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CNN Saturday Morning News

Novak Zone: Interview with Entertainer Ben Stein

Aired November 20, 2004 - 09:00   ET

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

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


RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, from the CNN Center. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I am Rudy Bakhtiar, in today for Betty Nguyen.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Tony Harris. It is 11:00 a.m. in Santiago, 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast. Thanks for starting your day with us.

Let's get you started with the day's top stories.

Now in the news, in Santiago, Chile President Bush and China's president agree to seek a diplomatic solution to the North Korea nuclear crisis. Bush is meeting with the Chinese leader. It is a sidebar to an Asia Pacific summit.

Outside, thousands of antiglobalization protesters are expected back in the streets today.

The Polish prime minister's office says a Polish woman abducted last month in Iraq is free and back in her home country. At a press conference on Polish TV, the woman said she was treated well while in captivity.

A court in Kabul has sentenced an Afghan to death for the killing of four journalists. The Australian, Italian, Spanish, and Afghan journalists were covering the fall of the Taliban three years ago. A group of armed men had pulled the media members from a convoy. The suspect had said the ambush was motivated by robbery and not by politics.

It was a basket-brawl at the Pistons-Pacers game. A hard foul by the Pacers' Ron Artest set things off. Then came the flying cups of beer. Teammates charged into the stands as fans threw drink cups, plastic bottles, beer, ice, and even a chair. A live report from Detroit coming up.

And you're looking live at the Washington Mall, where basketball, or make that baseball legend Cal Ripkin, Jr., leads the 17th annual Help the Homeless Walk-a-thon. Up to 30,000 walkers are expected for the event. Proceeds go to 180 Washington-area agencies that help the estimated 14,000 homeless people in the D.C. area.

BAKHTIAR: Great cause there.

Here's what we've got coming up for you later on. One school at a time, that is the idea behind a group here in America donating time and money to replace schools destroyed in the war in Afghanistan. We're going to talk to these young ladies live.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN STEIN: It is terrifying to be old and poor. You don't want it to happen to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAKHTIAR: Plus, Ben Stein says he wants baby-boomers to be afraid, very afraid. And he explains why in The Novak Zone.

And women coaching football, could it be? You're going to find out coming up.

HARRIS: The Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers game ended early last night after the game spilled over into the crowd. Take a look. As you can see, it wasn't a pretty sight. It started with two really hard fouls by both sides. Then things started flying out of the stands, as we told you a moment ago, including the fans.

Mike Stone of WDFN Radio was at the game. Mike, are you there?

MIKE STONE, SPORTS REPORTER, WDFN RADIO (on phone): I'm here, Tony. How are you?

HARRIS: Well, and you were there last night, weren't you?

STONE: I was there. I was actually -- I was not -- I wasn't there to cover it, just a leisurely Friday night out with my wife.

HARRIS: And then, and then, all hell breaks loose. All right, help me here. A hard foul leads to a push. Push leads to shove, as these things do. And then things got a little crazy. What happened?

STONE: Well, it got a lot crazy. I mean, these two are bitter rivals to begin with, Ron Artest, a unnecessary hard foul. Ben Wallace overreacted to Artest. Then Artest -- you know, the players got around the scorer's table, and Artest actually, in a weird way, did the right thing and just lying down on the scorer's table...

HARRIS: Right.

STONE: ... doing nothing. Then a moron threw a beverage or something at Artless. Artest went into the crowd. He went after the wrong person. And teammate Steven Jackson came in, started throwing punches. More stuff was thrown. It got completely crazy when they went off the court. Fans got on the court.

It was terrible. Everybody was...

HARRIS: What?

STONE: ... and everybody's trying to play the blame game here. HARRIS: Yes.

STONE: And, you know, everybody talks about, well, the officiating was bad. Look, it comes down to two things. Number one, obviously fans are wrong, you should never, ever throw anything on a player.

HARRIS: Right.

STONE: OK? But a player has to be self-constrained, I'm sorry, has to show some self-control. I mean, it was only beer.

HARRIS: OK.

STONE: All right? And (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

HARRIS: All right, well, let's, let's, let's take this thing apart a little bit, Mike. Police were actually called in?

STONE: Oh, yes, there were police there. Well, there -- I don't know -- I'm not watching your video right now...

HARRIS: Yes.

STONE: ... but there was a -- Jermaine O'Neil cold-(EXPLETIVE DELETED) somebody.

HARRIS: Right.

STONE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) see, there were fans that went on the court, which is ridiculous. This situation was completely not -- they detained the Pacers for a while. They finally let them fly back to Indiana late last night, early this morning. There may...

HARRIS: Mike, where do we...

STONE: ... there may...

HARRIS: Mike...

STONE: ... there may be charges filed.

HARRIS: Mike, where do we, OK, there may be some charges filed.

Where do we draw? There seemed to be a couple of lines that we need to draw here. First of all, if you were a player for the Pacers and someone comes out of the stands onto the court, I can understand a sense of feeling as though you need to defend yourself. They're not coming out there to shake your hand and say, Hey, you're a great basketball player.

STONE: That is correct. And one of the fans who came out actually, like, squared up against Artest.

HARRIS: Yes. STONE: I mean, I don't blame Artest for that. He is to be blamed for the original incident. There have been other times in sports where people have thrown liquids at people and beverages, even plastic bottles, and the smart player will sit there and try to get security, just to point out the fan. That's where Artest made his major, major mistake.

HARRIS: So you feel he overreacted.

STONE: Artest overreacted originally. The fans, the first fan who threw it definitely overreacted, and then fans in that idiotic drunk-mob mentality, they went overboard when they continued to throw stuff.

HARRIS: What do you, what do you think? We're going to ban alcohol and liquor at these games? Is that coming down the road here?

STONE: No, because there's too much money...

HARRIS: Too much money in it?

STONE: ... to be made by the venues. What they might do is cut it off at halftime.

HARRIS: Suspensions, fines, that sort of thing?

STONE: Oh, there'll be suspensions and fines. And I think people who, if they, you know, identify the people, if they were season ticket holders, they should have their tickets revoked.

HARRIS: Yes.

STONE: I think what you might also find is, basketball is probably the only sport where you're that close. You might find more security.

HARRIS: There you...

STONE: Security was a little lax.

HARRIS: There you go.

STONE: There's a lot of things like that that's going to happen. It's terrible.

And as, you know, somebody who lives in this community, Detroit is always trying to fight this black eye and everything's trying...

HARRIS: Right.

STONE: ... to get better. We're having a lot of great events. the Super Bowl, and then the city's getting better, the city's on the move. This takes place in the suburbs, and the whole area gets another black eye because people just say, Ah, happened...

HARRIS: Yes. All right, Mike. STONE: ... in Detroit again.

HARRIS: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us this morning.

STONE: All right.

HARRIS: Mike Stone of WDFN Radio. Mike, we appreciate it. Rudy?

BAKHTIAR: Well, there's a rare Saturday session in Congress today as lawmakers are trying to finish up some last-minute business before the holiday break.

Our congressional correspondent, Joe Johns, is live on Capitol Hill. Hi, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Rudy.

It's a $388 billion spending bill. Appropriators filed it late last night, the House of Representatives coming in at this hour to take that measure up. The Senate is expected to take the measure up also later this morning.

The House is also filing a stopgap spending bill. That's necessary because funding for the government essentially would run out at midnight tonight if they didn't do otherwise. And that's about the time this big mammoth omnibus spending bill is going to reach the president's desk. He apparently needs some time to read through it.

That's because this is the type of bill at the end of the year that is susceptible to having a number of different provisions thrown in that not everyone was fully aware of. Of course, it funds everything from the agriculture department, commerce, state, and justice, energy, water, foreign operations, interior, labor, legislative services, transportation, and VA and HUD.

Meanwhile, there is some other important business that Congress continues to work on, that, of course, is intelligence reform. Conferees have been hard at work trying to narrow the differences between them. Of course, one of the key sticking points all along has been creation of a national intelligence director and giving him or her the budgetary authority to do the job.

There's also a hangup over giving driver's licenses to immigrants.

The bottom line on that intelligence reform bill, like everything else, time is running out here on Capitol Hill, because a lot of these legislators want to get home for the holidays.

Rudy, back to you.

BAKHTIAR: Yes, and I know a lot of families were concerned about the fact that right now they've got the momentum, and what happens in the new year? It might all be forgotten.

Our congressional correspondent, Joe Johns, thank you.

JOHNS: You bet.

BAKHTIAR: And in that $380 million spending bill that Joe was talking about, Congress has tucked away an anti-abortion clause that could have some widespread implications. The provision could make it easier for hospitals and other healthcare providers to refuse to provide abortions, pay for them, or even offer counseling. Some Democratic women lawmakers are saying that the measure would actually take away women's rights, and they're planning on fighting that.

HARRIS: And our top story this hour, finding common ground during the weekend-long APEC summit in Santiago, Chile. That kicks off today. President Bush and other leaders from Asian and Pacific countries hope to find agreement on trade, economic issues, and especially dealing with North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash is traveling with the president and joins us with the latest. Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.

