looking at these jobs, or the lack of jobs right now, and they're saying the Democrats control the House, the Senate, the White House. Why isn't the situation better? And they're obviously taking direct aim at the Democrats and the president right now. We'll see how that plays out on November 2nd.
BALDWIN: Right. And thus, they say the Republicans perhaps can get us out of the mess.
Speaking of Republicans, big bomb dropped today in New York, right? We had the GOP primary for the gubernatorial race in New York in which we had Carl Paladino, we had Rick Lazio. We know Paladino won. He's the Tea Party favorite.
And now today, Lazio, who had been running on a conservative party ticket, just said -- threw his hands up. He's done, dropped out of the race.
A, what do you make of that? And, B, what do you make of the fact that he is not coming forward and endorsing Paladino?
BLITZER: Well, Paladino is a formidable Republican challenger to Andrew Cuomo, who's by -- almost all of the polls show him ahead, some show him way ahead, others show it a little bit tighter. But you can't take Paladino lightly.
He's got an amount of support over there. He's running against Albany. And Andrew Cuomo, the attorney general, is seen as part of Albany, if you will. So it's going to be a struggle.
It's great news for Paladino that Rick Lazio will not run as a separate candidate, because he would have taken votes presumably away from Paladino, not from Andrew Cuomo. So it's good news for Paladino, but Paladino, let's be honest, he has a struggle ahead of him, five weeks to go. And it's going to be an uphill struggle.
But Cuomo should not just sort of rest. There was an interesting editorial in "The New York Times" over the weekend saying Cuomo's got to take this guy very, very seriously. He can't just go out and do ads. He's got to debate him, he's got to fight him, he's got to respond to the attacks.
We'll see if he does.
BALDWIN: It is not necessarily a done deal for Cuomo.
And finally, Wolf, I see you in New York. Whenever you're in New York, I know you have got something shaking. Why are you in New York? What do you have coming up on "THE SITUATION ROOM"?
BLITZER: Well, you know, we're in New York because tonight are the news and documentary Emmys, and "THE SITUATION ROOM" has been nominated for an Emmy thanks to Drew Griffin and his excellent piece which you probably saw on a wheelchair, and a family and a wheelchair.
BALDWIN: Yes.
BLITZER: And it showed the absurdity of the federal waste when it comes to health care funding. And that piece which aired in "THE SITUATION ROOM" has been nominated for an Emmy. So I'm here to go to the Emmys later tonight, and hopefully "THE SITUATION ROOM" will win that Emmy, and I will be able to share it with Drew and with Kathleen (ph) and everyone else who was involved in putting that excellent, excellent report together.
BALDWIN: Excellent. Will you be donning a tux or are you doing the suit and tie look, Wolf Blitzer?
BLITZER: I'm going -- no, no, it's not black tie. It's just business suit.
BALDWIN: Just business. Business as usual.
BLITZER: I can go just as I am. This is the Emmys -- the news and documentary Emmys.
BALDWIN: Wolf Blitzer, we thank you very much. Congratulations, best of luck, Wolf. We'll look for you in about nine minutes from now.
BLITZER: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Meantime, Chad and I were chatting earlier about how hot -- it is hot, hot, hot in L.A. In fact, I have got this weather advisory. Let me read this, and then I'll show you some of the celebrities who are tweeting.
The previous all-time record -- we're talking it's, like, 112, 113, 114 out in the L.A. area. The previous all-time record high temperature was set on June 26, 1990, which makes today's record even more exceptional than it was in late September.
The high temperature in downtown L.A., as I said, 113 degrees. And we have a couple from our celebrity list. We have a couple of celebrity tweets.
So take a look at this. Jeremy Piven, you know him from "Entourage." He says, "2 billion degrees here. Just taught a Bikram yoga class in my car."
That's the yoga that's really, really hot.
Also have one, NFL sportscaster Michael Strahan shot (ph) a TwitPic. "Just got in my car. Look at the temperature. Darn, it's hot."
See the odometer? And you can see that it's -- obviously it's not right, but 148 degrees Fahrenheit? Yes, that will cause you to slow down.
Thanks, guys, for both of your tweets.
And moving on to this story, this is a story -- it's spectacular, but it's especially spectacular if you're a parent, you have a child, you take the child to the doctor. And the situation with this group is this -- when doctors wouldn't listen, parents trusted their guts and they saved their daughter's life.
This is yet another reason to be an empowered patient. I have Elizabeth Cohen. She'll be joining me in a couple of minutes with this story.
THE LIST rolls on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Health care is at the top of the national agenda these days. And as we focus on ways we can improve the system, one thing we're hearing time and time again is how patients need to take more control. But how exactly do we do that?
