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CNN Saturday Morning News

MLK Memorial Corrected; Syria Attacks Continue; Romney, Paul Showdown in Maine

Aired February 11, 2012 - 09:00   ET

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

TED ROWLANDS, CNN ANCHOR: Checking top stories.

After months of debate and complaints, an inspirational but inaccurate phrases inscribed in the granite of the Martin Luther King Memorial on the National Mall will be removed. It reads, "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness." It will be replaced with what Dr. King's exact quote was as he delivered it in 1968. "Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness and all of the other shallow things will not matter."

Eyes are on Syria today as the bloody crackdown on civilians by government troops continues. Activists say the military has surrounded the city of Homs with tanks and heavy weapons. Some fear that the Syrian army could be about to move in to wipe out the resistance. Stay with CNN throughout the day for updates on this developing story.

And in Georgia, a storage facility fire destroyed part of a museum's collection of classic movie memorabilia, including movie posters and paintings from the 1939 classic "Gone with the Wind." A museum spokesperson says that the unit was insured and estimates losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And now a quick update on the story we just told you about. The man who was once convicted of stalking singer Madonna is now back in custody. Fifty-year-old Robert Hoskins escaped from a mental hospital earlier this week and he is now back in custody.

To politics now, Ron Paul has maintained a strong presence in Maine leading up to today's GOP presidential caucus. But now Mitt Romney is making an 11th hour move to win the contest himself. It's between those two and our Shannon Travis is in the middle of it all at a caucus site in Sanford, Maine.

Shannon, well, we saw Ron Paul there just a few minutes ago, (INAUDIBLE) around. What's the situation now? I guess Romney is coming, as well?

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, we expect Romney to do the same thing any moment now. They tell us in about 10 or 15 minutes. As you just mentioned Ron Paul, he came a short while ago. He shook hands and took pictures and signed autographs. All of it, a last-minute push to convince some of these caucus goers to support them.

Now, a few things. This is Mitt Romney's first time appearing at a caucus site on voting day. So that's pretty significant. Also, this is his first time campaigning in Maine this entire election cycle. We weren't even expecting him to be here, necessarily, but he came here last night. He's going to show up here as we just mentioned a moment ago at this caucus site. This is basically not only to deny Ron Paul his potentially first win. You know, Ron Paul is zero for eight in all of these contests so far, but it's also about not having another embarrassing headline for Mitt Romney.

You know he lost all three of those contests on Tuesday. So this is about a few firsts for both men in both situations. Ron Paul hopes to pull this out. This could potentially be his first win. And what Mitt Romney certainly hopes t deny him that. Ted.

ROWLANDS: All right. The music is starting there in the background. Why did the other two - why did Santorum and Newt Gingrich say no to Maine if you can hear me?

TRAVIS: Yes. It's basically not a part of their delegate calculation campaign here. They're focusing on other states heading towards super Tuesday. So that's pretty much why they're not here.

ROWLANDS: All right. Shannon Travis, enjoy the day and enjoy the music in, as Maine starts caucusing. We'll have all the results on CNN tonight. CNN's coverage of the Maine caucus begins at 6:00 p.m. with the special edition of "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer followed by CNN's complete live coverage of the caucus results starting at 7:00.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Mitt Romney all took their turn courting support from the Conservative Political Action Conference. CPAC is considered the largest and most influential gathering of conservatives in the country. CPAC wraps up today with a much anticipated straw poll and a key note speech by Sarah Palin.

CNN's Paul Steinhauser has more. Paul.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, good morning, Ted. The final day here at CPAC. And that stands for Conservative Political Action Conference. This is kind of like the Super Bowl, a big political convention for conservatives nationwide. They've been doing this thing for 39 years.