It's certainly reigniting the stalled North Korean talks over their nuclear ambition tops the president's agenda here at APEC. Already this morning, he has had meetings with three of the leaders involved in the so-called six-party talks aimed at doing just that.

Of course, one of those meetings was with Japan's Prime Minister Koizume, perhaps the president's closest ally at these 21-member summit talks.

Now, the Bush position in three rounds of talks over the last two years has been that the U.S. is unwilling to give North Korea security or food aid until they certifiably say that they will dismantle all of their nuclear programs, all of them in total.

Now, leaders who the president is meeting with here, some of them have said that they want the president to be a little bit more flexible. And in his meeting with the Japanese prime minister, he was asked by a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a reporter about that, and here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What's very important is for the leader of North Korea to understand that the six- party talks are, will be the framework in which we continue to discuss the mutual goal we all have, which is to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. And that at here at this summit, I will not only speak with my friend, the prime minister of Japan, but also the president of South Korea, the president of China, and the president of Russia about making sure that our intention remains the same, that we work together to achieve the goal. And the leader of North Korea will hear a common voice.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: Now, you notice the president answered the question about flexibility talking about the process, the process being multilateral talks. That's what he said that he and the other five leaders involved are committed to, not talking at all. He didn't talk at all about the substance, of course, the multilateral process was something that was a question in the U.S. presidential campaign, because Senator John Kerry favored a one-on-one negotiations. Obviously the president reiterating that that's not going happen.

But in all of this meetings, including with China's president, who, someone who perhaps has the most influence over North Korea, the president and the other leaders talked about the need for a peaceful solution to the nuclear standoff on the North Korean peninsula.

Now, also Mr. Bush is discussing the issues that are at the core or origin of this summit, and that is economic issues. Mr. Bush talked about the fact that he does believe that there should be a strong dollar. That is something that he offered without being asked, perhaps an olive branch to some of these leaders who are very concerned and making that known to the president, because they say that the fact that the dollar is weak, that's hurting their economies, Tony.

HARRIS: Dana Bash, traveling with the president in Santiago, Chile. Dana, thank you.

BAKHTIAR: It is a ribbon-cutting ceremony in New York for a school that opened about 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan. That's because you're looking at a group of people who had a whole lot to do with it. Two of them joining us live coming up.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Weather Center. Big Saturday. It's the weekend before Thanksgiving. A lot of big rivalries in the college football department, talk about that. Plus some big snow in Denver, Colorado. Full forecast is still to come.

CNN SATURDAY MORNING will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And welcome back, everyone, to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm Tony Harris.

Checking out our top stories, President Bush is in Santiago, Chile, this morning for talks at the economic summit with Pacific Rim leaders. On the sidelines, Mr. Bush is meeting with the world leaders who are partnering up to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.

An Afghan court sentenced a man to death today for the 2001 killing three foreign journalists and an Afghan colleague. They were pulled from their car, robbed, and shot while covering the fall of the Taliban regime.

On Capitol Hill today, the House and Senate plan to vote on a $388 billion spending bill before adjourning. The measure calls for cuts in a wide range of programs. Some Democrats are upset about a provision that could make it easier for health care providers to refuse to provide abortions.

And let's get you to Rob Marciano now for another check of weather. Good morning, Rob.

BAKHTIAR: Give us some good weekend weather, Rob.

MARCIANO: Will do. I tell you what, let's go right off the bat to Los Angeles. It's awfully dark behind me. I'm going to fix that in a second. Came to me a little bit early.

Here's a shot of LAX for you. Big doings in Hollywood. It's the Hollywood Jazz Festival this weekend. And pretty nice weather to, for that event.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

MARCIANO: That's the latest from here. Tony, Rudy, back over to you.

HARRIS: That's a busy map.

MARCIANO: Yes.

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BAKHTIAR: Thanks, Rob.

MARCIANO: Yes.

BAKHTIAR: OK, we got really something really exciting coming up. Three young ladies getting together all the way in the States to build a school for children in Afghanistan.

HARRIS: Oh, incredible!

BAKHTIAR: So we're going to be talking to them, how they did it, and what inspired them. It's an amazing project.

HARRIS: That and more when we come back with CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Let's take a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAKHTIAR: It was perhaps the children of Afghanistan who suffered the most from the war that ravaged the country three years ago. Their education was put on hold while Afghan leaders set out to rebuild schools and the country's infrastructure.

Those images of inspired -- oh, excuse me, those images of war inspiring three people here in the United States to do what they could to get the children back in school. They actually started the organization called the Rebuilding Afghanistan Foundation, and last night the group held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of their first school funded with the help from RAF.

Since the war, 5 million students have returned to class. That's huge. But, says a representative of the Afghanistan embassy in Washington, there's still a long way to go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HELMUT KARZI, SECRETARY, AFGHANISTAN EMBASSY: Thirty-five percent of schools in Afghanistan are taught in buildings, just imagine, 35 percent. In rural areas, schools are taught in tents and containers. But (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the people of Afghanistan are devoted, and they're committed. You know, they've taken this part of peace and prosperity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAKHTIAR: Two of the three founders of the Afghan charity are with us this morning to talk about their work, Alexandra Coolidge, joining us from West Palm Beach, Florida, and Elizabeth Hartnett is in New York.

Thank you both for joining us. This is such an amazing project. It is good to have you with us.

Elizabeth, I understand you're the architect of this. Tell me how you came about coming up with this idea. What made you want to get involved?

ELIZABETH HARTNETT, REBUILDING AFGHANISTAN FOUNDATION: Well, Rudy, I came up with this idea around the time that the U.S. went into Iraq. And I saw the American public's attention really shift from Afghanistan to Iraq. And I will tell you, that concerned me a lot, because myself and my two co-founders, we really believed that the successful reconstruction of Afghanistan is and was vitally important, not only for the Afghan people but also for security here at home.

And we wanted to do as much as we possibly could as private citizens to help them (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BAKHTIAR: Alexandra, tell me a little bit about this foundation.

ALEXANDRA COOLIDGE, REBUILDING AFGHANISTAN FOUNDATION: Well, the Rebuilding Afghanistan Foundation has two primary goals. And the first goal is to spread awareness of the dire state of education in Afghanistan. Right now, about 90 percent of Afghanistan is illiterate. And if we want this country to be self-sufficient and to take control of itself, we need to promote educational systems there.

And our second major goal is to build actual schools, to help construct the infrastructure so that this can be possible.

BAKHTIAR: Tell us about the Wardok (ph), the school, the elementary school that's opening up in Wardok, Afghanistan, Elizabeth.

HARTNETT: Ah, the Wardok School. Well, that is an elementary school, and it's going to be for about anywhere between 300 and 400 boys and girls ages 6 to 15. And I think what is particularly interesting about this is that roughly 90 percent of those children will be in first grade, and that is just because they have not had education.

So the U.S.-based charity that is actually doing the building and the overseeing of that school on the ground is going to make sure that there are advanced night classes for the children, particularly for the older children, so they can get up to speed as quickly as possible.

BAKHTIAR: Amazing, amazing project. And I understand you have a pen-pal operation going there, people communicating with the States. That's very exciting. And so exciting for girls there, who, before the Taliban regime was overthrown, actually not getting an education.

So bravo to you girls. Congratulations on the opening of your new school. It is very exciting to see people like you doing such amazing things all around the world and in the American name.

Alexandra Coolidge and Elizabeth Hartnett, thank you both.

HARTNETT: Thank you very much for having us.

COOLIDGE: Thank you.

BAKHTIAR: Thank you.

HARRIS: Great story.

BAKHTIAR: It's very, very...

HARRIS: Yes, great story.

BAKHTIAR: ... inspiring.

Still to come on CNN SATURDAY MORNING...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN STEIN: It's terrifying to be old and poor. You don't want it to happen to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAKHTIAR: Some strong advice from Ben Stein. He says he wants to save America. Our Robert Novak talks to him.

HARRIS: And an ugly moment for the NBA. More on the fallout from a Detroit Pistons game that turned into a brawl.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And welcome back, everyone, to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm Tony Harris.

BAKHTIAR: And I'm Rudy Bakhtiar, in today for Betty Nguyen. Here is what's happening right now.

President Bush is at an Asia-Pacific economic summit in Chile this morning. But he has more than economics on his mind. He's talking to other leaders about ways to end the standoff over North Korea's nuclear program.

And in Baghdad, a series of deadly attacks this morning, insurgents attacking a U.S. military patrol, killing one soldier, wounding nine others. Also, Iraqi police say, a suicide car bombing killed a civilian, and wounded several others there. Also, four Iraqi government workers were reportedly gunned down on their way to work.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice checked out of the hospital today and plans to be back on the job on Monday. Rice underwent surgery yesterday to shrink noncancerous growths in her uterus. Officials say she is doing well. President Bush has nominated Rice to be the next secretary of state.