Our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, has a special this week. It's called "The Empowered Patient." Here is the first of several powerful lessons from that special that could save your life and the lives of those you love.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One spring evening, Don McCracken was playing ball with his kids in the front yard. He meant to hit a fly ball to his son, Matthew, but instead, it socked his 7-year-old daughter, Morgan, on the head. She knelt to the ground in pain.
Morgan had quite a bump on her head. Her parents iced it down and she seemed fine.
Two nights later, something changed. CONNIE MCCRACKEN, MORGAN'S MOTHER: She started crying.
COHEN (on camera): Tell me what you heard.
C. MCCRACKEN: She's, "My head. It's hurting. She was holding it, saying, "My head's hurting. My head's hurting.
COHEN (voice-over): The McCrackens rushed Morgan to the emergency room.
(on camera): When the doctor showed up, what did he say?
C. MCCRACKEN: I'm sorry (ph). It's late. She's tired. She probably has a touch of the flu.
COHEN (voice-over): Connie and Don say the doctor told them to take Morgan home and put her to bed, but they knew better. Their instincts told them this was no flu virus. They pushed the doctor for a CT scan of Morgan's brain.
(on camera): What did you think the results of that CAT scan were going to be?
C. MCCRACKEN: There was something definitely wrong. You feel it in your gut.
DON MCCRACKEN, MORGAN'S FATHER: In my heart, I thought I knew there was a problem.
C. MCCRACKEN: They came back and said, "I was surprised." He says, "I'm surprised. There's something there."
D. MCCRACKEN: There was a leakage of blood into her skull.
COHEN (voice-over): Medics rushed Morgan by helicopter to nearby Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.
DR. ALAN COHEN, RAINBOW BABIES AND CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: This is a big blot clot inside the skull, outside the brain called an epidural hematoma. That's what we had to remove to take out the blood clot and stop the bleeding.
COHEN: Today, Morgan's just fine.
COHEN (on camera): Do you feel like a lucky girl?
MORGAN MCCRACKEN, INITIALLY MISDIAGNOSED IN THE HOSPITAL: Yes.
COHEN (voice-over): Lucky because her parents followed their instincts.
COHEN (on camera): In the emergency room, the doctor said she had a virus and she just needed to get some rest. If you had listened to that advice and brought her home to go to bed and rest, what would have happened?
D. MCCRACKEN: She probably wouldn't have woken up the next morning, and we would have lost her.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Oh, hearing that, any parent out there is taking this big gull up. Like, you think your child is injured, baseball to the head, maybe it's the flu. Doctors says, oh, it's fine.
I mean, how often does this happen where the doctors are just so totally wrong?
COHEN: You know, there aren't a lot of good, hard statistics about misdiagnosis rates, but some studies put it at about one in 10. So, one in 10 times you go to the doctor, you're going to get a misdiagnosis.
Sometimes it's not really all that consequential. It's OK, someone gets it right the next time. In this case, of course, it could have been deadly if those parents had allowed that misdiagnosis to happen.
BALDWIN: The moral of this story, trust your gut.
COHEN: The moral of your story is trust your gut. The moral of the story is remember what doctors tell their medical students -- a mother always knows best. Mother is always right. Mothers know their kids.
So if you're a parent, you know your kid better than the doctor. Remember that. And you know your own body better than anybody else does.
BALDWIN: And how do we as patients, and some of us as parents, and we're taking our child to the doctor -- and we, of course, are our own best advocate -- how do we make sure that diagnosis is correct?
COHEN: Well, you go with your gut, first of all. And second of all, you ask your doctor one simple question. It's so simple, it sort of boggles the mind.
You say, "Doctor, what else could this be?" When he gives you a diagnosis that you're not sure is right, you say, "Doctor, what else could this be?"
And what you come up with is a list of everything that your symptoms could be. And you talk about it from there. And sometimes asking that question will kind of jigger the doctor out of his thought process and make him realize that maybe he came to the wrong conclusion.
BALDWIN: And the doctor has to understand that, look, you're just being a protective parent, you're not trying to be too pesky and say, doctor, I don't know if you're telling me the truth. Right?
COHEN: Right. These parents, Don and Connie, they know that they made this doctor angry. I mean, he was visibly kind of annoyed with them. But they said, hey, we are so sure that this could be a trauma from her -- from the hit on the head, that we don't really care if we're making people angry. BALDWIN: I'm sure doctors understand.
COHEN: Yes, exactly.
BALDWIN: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.
COHEN: Thanks, Brooke.
BALDWIN: "Empowered Patient," special this weekend. It's also the name of your book. Thank you very much.
I'm going to hand it off now to my colleague Wolf Blitzer in New York -- Wolf.