You've got the top conservative leaders, supporters and activists all meeting right here. And it's extra special this year because you've got the battle for the Republican presidential nomination going on as we speak and it's quite a contested one. In fact, yesterday you had three of the four Republican candidates right here. Here's a tasted of what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... who has supported, in fact, the stepchild of Obama care, the person in Massachusetts who built the largest government run health care system in the United States? Someone who would simply give that issue away in the fall.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I happen to be the only candidate in this race, Republican or Democrat, who has never worked a day in Washington. I don't have old scores to settle or decades of cloakroom deals that I have to defend.

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All of you have seen the Washington establishment and the Wall Street establishment pile on top of me. All of you have seen them say things that are profoundly false. And there's a good reason they're doing it. This campaign is a mortal threat to their grip on the establishment because we intend to change Washington, not accommodate it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: A lot of action later today here at CPAC. We've got the results of the presidential straw poll that's much watched by political reporters and Republicans across the country. And guess who closes out this conference? Yes, Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008. A lot of action yet to come here at CPAC. Ted.

ROWLANDS: All right. Thank you, Paul.

Rising Republican star Florida governor Rick Scott will be addressing CPAC, as well, later today. We'll get a little preview of his speech when he joins us live here next hour.

There is no end in sight to the bloodshed in Syria. Opposition activists say at least seven people were killed today in Syria at the hands of Syria's military. Syria's restrictions on journalists make it impossible to verify reports or video. This amateur video shows the total chaos in the northern city of Aleppo. An explosion there killed as many as two dozen people yesterday.

Ivan Watson joined us live from Istanbul, Turkey, where he is monitoring what is happening in Syria. What is the latest on the ground there?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ted, le met just bring you up to date. We've just gotten word that Turkey, which is Syria's most powerful neighbor, also a member of the NATO military alliance, Turkey's foreign minister, who is on a visit to Washington right now, has just announced that he's going to make a formal request to the United Nations, to the headquarters in Geneva to try to start sending humanitarian aid into Syria.

We're learning that from the (INAUDIBLE) official Anatolian agency which is here in Turkey. That is one of the first new measures that we've heard from any of the regional powers to try to assist the beleaguered people, particularly in that besieged city of Homs, which has been ringed according to residents by Syrian troops and has been subjected to a week of military bombardment that has led to the deaths of hundreds of people and that bombardment is continuing as we speak.

So that may be a sign of some of the new measures that countries are considering to take to try to alleviate these conditions where people say they don't even have access to antibiotics as they deal with shrapnel wounds and hundreds of people wounded every day. Ted.

ROWLANDS: What are the logistical problems with trying to do that? Clearly the world is watching a horrible situation unfold there and is very powerless in terms of bringing supplies and bringing aid in. Can it be done? Can - I mean, you can't get there very easily. Can it actually be done to get aid to these people that need it?

WATSON: Well, I mean, that is a big question here. If you want to get aid to a besieged city that's being besieged by Syria's own military, theoretically, you need permission from the Syrian government to do that. And we've seen a lot of intransigents from the Syrian government on even letting humanitarian observers into the country or journalists for that matter.

So that's going to be a big challenge. Alternatives, there has been - there has been a lot of talk about trying to establish some kind of a buffer zone in Syria, but I would say that a military to actually come in and establish that zone or to get the Syrian government to say, OK, we're going to surrender this border region and establish a humanitarian corridor. All of that would have to be worked out if somebody was going to try to ship aid into opposition communities inside Syria that are currently facing attacks from the Syrian security forces, Ted.

ROWLANDS: All right. Ivan Watson following what is a very disturbing and changing situation in Syria. Thanks, Ivan.

Homs, a city under siege tonight at CNN will air a special on the Syrian uprising. See here firsthand accounts of the government crackdown from those living and suffering through it. That is on CNN tonight at 10:30 Eastern.