In a few hours, NASA is planning to get its Swift spacecraft off the ground. Swift will launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral to study how black holes are born. Italian and British scientists helped to plan this mission.

HARRIS: He may be best known to Americans as the teacher in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," Bueller, Bueller, Bueller, but Ben Stein has a passion for politics, retirement savings, and saving America. He's talking about these issues and much more in this week's edition of The Novak Zone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT NOVAK, HOST: Welcome to The Novak Zone. We're in Washington, D.C., with author, speechwriter, columnist, feature film actor, and raconteur Ben Stein.

BEN STEIN, AUTHOR, "CAN AMERICA SURVIVE?": How are you?

NOVAK: Mr. Stein also the author of a new book, "Can America Survive?" Survive what, Mr. Stein?

STEIN: The in -- well, please call me Ben -- incredible hostility and anger of the left and the rage of people that are constantly dumping on America and calling it a racist country, a gender-oppressive country, an exploiting-class country, a militaristic company.

The people who are attacking America have every right to attack Bush, they have every right to attack Cheney. But to knock America as being somehow the moral equivalent of the terrorists, that's an outrage. And I see it happening all the time. And we have many examples of quotes from Hollywood and political (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

NOVAK: You're talk, you're talking about assault from within, not just the terrorists. STEIN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), oh, yes, I'm talking about an assault from within that weakens America's self-confidence and weakens America's ability to resolve the fight against the terrorists in a successful way. If we have people saying to us we're just as bad as the al Qaeda, it's going to be very hard for us to summon the moral willpower to defeat the terrorists.

NOVAK: The subtitle of the book is, "The Rage of the Left, the Truth, and What to Do About it." What do you do about it?

STEIN: Well, one thing you do about it is inform yourself, by watching Bob Novak on CNN, and one thing you do is read "The Wall Street Journal" editorial page and read fine columns (UNINTELLIGIBLE), read "The American Spectator," "The National Review," "The Weekly Standard," and fight back, fight back against your children's teacher, fight back, if you're a college student, against the uniform, monolithic left-wing standing of the teachers, and stand up for America.

If enough people do it in the classroom, it will have the same effect as it did a few weeks ago, or a couple weeks ago, at the polls.

NOVAK: Ben, you're also running the Third Annual Retirement Week. What in the world is Retirement Week? Everybody quits working, or what?

STEIN: No, no, it's the National Retirement Planning Week. It's because not enough Americans are planning for retirement. We have 77 million baby boomers racing towards retirement. They have average savings of less than $50,000. That is pathetic. Only something like 20 percent of Americans have financial savings of $100,000 or more.

Social Security is not going to cover their living expenses. Very few of them are covered by meaningful pension plans. People have got to save. They've got to save in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, variable annuities, regular annuities, real estate. It's incredibly important that people get the message, and...

NOVAK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) they can't rely on Social Security, can they?

STEIN: Well, they can rely on Social Security it for $960 a month or -- and then $460 for a spouse. That's not enough. People have got to have savings. It is terrifying to be old and poor. You don't want it to happen to you.

NOVAK: And you, you're a Republican, a conservative. A lot of people where you come from, from Hollywood, thought this was going to be a slam-dunk. How did, how did George W. Bush win so convincingly?

STEIN: I think he won because he appealed to America's pride in America, and the left was just dumping on America. I think basically Mr. Kerry was doing the same thing he did after the Vietnam War, when he said that the American troops there were rapists and murderers.

This time he said they were there for a mistake, he said they were dying for a mistake. He made Americans feel as if they were doing something shameful in Iraq. People don't like to be shamed. They don't like to be condescended to. They don't like to be told what's right and what's wrong about them by a man who is getting $1,000 haircuts and getting manicures. They want to feel that their country is a great place.

And it is, it's the (UNINTELLIGIBLE), shining light of mankind.

HARRIS: Ben, when you were 28 years old and had long hair, you were a speechwriter in the Nixon White House.

STEIN: Yes.

NOVAK: If you were called in by President George W. Bush, how would you improve his speeches?

STEIN: Well, I think most of them are pretty good. But the main thing I would do, I would say, is learn from Ronald Reagan and give us specifics. We are a country of stars. There was a man named (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Staff Sergeant Sutter from Alabama, threw himself on a piece of unexploded ordinance to save the life of a little Iraqi girl he had never met but only saw playing with ordinance on a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) street.

The ordinance exploded, and he was killed. A country like that, a country that has stars like that, has nothing to be ashamed of in the international arena, not before France, not before Germany, not before Al Jazeera. He's got to make specific points like that that show the greatness and the shining glory of America.

NOVAK: Ben, there are still millions of Americans who know you mostly from your first movie role as a schoolteacher in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF")

STEIN: Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOVAK: You've been in a lot of movies since.

STEIN: Thirty movies.

NOVAK: Thirty movies. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) what are your plans? Do you have any big blockbusters coming out?

STEIN: I have, I have a, I have a big part, a fairly big part in a movie coming out in the spring called "Son of the Mask." The original one starred Jim Carrey, this one stars Jamie Kennedy. I have quite a memorable part. And I love doing it a lot.

And I'm also trying to get a TV show about retirement planning. I mean, people are not taking this seriously. I want to scare them to death and make them take it seriously.

NOVAK: You know, I have, you and I were in the same movie, "Dave," each playing ourselves.

STEIN: And I just rode down on the train next to Frank Langella.

NOVAK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

STEIN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), yes.

NOVAK: He was the bad guy, yes.

STEIN: He was the bad guy, yes.

NOVAK: And I've been in about five movies. And I always...

STEIN: That's (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

NOVAK: ... I always play myself. They never give me a role to play somebody else. What is it like to play a fictional character? That must be a gas, isn't it?

STEIN: It's incredible fun. There is no more fun than acting and being paid for it. I mean, to get out there and just pretend, like you're in a high school play, and then, at the end of the day, to have earned a good chunk of money is an incredibly wonderful feeling.

NOVAK: Is this a fictional character in this "The Mask" (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

STEIN: Yes, I play a psychiatrist, he's an expert in (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

NOVAK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) did you enjoy that?

STEIN: Loved it. I did it in Australia, and I absolutely loved it. It's great fun.

NOVAK: And now for the big question for Ben Stein.

Ben, the president won by a comfortable margin, 3.5 million votes. If you could, what would you have urged him to do that it is not on his regular agenda?

STEIN: Raise military pay dramatically, so that we tell the people that are fighting for us and bearing the burden of our struggle against terrorism that we appreciate them. And greatly expand the size of the military so that it's not stretched so thin in Iraq and is able to take on problems in Iran and North Korea. Heavy emphasis on the military, much more heavy than he's putting on it now.

NOVAK: Ben Stein, thank you very much.

STEIN: Thank you.

NOVAK: Good luck on "Can America Survive?" written with the Phil DeMuth. And good luck on the book.

And thank you for being in The Novak Zone. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And you can see more of Bob Novak tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on "THE CAPITAL GANG." Newly elected Republican Senator Mel Martinez of Florida joins "THE GANG."

BAKHTIAR: All right. So it started with two players fighting, and then the whole game became a whole lot more.

HARRIS: Well, this is going to be the talker of the day. You're looking at some still pictures. But we have...

BAKHTIAR: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

HARRIS: ... new video in to CNN of this brawl last night in Auburn Hills between the Pacers and the Detroit Pistons, and we've got some sound from the head coach of the Pistons, Larry Brown. And we will talk to Mike Stone of WDFN Radio station in just a couple of minutes. It is an outrageous story of fights, of fans getting involved, of chairs being thrown. It is definitely going to be the talker of the day.

BAKHTIAR: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

HARRIS: And we'll deal with it after the break.

BAKHTIAR: It's getting...

HARRIS: Yes.

BAKHTIAR: ... to be worse than hockey, isn't it?

HARRIS: Yes, absolutely.

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Well, it is not always easy to know what is the right thing to do. But the ethics guy can help if you've got a question. E-mail it to the ethics guy at CNN.com, and Bruce Weinstein, the ethics guy, will answer your questions every Saturday at noon Eastern here on CNN.

Well, it was late in the game, but apparently the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers and their fans still had some fight left in them. And as you can see, it was not pretty.

It started with two really hard fouls by both sides, then things starting flying out of the stands, including the fans.

Mike Stone of WDFN Radio is back with us.

And Mike, we talked to you, oh, I guess about a half an hour ago. But you know what? This thing has taken on a life of its own. Before we talk about the incident, let's hear from Detroit Pistons coach Larry Brown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY BROWN, COACH, DETROIT PISTONS: I'm glad our team walked, because I was worried about Steven Jackson and Artest, as silly as they were acting. They, you know, I saw people take punches at them as well.

And unfortunately, fans got (UNINTELLIGIBLE) involved, and that was the ugliest thing I have ever seen in my life as a coach or a player.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Hey, Mike, tell us again what happened here. This was a hard foul by Artest. And there are hard fouls in basketball. We understand that. And there's a mechanism in place where you handle that, and the referees come in, and they pull the sides apart, and there are flagrant fouls, and we go on.

But his thing took on a life of its own. What happened here?

STONE (on phone): Well, Ben Wallace probably overreacted a little bit for his retaliation of Ron Artest. And then the referees did a poor job of, you know, controlling the scene at the time. And then Artest was lying on the scorer's table, which, for some reason, and you can look at it two ways, you know, trying to be a peace, not a peacemaker, but he was being very passive.

And then for some reason, some moron, some idiot, giving Detroit a bad name again, throws a beverage at Artest. And, look, Artest is -- two wrongs don't make a right. It's a cliche, Tony.

HARRIS: Right.

STONE: If it's not something like a...

HARRIS: Oh!

STONE: ... a battery or something that's really harmful, players should never, ever, ever go into the stands, and the fans, of course, as we know, should never, ever do that.

And then it just got crazy. Steven Jackson, instead of going in there as maybe a peacemaker just to grab Artest and get him out of there, he started throwing punches. Rasheed Wallace tried to play peacemaker.

And then through the lack of security or whatever...

HARRIS: Yes.

STONE: ... the blame, fans started going on the court, which led to Jermaine O'Neil cold-(EXPLETIVE DELETED) a guy...

HARRIS: Yes. STONE: ... another guy squared off with Artest. And then when they were, the Pacers were leaving, it really got ugly when they were throwing stuff even at Sharon. They, you know, you have to say it start, was started by one fan, and then it escalated. And I don't know how many people actually threw stuff. But...

HARRIS: OK.

STONE: ... conservatively, I want to say 50 fans gives the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Detroit area a black -- a bad name again.

HARRIS: Yes, yes. All right, Mike, we appreciate it. I know you, it's going to be the topic on the show all day today. We appreciate you...

STONE: You have to -- hey, hey, ask the ethics guy, does Ron Artest have the right ethics? What are the ethics about when (UNINTELLIGIBLE) somebody throws beer on you?

HARRIS: Yes, OK. But you know what? You got to do something with those fans, Mike, you got to keep them in the stands. That's where they belong. They're not a part of the game.

STONE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), there's no way they should go on the floor.

HARRIS: All right. We got to go, Mike. We appreciate it. Thank you.

STONE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), Rudy.

All right. Picture yourself homeless. I'm sorry.

BAKHTIAR: There you go. Picture yourself homeless, living on the street, or staying in shelters with your friends. Thirty thousand people in the nation's capital are doing more than just imagining homelessness. They're doing something to alleviate the problem.

Today, 17th Annual Help the Homeless Walk-a-thon is raising funds and awareness. You're looking at live pictures there from the capital. Last year, the walk-a-thon made more than $6 million for nonprofit service providers. This year, baseball legend Cal Ripkin, Jr., has joined the cause.

And we talked to him in our last half-hour. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAL RIPKIN, JR., 17TH HOMELESS WALK-A-THON: Well, I think one of the great things a baseball player has that's got a little bit of attention is the ability to play a role and raise awareness and attention to things that are good. The Fannie Mae Foundation does extremely good work. And for me personally, I can't imagine someone not having a home. The importance of a home in one's life is critical to your self-confidence and who you are in life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And checking top stories, a Polish woman abducted in Iraq three weeks ago has been freed. The former hostage, now back in Warsaw, says the kidnappers treated her decently.

President Bush is in Santiago, Chile, today for a summit with Asian Pacific leaders. Mr. Bush has bilateral meetings with the leaders of China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea scheduled. The economy, trade, and North Korea's nuclear program are on the weekend agenda.

And national security adviser Condoleezza Rice has just been released, at a short time ago, released from the hospital, and she is on her way home. Rice had successful surgery to shrink noncancerous growths in her uterus.

BAKHTIAR: In the rough-and-tumble world of tackle football, you know what? Maybe the gridiron needs a woman's touch. What do you think?

HARRIS: Well, OK, it can't hurt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Beautiful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Well, it's not as crazy a notion as some people might think. And you'll see why.

MARCIANO: Hey, good morning, Baltimore, WBAL, our affiliate. Seemingly never too early for a little Christmas music here at CNN SATURDAY MORNING. But the reason being, we got a little Nat King Cole playing in the background as that. Well, the city of Baltimore is going to ramp up the Thanksgiving Day festivities by having the your Thanksgiving parade this weekend. Little souped up. Too mild visibility and fog and some light rain at times.

CNN SATURDAY MORNING and your forecast will be back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAKHTIAR: Beautiful shot there.

HARRIS: Whoo!

BAKHTIAR: Oh, isn't it?

all right, time to check in with Candy Crowley and see what she's got coming up for "ON THE STORY." Good morning, Candy.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Rudy. I'm so not ready for mistletoe at this point. HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BAKHTIAR: It's a little too early.

CROWLEY: It is, it is.

We are "ON THE STORY" from Washington, to South America, to Iraq. I'm "ON THE STORY" of how Democrats were pondering their future at the dedication of the Clinton Library. Dana Bash is with President Bush is Santiago, Chile. Jane Arraf was in Falluja troops as U.S. troops uncovered insurgent headquarters. Kelli Arena talks about reporters under new pressure to divulge sources. And we'll talk about uproar over "Desperate Housewives" and "Monday Night Football." All coming up, all "ON THE STORY."

BAKHTIAR: Sounds very interesting there. I'll be tuning in. Thank you, Candy.

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Candy..

And all morning long, we've been asking for your thoughts on our e-mail question. It is, whose job is it really to make sure that your prescription drugs are safe?

BAKHTIAR: And we have time to read one response from Frank. He says, "The drug companies must be primarily responsible for the safety of the drugs that they develop, tests for effectiveness and safety and profit from. Secondary responsibility must go to the FDA as the watchdog agency for our citizens. The consumer does not have the training or the researches, resources to determine which drug is safe and which is not."

We knew it would spark a bit of a controversy. We'll have another question for you tomorrow. Let's get to rob with some beautiful music.

HARRIS: Good question (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BAKHTIAR: That's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) good point there.

HARRIS: Yes. And we knew it would spark a bit of a controversy. And we'll have another question for you tomorrow.

Ah, let's get to Rob...

BAKHTIAR: Yes.

HARRIS: ... with some beautiful music.

BAKHTIAR: Look at that live picture from Baltimore, Maryland.

HARRIS: Where they are getting ready for the holiday season with the annual Thanksgiving parade. Rob, how's the weather in Baltimore, my home town?

MARCIANO: Hey, a little soupy there, Tony. Yes, just, but not too bad.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

MARCIANO: Denver will see five to 10 inches of snow. So maybe we should play the Nat King Cole music when we show video of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Colorado (UNINTELLIGIBLE) be nice, get you in the spirit for Christmas.

Back to you guys in the studio.

HARRIS: Very good, Rob. Appreciate it. Thank you.

BAKHTIAR: Thanks, Rob.

HARRIS: You know, there's a tough love on the youth league football fields of New Orleans where moms are the coaches. As CNN's Larry Smith reports, the players not only must tackle and block but they'd better finish their homework and eat their lunch too.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Annunciation Playground in New Orleans, the scene is familiar during football season. Arrive, suit up, hit the field. Except...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Beautiful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you first told us that we were going to have women coaching us, we were -- I was thinking, women coaching football?

SMITH: The idea didn't seem as odd to the NFL and the New Orleans Saints, who are piloting the Moms Coach Football program. Placing women in roles traditionally dominated by men will tap a new source for volunteer coaches and encourage more females to appreciate the sport.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, that's a ground...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, son, your hands are wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, a lot of households are headed by moms. And we want them to be part of the process, from picking out equipment to understanding the plays and understanding the game, and hopefully they become fans of our games.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Too up, you, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), too high. You need to come down. Look. I want you like this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mothers are so used to giving orders and controlling things, so it was just a quite a natural transition.

SMITH: The coaches are supplied with teaching materials about football, and the players are quickly learning that tackle football may blend well with a woman's touch.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many of you had lunch today? Raise your hands.

CLAUDIA PICOLET, SCHOOL CAFETERIA MANAGER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) mommas to the kids. We all, if they make a mistake, we're not too willing to holler at them. We kind of nurture.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I guess I just try to get on the first level with my kids, How was your day at school? and that kind of thing. We teach them about setting goals and values, you know, life lessons and things like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some people on my team, they be like, they don't want a lady coaches, because they're talking about they don't know what they're doing. To me, I think, they know what they're doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just a wonderful opportunity, not just for me, but for all of us out here. Because, you know, we could be on the street playing around or something. We're doing something better with our time.

SMITH: Just like Mom would want.

Larry Smith, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: See, a mom's hug might have helped that situation in Detroit last night.

BAKHTIAR: Yes, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BAKHTIAR: ... a few moms there. Lots of hugging.

HARRIS: Oh, my goodness.

That is all of our time for CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Thanks for being with us.