Coming up, want to read the secret sex diaries of 2,000 people? Well, my next guest did just that and wrote a book about it. She'll tell us what's really going on behind closed doors.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Wow, and having to follow that up is kind of tough. I'll be darned. Well, we're going to try. One of the big stories we have today is the big cool down, the arctic blast and much of the nation is going to be dealing with today. I'll tell you how long it's going to last. Plus, we're going to show you where we're seeing snow in parts of the northeast. Only moments away. You're watching "CNN Saturday Morning."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: Let's take a look now at what is happening across the country. We'll start in Louisiana where the biggest two-week celebration of the year is under way. New Orleans is full Mardi Gras mode. The (INAUDIBLE) city celebration draws crowds by the thousands for two weeks of parades and of course, over indulgence. In Charlotte, North Carolina, a quick-thinking school bus driver is being hailed as a hero after hustling six kids off a burning bus. Lindora Richardson says she was able to stay calm and guide the kids out the back door.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDORA RICHARDSON, DRIVER: You don't want to, like, be hysterical and make them hysterical. So you have to - you know, I was calm and they was calm and I felt like that's what aided in a safe deliver for the kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: Next week happens to be school bus driver appreciation week. The Charlotte Fire Department plans to honor Richardson during a ceremony on Monday.

And finally, in Ohio, a middle school basketball team knows how to pull one off with only seconds left on the clock. Take a look at this.

A seventh grade basketball team was down by one point when the player decided he had nothing to lose and launched it. He made the lucky shot from across the court to help his team win by two.

Well, several parts of the nation are under a winter storm warning today. Reynolds Wolf will be along with all the details in just a bit. But first, Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks to a man who has made it his mission to get kids and adults to make things, anything, really. Dale Doren is the founder of "Make" magazine. See why he made CNN's "Next List."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're just going to may say make a mess, which every good kid wants to do.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Were you calling me a kid?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So here is a model. We put two pieces of the conductive Play-doh in between an insulator. But first of all, we're going to put a battery on. There we go.

GUPTA: Wow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we're able to plus that in anywhere.

GUPTA: That's pretty amazing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: Tune in to watch "The Next List" Sundays at 2:00 Eastern. Stick with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: Well, much of the country is waking up to some frigid temperatures on this Saturday morning. Reynolds Wolf is here in the weather center for us. Well, it's about time. We've had a pretty mild winter.

WOLF: Well, yes, it's been pretty easy on us. We are seeing all kinds of cold weather around the country but also seeing a little winter precipitation out there, too. Case in point, take a look at Long Island, take a look at New Jersey shore. And right here, you've got New York. This is radar though. Let's show you some live images. In fact, take a look at this. You've got Columbus Circle where you can see things are pretty white around the pavement. Very carefully, you'll see a few snow flurries.

A better shot of that though is not from this level but even higher above. I'm going to enlarge this for you and you'll see a few raindrops here and there but more than anything just kind of freeze your eyes on that and well, I promise you there is some larger snowflakes there just a short while ago.

Doggone it. I know I'm going to drop this thing off and we're going to see some huge flakes. That's the way it always works. Anyways, so I can tell you this is part of the big frontal system that extends all the way down to the eastern seaboard until you get about the Carolinas. It runs out of a line of moisture. So really it's kind of a very dry affecting parts of Georgia. No rain expected in the deep south, at least in parts of Georgia and for much of the Carolinas.

But if you'll go back to the Midwest, we're also going to see some snow there. But the place that might seem the heaviest will be in the highest elevations of the Appalachians. What we're talking about will be places mainly like - weak West Virginia, where we could see locations that could get up to 10 inches of rainfall or snowfall rather, all due to this area of low pressure. And better yet what's coming in right behind him, a lot of cold air as they're going to be feeling this morning across parts of the upper Midwest and through the Great Lakes. We're going to keep a very sharp eye on that forecast for you. Again, six to 10, some places up to 12. What you can expect in your travel weather is also moments away. Back to you, Ted.

ROWLANDS: All right. Reynolds, thank you, sir.