BAKHTIAR: Candy Crowley and "ON THE STORY" coming up next. Stay tuned for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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


Aired November 20, 2004 - 09:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, from the CNN Center. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I am Rudy Bakhtiar, in today for Betty Nguyen.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Tony Harris. It is 11:00 a.m. in Santiago, 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast. Thanks for starting your day with us.

Let's get you started with the day's top stories.

Now in the news, in Santiago, Chile President Bush and China's president agree to seek a diplomatic solution to the North Korea nuclear crisis. Bush is meeting with the Chinese leader. It is a sidebar to an Asia Pacific summit.

Outside, thousands of antiglobalization protesters are expected back in the streets today.

The Polish prime minister's office says a Polish woman abducted last month in Iraq is free and back in her home country. At a press conference on Polish TV, the woman said she was treated well while in captivity.

A court in Kabul has sentenced an Afghan to death for the killing of four journalists. The Australian, Italian, Spanish, and Afghan journalists were covering the fall of the Taliban three years ago. A group of armed men had pulled the media members from a convoy. The suspect had said the ambush was motivated by robbery and not by politics.

It was a basket-brawl at the Pistons-Pacers game. A hard foul by the Pacers' Ron Artest set things off. Then came the flying cups of beer. Teammates charged into the stands as fans threw drink cups, plastic bottles, beer, ice, and even a chair. A live report from Detroit coming up.

And you're looking live at the Washington Mall, where basketball, or make that baseball legend Cal Ripkin, Jr., leads the 17th annual Help the Homeless Walk-a-thon. Up to 30,000 walkers are expected for the event. Proceeds go to 180 Washington-area agencies that help the estimated 14,000 homeless people in the D.C. area.

BAKHTIAR: Great cause there.

Here's what we've got coming up for you later on. One school at a time, that is the idea behind a group here in America donating time and money to replace schools destroyed in the war in Afghanistan. We're going to talk to these young ladies live.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN STEIN: It is terrifying to be old and poor. You don't want it to happen to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAKHTIAR: Plus, Ben Stein says he wants baby-boomers to be afraid, very afraid. And he explains why in The Novak Zone.

And women coaching football, could it be? You're going to find out coming up.

HARRIS: The Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers game ended early last night after the game spilled over into the crowd. Take a look. As you can see, it wasn't a pretty sight. It started with two really hard fouls by both sides. Then things started flying out of the stands, as we told you a moment ago, including the fans.

Mike Stone of WDFN Radio was at the game. Mike, are you there?

MIKE STONE, SPORTS REPORTER, WDFN RADIO (on phone): I'm here, Tony. How are you?

HARRIS: Well, and you were there last night, weren't you?

STONE: I was there. I was actually -- I was not -- I wasn't there to cover it, just a leisurely Friday night out with my wife.

HARRIS: And then, and then, all hell breaks loose. All right, help me here. A hard foul leads to a push. Push leads to shove, as these things do. And then things got a little crazy. What happened?

STONE: Well, it got a lot crazy. I mean, these two are bitter rivals to begin with, Ron Artest, a unnecessary hard foul. Ben Wallace overreacted to Artest. Then Artest -- you know, the players got around the scorer's table, and Artest actually, in a weird way, did the right thing and just lying down on the scorer's table...

HARRIS: Right.

STONE: ... doing nothing. Then a moron threw a beverage or something at Artless. Artest went into the crowd. He went after the wrong person. And teammate Steven Jackson came in, started throwing punches. More stuff was thrown. It got completely crazy when they went off the court. Fans got on the court.

It was terrible. Everybody was...

HARRIS: What?

STONE: ... and everybody's trying to play the blame game here. HARRIS: Yes.

STONE: And, you know, everybody talks about, well, the officiating was bad. Look, it comes down to two things. Number one, obviously fans are wrong, you should never, ever throw anything on a player.

HARRIS: Right.

STONE: OK? But a player has to be self-constrained, I'm sorry, has to show some self-control. I mean, it was only beer.

HARRIS: OK.

STONE: All right? And (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

HARRIS: All right, well, let's, let's, let's take this thing apart a little bit, Mike. Police were actually called in?

STONE: Oh, yes, there were police there. Well, there -- I don't know -- I'm not watching your video right now...

HARRIS: Yes.

STONE: ... but there was a -- Jermaine O'Neil cold-(EXPLETIVE DELETED) somebody.

HARRIS: Right.

STONE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) see, there were fans that went on the court, which is ridiculous. This situation was completely not -- they detained the Pacers for a while. They finally let them fly back to Indiana late last night, early this morning. There may...

HARRIS: Mike, where do we...

STONE: ... there may...

HARRIS: Mike...

STONE: ... there may be charges filed.

HARRIS: Mike, where do we, OK, there may be some charges filed.

Where do we draw? There seemed to be a couple of lines that we need to draw here. First of all, if you were a player for the Pacers and someone comes out of the stands onto the court, I can understand a sense of feeling as though you need to defend yourself. They're not coming out there to shake your hand and say, Hey, you're a great basketball player.

STONE: That is correct. And one of the fans who came out actually, like, squared up against Artest.

HARRIS: Yes. STONE: I mean, I don't blame Artest for that. He is to be blamed for the original incident. There have been other times in sports where people have thrown liquids at people and beverages, even plastic bottles, and the smart player will sit there and try to get security, just to point out the fan. That's where Artest made his major, major mistake.

HARRIS: So you feel he overreacted.

STONE: Artest overreacted originally. The fans, the first fan who threw it definitely overreacted, and then fans in that idiotic drunk-mob mentality, they went overboard when they continued to throw stuff.

HARRIS: What do you, what do you think? We're going to ban alcohol and liquor at these games? Is that coming down the road here?

STONE: No, because there's too much money...

HARRIS: Too much money in it?

STONE: ... to be made by the venues. What they might do is cut it off at halftime.

HARRIS: Suspensions, fines, that sort of thing?

STONE: Oh, there'll be suspensions and fines. And I think people who, if they, you know, identify the people, if they were season ticket holders, they should have their tickets revoked.

HARRIS: Yes.

STONE: I think what you might also find is, basketball is probably the only sport where you're that close. You might find more security.

HARRIS: There you...

STONE: Security was a little lax.

HARRIS: There you go.

STONE: There's a lot of things like that that's going to happen. It's terrible.

And as, you know, somebody who lives in this community, Detroit is always trying to fight this black eye and everything's trying...

HARRIS: Right.

STONE: ... to get better. We're having a lot of great events. the Super Bowl, and then the city's getting better, the city's on the move. This takes place in the suburbs, and the whole area gets another black eye because people just say, Ah, happened...

HARRIS: Yes. All right, Mike. STONE: ... in Detroit again.

HARRIS: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us this morning.

STONE: All right.

HARRIS: Mike Stone of WDFN Radio. Mike, we appreciate it. Rudy?

BAKHTIAR: Well, there's a rare Saturday session in Congress today as lawmakers are trying to finish up some last-minute business before the holiday break.

Our congressional correspondent, Joe Johns, is live on Capitol Hill. Hi, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Rudy.

It's a $388 billion spending bill. Appropriators filed it late last night, the House of Representatives coming in at this hour to take that measure up. The Senate is expected to take the measure up also later this morning.

The House is also filing a stopgap spending bill. That's necessary because funding for the government essentially would run out at midnight tonight if they didn't do otherwise. And that's about the time this big mammoth omnibus spending bill is going to reach the president's desk. He apparently needs some time to read through it.

That's because this is the type of bill at the end of the year that is susceptible to having a number of different provisions thrown in that not everyone was fully aware of. Of course, it funds everything from the agriculture department, commerce, state, and justice, energy, water, foreign operations, interior, labor, legislative services, transportation, and VA and HUD.

Meanwhile, there is some other important business that Congress continues to work on, that, of course, is intelligence reform. Conferees have been hard at work trying to narrow the differences between them. Of course, one of the key sticking points all along has been creation of a national intelligence director and giving him or her the budgetary authority to do the job.

There's also a hangup over giving driver's licenses to immigrants.

The bottom line on that intelligence reform bill, like everything else, time is running out here on Capitol Hill, because a lot of these legislators want to get home for the holidays.

Rudy, back to you.

BAKHTIAR: Yes, and I know a lot of families were concerned about the fact that right now they've got the momentum, and what happens in the new year? It might all be forgotten.

Our congressional correspondent, Joe Johns, thank you.

JOHNS: You bet.

BAKHTIAR: And in that $380 million spending bill that Joe was talking about, Congress has tucked away an anti-abortion clause that could have some widespread implications. The provision could make it easier for hospitals and other healthcare providers to refuse to provide abortions, pay for them, or even offer counseling. Some Democratic women lawmakers are saying that the measure would actually take away women's rights, and they're planning on fighting that.

HARRIS: And our top story this hour, finding common ground during the weekend-long APEC summit in Santiago, Chile. That kicks off today. President Bush and other leaders from Asian and Pacific countries hope to find agreement on trade, economic issues, and especially dealing with North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash is traveling with the president and joins us with the latest. Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.

It's certainly reigniting the stalled North Korean talks over their nuclear ambition tops the president's agenda here at APEC. Already this morning, he has had meetings with three of the leaders involved in the so-called six-party talks aimed at doing just that.

Of course, one of those meetings was with Japan's Prime Minister Koizume, perhaps the president's closest ally at these 21-member summit talks.

Now, the Bush position in three rounds of talks over the last two years has been that the U.S. is unwilling to give North Korea security or food aid until they certifiably say that they will dismantle all of their nuclear programs, all of them in total.

Now, leaders who the president is meeting with here, some of them have said that they want the president to be a little bit more flexible. And in his meeting with the Japanese prime minister, he was asked by a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a reporter about that, and here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What's very important is for the leader of North Korea to understand that the six- party talks are, will be the framework in which we continue to discuss the mutual goal we all have, which is to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. And that at here at this summit, I will not only speak with my friend, the prime minister of Japan, but also the president of South Korea, the president of China, and the president of Russia about making sure that our intention remains the same, that we work together to achieve the goal. And the leader of North Korea will hear a common voice.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: Now, you notice the president answered the question about flexibility talking about the process, the process being multilateral talks. That's what he said that he and the other five leaders involved are committed to, not talking at all. He didn't talk at all about the substance, of course, the multilateral process was something that was a question in the U.S. presidential campaign, because Senator John Kerry favored a one-on-one negotiations. Obviously the president reiterating that that's not going happen.

But in all of this meetings, including with China's president, who, someone who perhaps has the most influence over North Korea, the president and the other leaders talked about the need for a peaceful solution to the nuclear standoff on the North Korean peninsula.

Now, also Mr. Bush is discussing the issues that are at the core or origin of this summit, and that is economic issues. Mr. Bush talked about the fact that he does believe that there should be a strong dollar. That is something that he offered without being asked, perhaps an olive branch to some of these leaders who are very concerned and making that known to the president, because they say that the fact that the dollar is weak, that's hurting their economies, Tony.

HARRIS: Dana Bash, traveling with the president in Santiago, Chile. Dana, thank you.

BAKHTIAR: It is a ribbon-cutting ceremony in New York for a school that opened about 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan. That's because you're looking at a group of people who had a whole lot to do with it. Two of them joining us live coming up.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Weather Center. Big Saturday. It's the weekend before Thanksgiving. A lot of big rivalries in the college football department, talk about that. Plus some big snow in Denver, Colorado. Full forecast is still to come.

CNN SATURDAY MORNING will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And welcome back, everyone, to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm Tony Harris.

Checking out our top stories, President Bush is in Santiago, Chile, this morning for talks at the economic summit with Pacific Rim leaders. On the sidelines, Mr. Bush is meeting with the world leaders who are partnering up to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.

An Afghan court sentenced a man to death today for the 2001 killing three foreign journalists and an Afghan colleague. They were pulled from their car, robbed, and shot while covering the fall of the Taliban regime.

On Capitol Hill today, the House and Senate plan to vote on a $388 billion spending bill before adjourning. The measure calls for cuts in a wide range of programs. Some Democrats are upset about a provision that could make it easier for health care providers to refuse to provide abortions.

And let's get you to Rob Marciano now for another check of weather. Good morning, Rob.

BAKHTIAR: Give us some good weekend weather, Rob.

MARCIANO: Will do. I tell you what, let's go right off the bat to Los Angeles. It's awfully dark behind me. I'm going to fix that in a second. Came to me a little bit early.

Here's a shot of LAX for you. Big doings in Hollywood. It's the Hollywood Jazz Festival this weekend. And pretty nice weather to, for that event.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

MARCIANO: That's the latest from here. Tony, Rudy, back over to you.

HARRIS: That's a busy map.

MARCIANO: Yes.

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BAKHTIAR: Thanks, Rob.

MARCIANO: Yes.

BAKHTIAR: OK, we got really something really exciting coming up. Three young ladies getting together all the way in the States to build a school for children in Afghanistan.

HARRIS: Oh, incredible!

BAKHTIAR: So we're going to be talking to them, how they did it, and what inspired them. It's an amazing project.

HARRIS: That and more when we come back with CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Let's take a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAKHTIAR: It was perhaps the children of Afghanistan who suffered the most from the war that ravaged the country three years ago. Their education was put on hold while Afghan leaders set out to rebuild schools and the country's infrastructure.

Those images of inspired -- oh, excuse me, those images of war inspiring three people here in the United States to do what they could to get the children back in school. They actually started the organization called the Rebuilding Afghanistan Foundation, and last night the group held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of their first school funded with the help from RAF.

Since the war, 5 million students have returned to class. That's huge. But, says a representative of the Afghanistan embassy in Washington, there's still a long way to go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HELMUT KARZI, SECRETARY, AFGHANISTAN EMBASSY: Thirty-five percent of schools in Afghanistan are taught in buildings, just imagine, 35 percent. In rural areas, schools are taught in tents and containers. But (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the people of Afghanistan are devoted, and they're committed. You know, they've taken this part of peace and prosperity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAKHTIAR: Two of the three founders of the Afghan charity are with us this morning to talk about their work, Alexandra Coolidge, joining us from West Palm Beach, Florida, and Elizabeth Hartnett is in New York.

Thank you both for joining us. This is such an amazing project. It is good to have you with us.

Elizabeth, I understand you're the architect of this. Tell me how you came about coming up with this idea. What made you want to get involved?

ELIZABETH HARTNETT, REBUILDING AFGHANISTAN FOUNDATION: Well, Rudy, I came up with this idea around the time that the U.S. went into Iraq. And I saw the American public's attention really shift from Afghanistan to Iraq. And I will tell you, that concerned me a lot, because myself and my two co-founders, we really believed that the successful reconstruction of Afghanistan is and was vitally important, not only for the Afghan people but also for security here at home.

And we wanted to do as much as we possibly could as private citizens to help them (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BAKHTIAR: Alexandra, tell me a little bit about this foundation.

ALEXANDRA COOLIDGE, REBUILDING AFGHANISTAN FOUNDATION: Well, the Rebuilding Afghanistan Foundation has two primary goals. And the first goal is to spread awareness of the dire state of education in Afghanistan. Right now, about 90 percent of Afghanistan is illiterate. And if we want this country to be self-sufficient and to take control of itself, we need to promote educational systems there.

And our second major goal is to build actual schools, to help construct the infrastructure so that this can be possible.

BAKHTIAR: Tell us about the Wardok (ph), the school, the elementary school that's opening up in Wardok, Afghanistan, Elizabeth.

HARTNETT: Ah, the Wardok School. Well, that is an elementary school, and it's going to be for about anywhere between 300 and 400 boys and girls ages 6 to 15. And I think what is particularly interesting about this is that roughly 90 percent of those children will be in first grade, and that is just because they have not had education.

So the U.S.-based charity that is actually doing the building and the overseeing of that school on the ground is going to make sure that there are advanced night classes for the children, particularly for the older children, so they can get up to speed as quickly as possible.

BAKHTIAR: Amazing, amazing project. And I understand you have a pen-pal operation going there, people communicating with the States. That's very exciting. And so exciting for girls there, who, before the Taliban regime was overthrown, actually not getting an education.

So bravo to you girls. Congratulations on the opening of your new school. It is very exciting to see people like you doing such amazing things all around the world and in the American name.

Alexandra Coolidge and Elizabeth Hartnett, thank you both.

HARTNETT: Thank you very much for having us.

COOLIDGE: Thank you.

BAKHTIAR: Thank you.

HARRIS: Great story.

BAKHTIAR: It's very, very...

HARRIS: Yes, great story.

BAKHTIAR: ... inspiring.

Still to come on CNN SATURDAY MORNING...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN STEIN: It's terrifying to be old and poor. You don't want it to happen to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAKHTIAR: Some strong advice from Ben Stein. He says he wants to save America. Our Robert Novak talks to him.

HARRIS: And an ugly moment for the NBA. More on the fallout from a Detroit Pistons game that turned into a brawl.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And welcome back, everyone, to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm Tony Harris.

BAKHTIAR: And I'm Rudy Bakhtiar, in today for Betty Nguyen. Here is what's happening right now.

President Bush is at an Asia-Pacific economic summit in Chile this morning. But he has more than economics on his mind. He's talking to other leaders about ways to end the standoff over North Korea's nuclear program.

And in Baghdad, a series of deadly attacks this morning, insurgents attacking a U.S. military patrol, killing one soldier, wounding nine others. Also, Iraqi police say, a suicide car bombing killed a civilian, and wounded several others there. Also, four Iraqi government workers were reportedly gunned down on their way to work.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice checked out of the hospital today and plans to be back on the job on Monday. Rice underwent surgery yesterday to shrink noncancerous growths in her uterus. Officials say she is doing well. President Bush has nominated Rice to be the next secretary of state.