Well, my next guest claims she has the best job in the world. Ariann Cohen collects sex diaries, a lot of them, over 2,000 of them in four years. She took the best and put them into a book called the "Sex Diaries Project." Marian joins us now from Portland, Oregon. So first of all, what inspired you to write this book?

ARIANN COHEN, AUTHOR "SEX DIARIES PROJECT": Curiosity. You know, diaries are seven day anonymous journals of everything that has happened in somebody's private life. And what you get out of that is a snapshot of how they're connecting and disconnecting from people. And when you get 2,000 of those, you get a portrait of what Americans are doing behind closed doors. And we all assume that people are doing something similar to what we're doing, but let me tell you, you have no idea what people are doing behind closed doors.

ROWLANDS: Well, let's read a couple of the things that people have wrote into the diaries. This is one entry. "Last night, it appeared to be that Nancy purposefully rolled over on her stomach so I couldn't touch her." That's from an 81-year-old Sarasota County, Florida, man. Next one, "I must be the odd man out because sex and relationships don't compete for my time as much as the kid, the dog and my house." That's from a 43-year-old in Atlanta. "Came home, had some vodka, played pretend with the husband. Wow, I needed that." That's from a 30-year-old Baltimore, Maryland, woman. And "All I think about is sex. I feel like I'm going to explode." A 23-year-old from Dayton, Ohio.

Were you surprised? Maybe not from that last one, but were you surprised by what people are saying and were open about and what they're doing behind closed doors?

COHEN: Oh, absolutely. I think I was really surprised by two things. The first is that I grew up with this idea that people are either in a relationship or dating to be in a relationship. And that's not true. About 20 percent of the diarists are what I call solo, which means they're not looking to be in a relationship and they're meeting their own emotional and sexual lifestyle needs. That doesn't mean they're celibate, it just means that they're not trying to be in a relationship right now.

The second thing that really surprised me is that couples aren't similar. One couple is not the same thing as another couple and I was able to map out the three different kinds of couples that I found and track their goals and the pros and cons of their relationships. And I think it's really helpful for people to know what kind of couple they're in and how it works.

ROWLANDS: How do you know that people are telling the truth and how do you get them to do it in first place?

COHEN: I ask everybody I see at the grocery store, on the street, and I like to say that no is the first step on the path to yes. People, I asked them and they say no. They say that they're single or that they're busy or that they're not an exhibitionist. And I say, that's great, you're really perfect for this project. And we often talk about how everything we learn is from what we see other people doing in our careers or in our lifestyle. You see somebody do something and you say, "Oh, I really want to do that. Oh, I shouldn't do that." In our private lives, we're really closed off from information and it's a disservice to people to not know what their options are.

ROWLANDS: Well right. Ariann Cohen, the book is the "Sex Diaries' Project." Ariann, thanks. Joining us from Portland, Oregon this morning.

COHEN: Thanks for having me.

ROWLANDS: You got it. Thanks.

Well coming up, the latest political battleground in the fight for the Republican presidential nomination is in Maine and Mitt Romney is in Maine at this hour. You can see he's about to be introduced there to the crowd. He's going to go around and talk to some folks. We saw Ron Paul there earlier today. That is the latest site of the Republican nomination battle. We'll have more on that throughout the day here on CNN. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: Checking top stories. Eyes are on Syria today as the bloody crackdown on civilians by government troops continues. Activists say the military has surrounded the city of Homs with tanks and heavy weapons. Some fear that the Syrian army could be about to move in to wipe out the resistance. Stay with CNN throughout the day for updates on this developing story.

And Maine's Republican voters wrap up their week-long caucuses today. GOP front-runner Mitt Romney, you can see right now, is addressing the caucus goers in Maine.

Ron Paul was at the same location earlier today. Paul has been on the ground in Maine for more than -- for most of this election period, and more than his rivals. He's well -- run a very well campaign in that state. However, Romney is going after him.

"YOUR BOTTOM LINE" starts right now.