In a few hours, NASA is planning to get its Swift spacecraft off the ground. Swift will launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral to study how black holes are born. Italian and British scientists helped to plan this mission.

HARRIS: He may be best known to Americans as the teacher in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," Bueller, Bueller, Bueller, but Ben Stein has a passion for politics, retirement savings, and saving America. He's talking about these issues and much more in this week's edition of The Novak Zone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT NOVAK, HOST: Welcome to The Novak Zone. We're in Washington, D.C., with author, speechwriter, columnist, feature film actor, and raconteur Ben Stein.

BEN STEIN, AUTHOR, "CAN AMERICA SURVIVE?": How are you?

NOVAK: Mr. Stein also the author of a new book, "Can America Survive?" Survive what, Mr. Stein?

STEIN: The in -- well, please call me Ben -- incredible hostility and anger of the left and the rage of people that are constantly dumping on America and calling it a racist country, a gender-oppressive country, an exploiting-class country, a militaristic company.

The people who are attacking America have every right to attack Bush, they have every right to attack Cheney. But to knock America as being somehow the moral equivalent of the terrorists, that's an outrage. And I see it happening all the time. And we have many examples of quotes from Hollywood and political (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

NOVAK: You're talk, you're talking about assault from within, not just the terrorists. STEIN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), oh, yes, I'm talking about an assault from within that weakens America's self-confidence and weakens America's ability to resolve the fight against the terrorists in a successful way. If we have people saying to us we're just as bad as the al Qaeda, it's going to be very hard for us to summon the moral willpower to defeat the terrorists.

NOVAK: The subtitle of the book is, "The Rage of the Left, the Truth, and What to Do About it." What do you do about it?

STEIN: Well, one thing you do about it is inform yourself, by watching Bob Novak on CNN, and one thing you do is read "The Wall Street Journal" editorial page and read fine columns (UNINTELLIGIBLE), read "The American Spectator," "The National Review," "The Weekly Standard," and fight back, fight back against your children's teacher, fight back, if you're a college student, against the uniform, monolithic left-wing standing of the teachers, and stand up for America.

If enough people do it in the classroom, it will have the same effect as it did a few weeks ago, or a couple weeks ago, at the polls.

NOVAK: Ben, you're also running the Third Annual Retirement Week. What in the world is Retirement Week? Everybody quits working, or what?

STEIN: No, no, it's the National Retirement Planning Week. It's because not enough Americans are planning for retirement. We have 77 million baby boomers racing towards retirement. They have average savings of less than $50,000. That is pathetic. Only something like 20 percent of Americans have financial savings of $100,000 or more.

Social Security is not going to cover their living expenses. Very few of them are covered by meaningful pension plans. People have got to save. They've got to save in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, variable annuities, regular annuities, real estate. It's incredibly important that people get the message, and...

NOVAK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) they can't rely on Social Security, can they?

STEIN: Well, they can rely on Social Security it for $960 a month or -- and then $460 for a spouse. That's not enough. People have got to have savings. It is terrifying to be old and poor. You don't want it to happen to you.

NOVAK: And you, you're a Republican, a conservative. A lot of people where you come from, from Hollywood, thought this was going to be a slam-dunk. How did, how did George W. Bush win so convincingly?

STEIN: I think he won because he appealed to America's pride in America, and the left was just dumping on America. I think basically Mr. Kerry was doing the same thing he did after the Vietnam War, when he said that the American troops there were rapists and murderers.

This time he said they were there for a mistake, he said they were dying for a mistake. He made Americans feel as if they were doing something shameful in Iraq. People don't like to be shamed. They don't like to be condescended to. They don't like to be told what's right and what's wrong about them by a man who is getting $1,000 haircuts and getting manicures. They want to feel that their country is a great place.

And it is, it's the (UNINTELLIGIBLE), shining light of mankind.

HARRIS: Ben, when you were 28 years old and had long hair, you were a speechwriter in the Nixon White House.

STEIN: Yes.

NOVAK: If you were called in by President George W. Bush, how would you improve his speeches?

STEIN: Well, I think most of them are pretty good. But the main thing I would do, I would say, is learn from Ronald Reagan and give us specifics. We are a country of stars. There was a man named (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Staff Sergeant Sutter from Alabama, threw himself on a piece of unexploded ordinance to save the life of a little Iraqi girl he had never met but only saw playing with ordinance on a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) street.

The ordinance exploded, and he was killed. A country like that, a country that has stars like that, has nothing to be ashamed of in the international arena, not before France, not before Germany, not before Al Jazeera. He's got to make specific points like that that show the greatness and the shining glory of America.

NOVAK: Ben, there are still millions of Americans who know you mostly from your first movie role as a schoolteacher in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF")

STEIN: Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOVAK: You've been in a lot of movies since.

STEIN: Thirty movies.

NOVAK: Thirty movies. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) what are your plans? Do you have any big blockbusters coming out?

STEIN: I have, I have a, I have a big part, a fairly big part in a movie coming out in the spring called "Son of the Mask." The original one starred Jim Carrey, this one stars Jamie Kennedy. I have quite a memorable part. And I love doing it a lot.

And I'm also trying to get a TV show about retirement planning. I mean, people are not taking this seriously. I want to scare them to death and make them take it seriously.

NOVAK: You know, I have, you and I were in the same movie, "Dave," each playing ourselves.

STEIN: And I just rode down on the train next to Frank Langella.

NOVAK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

STEIN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), yes.

NOVAK: He was the bad guy, yes.

STEIN: He was the bad guy, yes.

NOVAK: And I've been in about five movies. And I always...

STEIN: That's (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

NOVAK: ... I always play myself. They never give me a role to play somebody else. What is it like to play a fictional character? That must be a gas, isn't it?

STEIN: It's incredible fun. There is no more fun than acting and being paid for it. I mean, to get out there and just pretend, like you're in a high school play, and then, at the end of the day, to have earned a good chunk of money is an incredibly wonderful feeling.

NOVAK: Is this a fictional character in this "The Mask" (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

STEIN: Yes, I play a psychiatrist, he's an expert in (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

NOVAK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) did you enjoy that?

STEIN: Loved it. I did it in Australia, and I absolutely loved it. It's great fun.

NOVAK: And now for the big question for Ben Stein.

Ben, the president won by a comfortable margin, 3.5 million votes. If you could, what would you have urged him to do that it is not on his regular agenda?

STEIN: Raise military pay dramatically, so that we tell the people that are fighting for us and bearing the burden of our struggle against terrorism that we appreciate them. And greatly expand the size of the military so that it's not stretched so thin in Iraq and is able to take on problems in Iran and North Korea. Heavy emphasis on the military, much more heavy than he's putting on it now.

NOVAK: Ben Stein, thank you very much.

STEIN: Thank you.

NOVAK: Good luck on "Can America Survive?" written with the Phil DeMuth. And good luck on the book.

And thank you for being in The Novak Zone. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And you can see more of Bob Novak tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on "THE CAPITAL GANG." Newly elected Republican Senator Mel Martinez of Florida joins "THE GANG."

BAKHTIAR: All right. So it started with two players fighting, and then the whole game became a whole lot more.

HARRIS: Well, this is going to be the talker of the day. You're looking at some still pictures. But we have...

BAKHTIAR: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

HARRIS: ... new video in to CNN of this brawl last night in Auburn Hills between the Pacers and the Detroit Pistons, and we've got some sound from the head coach of the Pistons, Larry Brown. And we will talk to Mike Stone of WDFN Radio station in just a couple of minutes. It is an outrageous story of fights, of fans getting involved, of chairs being thrown. It is definitely going to be the talker of the day.

BAKHTIAR: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

HARRIS: And we'll deal with it after the break.

BAKHTIAR: It's getting...

HARRIS: Yes.

BAKHTIAR: ... to be worse than hockey, isn't it?

HARRIS: Yes, absolutely.

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Well, it is not always easy to know what is the right thing to do. But the ethics guy can help if you've got a question. E-mail it to the ethics guy at CNN.com, and Bruce Weinstein, the ethics guy, will answer your questions every Saturday at noon Eastern here on CNN.

Well, it was late in the game, but apparently the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers and their fans still had some fight left in them. And as you can see, it was not pretty.

It started with two really hard fouls by both sides, then things starting flying out of the stands, including the fans.

Mike Stone of WDFN Radio is back with us.

And Mike, we talked to you, oh, I guess about a half an hour ago. But you know what? This thing has taken on a life of its own. Before we talk about the incident, let's hear from Detroit Pistons coach Larry Brown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY BROWN, COACH, DETROIT PISTONS: I'm glad our team walked, because I was worried about Steven Jackson and Artest, as silly as they were acting. They, you know, I saw people take punches at them as well.

And unfortunately, fans got (UNINTELLIGIBLE) involved, and that was the ugliest thing I have ever seen in my life as a coach or a player.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Hey, Mike, tell us again what happened here. This was a hard foul by Artest. And there are hard fouls in basketball. We understand that. And there's a mechanism in place where you handle that, and the referees come in, and they pull the sides apart, and there are flagrant fouls, and we go on.

But his thing took on a life of its own. What happened here?

STONE (on phone): Well, Ben Wallace probably overreacted a little bit for his retaliation of Ron Artest. And then the referees did a poor job of, you know, controlling the scene at the time. And then Artest was lying on the scorer's table, which, for some reason, and you can look at it two ways, you know, trying to be a peace, not a peacemaker, but he was being very passive.

And then for some reason, some moron, some idiot, giving Detroit a bad name again, throws a beverage at Artest. And, look, Artest is -- two wrongs don't make a right. It's a cliche, Tony.

HARRIS: Right.

STONE: If it's not something like a...

HARRIS: Oh!

STONE: ... a battery or something that's really harmful, players should never, ever, ever go into the stands, and the fans, of course, as we know, should never, ever do that.

And then it just got crazy. Steven Jackson, instead of going in there as maybe a peacemaker just to grab Artest and get him out of there, he started throwing punches. Rasheed Wallace tried to play peacemaker.

And then through the lack of security or whatever...

HARRIS: Yes.

STONE: ... the blame, fans started going on the court, which led to Jermaine O'Neil cold-(EXPLETIVE DELETED) a guy...

HARRIS: Yes. STONE: ... another guy squared off with Artest. And then when they were, the Pacers were leaving, it really got ugly when they were throwing stuff even at Sharon. They, you know, you have to say it start, was started by one fan, and then it escalated. And I don't know how many people actually threw stuff. But...

HARRIS: OK.

STONE: ... conservatively, I want to say 50 fans gives the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Detroit area a black -- a bad name again.

HARRIS: Yes, yes. All right, Mike, we appreciate it. I know you, it's going to be the topic on the show all day today. We appreciate you...

STONE: You have to -- hey, hey, ask the ethics guy, does Ron Artest have the right ethics? What are the ethics about when (UNINTELLIGIBLE) somebody throws beer on you?

HARRIS: Yes, OK. But you know what? You got to do something with those fans, Mike, you got to keep them in the stands. That's where they belong. They're not a part of the game.

STONE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), there's no way they should go on the floor.

HARRIS: All right. We got to go, Mike. We appreciate it. Thank you.

STONE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), Rudy.

All right. Picture yourself homeless. I'm sorry.

BAKHTIAR: There you go. Picture yourself homeless, living on the street, or staying in shelters with your friends. Thirty thousand people in the nation's capital are doing more than just imagining homelessness. They're doing something to alleviate the problem.

Today, 17th Annual Help the Homeless Walk-a-thon is raising funds and awareness. You're looking at live pictures there from the capital. Last year, the walk-a-thon made more than $6 million for nonprofit service providers. This year, baseball legend Cal Ripkin, Jr., has joined the cause.

And we talked to him in our last half-hour. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAL RIPKIN, JR., 17TH HOMELESS WALK-A-THON: Well, I think one of the great things a baseball player has that's got a little bit of attention is the ability to play a role and raise awareness and attention to things that are good. The Fannie Mae Foundation does extremely good work. And for me personally, I can't imagine someone not having a home. The importance of a home in one's life is critical to your self-confidence and who you are in life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And checking top stories, a Polish woman abducted in Iraq three weeks ago has been freed. The former hostage, now back in Warsaw, says the kidnappers treated her decently.

President Bush is in Santiago, Chile, today for a summit with Asian Pacific leaders. Mr. Bush has bilateral meetings with the leaders of China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea scheduled. The economy, trade, and North Korea's nuclear program are on the weekend agenda.

And national security adviser Condoleezza Rice has just been released, at a short time ago, released from the hospital, and she is on her way home. Rice had successful surgery to shrink noncancerous growths in her uterus.

BAKHTIAR: In the rough-and-tumble world of tackle football, you know what? Maybe the gridiron needs a woman's touch. What do you think?

HARRIS: Well, OK, it can't hurt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Beautiful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Well, it's not as crazy a notion as some people might think. And you'll see why.

MARCIANO: Hey, good morning, Baltimore, WBAL, our affiliate. Seemingly never too early for a little Christmas music here at CNN SATURDAY MORNING. But the reason being, we got a little Nat King Cole playing in the background as that. Well, the city of Baltimore is going to ramp up the Thanksgiving Day festivities by having the your Thanksgiving parade this weekend. Little souped up. Too mild visibility and fog and some light rain at times.

CNN SATURDAY MORNING and your forecast will be back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAKHTIAR: Beautiful shot there.

HARRIS: Whoo!

BAKHTIAR: Oh, isn't it?

all right, time to check in with Candy Crowley and see what she's got coming up for "ON THE STORY." Good morning, Candy.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Rudy. I'm so not ready for mistletoe at this point. HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BAKHTIAR: It's a little too early.

CROWLEY: It is, it is.

We are "ON THE STORY" from Washington, to South America, to Iraq. I'm "ON THE STORY" of how Democrats were pondering their future at the dedication of the Clinton Library. Dana Bash is with President Bush is Santiago, Chile. Jane Arraf was in Falluja troops as U.S. troops uncovered insurgent headquarters. Kelli Arena talks about reporters under new pressure to divulge sources. And we'll talk about uproar over "Desperate Housewives" and "Monday Night Football." All coming up, all "ON THE STORY."

BAKHTIAR: Sounds very interesting there. I'll be tuning in. Thank you, Candy.

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Candy..

And all morning long, we've been asking for your thoughts on our e-mail question. It is, whose job is it really to make sure that your prescription drugs are safe?

BAKHTIAR: And we have time to read one response from Frank. He says, "The drug companies must be primarily responsible for the safety of the drugs that they develop, tests for effectiveness and safety and profit from. Secondary responsibility must go to the FDA as the watchdog agency for our citizens. The consumer does not have the training or the researches, resources to determine which drug is safe and which is not."

We knew it would spark a bit of a controversy. We'll have another question for you tomorrow. Let's get to rob with some beautiful music.

HARRIS: Good question (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BAKHTIAR: That's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) good point there.

HARRIS: Yes. And we knew it would spark a bit of a controversy. And we'll have another question for you tomorrow.

Ah, let's get to Rob...

BAKHTIAR: Yes.

HARRIS: ... with some beautiful music.

BAKHTIAR: Look at that live picture from Baltimore, Maryland.

HARRIS: Where they are getting ready for the holiday season with the annual Thanksgiving parade. Rob, how's the weather in Baltimore, my home town?

MARCIANO: Hey, a little soupy there, Tony. Yes, just, but not too bad.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

MARCIANO: Denver will see five to 10 inches of snow. So maybe we should play the Nat King Cole music when we show video of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Colorado (UNINTELLIGIBLE) be nice, get you in the spirit for Christmas.

Back to you guys in the studio.

HARRIS: Very good, Rob. Appreciate it. Thank you.

BAKHTIAR: Thanks, Rob.

HARRIS: You know, there's a tough love on the youth league football fields of New Orleans where moms are the coaches. As CNN's Larry Smith reports, the players not only must tackle and block but they'd better finish their homework and eat their lunch too.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Annunciation Playground in New Orleans, the scene is familiar during football season. Arrive, suit up, hit the field. Except...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Beautiful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you first told us that we were going to have women coaching us, we were -- I was thinking, women coaching football?

SMITH: The idea didn't seem as odd to the NFL and the New Orleans Saints, who are piloting the Moms Coach Football program. Placing women in roles traditionally dominated by men will tap a new source for volunteer coaches and encourage more females to appreciate the sport.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, that's a ground...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, son, your hands are wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, a lot of households are headed by moms. And we want them to be part of the process, from picking out equipment to understanding the plays and understanding the game, and hopefully they become fans of our games.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Too up, you, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), too high. You need to come down. Look. I want you like this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mothers are so used to giving orders and controlling things, so it was just a quite a natural transition.

SMITH: The coaches are supplied with teaching materials about football, and the players are quickly learning that tackle football may blend well with a woman's touch.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many of you had lunch today? Raise your hands.

CLAUDIA PICOLET, SCHOOL CAFETERIA MANAGER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) mommas to the kids. We all, if they make a mistake, we're not too willing to holler at them. We kind of nurture.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I guess I just try to get on the first level with my kids, How was your day at school? and that kind of thing. We teach them about setting goals and values, you know, life lessons and things like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some people on my team, they be like, they don't want a lady coaches, because they're talking about they don't know what they're doing. To me, I think, they know what they're doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just a wonderful opportunity, not just for me, but for all of us out here. Because, you know, we could be on the street playing around or something. We're doing something better with our time.

SMITH: Just like Mom would want.

Larry Smith, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: See, a mom's hug might have helped that situation in Detroit last night.

BAKHTIAR: Yes, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BAKHTIAR: ... a few moms there. Lots of hugging.

HARRIS: Oh, my goodness.

That is all of our time for CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Thanks for being with us.

BAKHTIAR: Candy Crowley and "ON THE STORY" coming up next. Stay tuned for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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