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CNN Saturday Morning News
Kofi Annan in Syria, U.S. Employers Ramp Up Hiring; "F Cancer" Movement
Aired March 10, 2012 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Checking top stories now, the GOP race is on in Kansas. The ultra conservative state is holding its caucuses today. Rick Santorum is hoping to narrow the field where 40 delegates are at stake.
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is trying to stop the slaughter in Syria and prevent unrest there from becoming a full blown civil war. He met with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in Damascus today. But so far no slowing of the violence Opposition activists say 35 people were killed today alone.
Despite the raging violence in Syria, there are signs that the Syrian regime's inner circle remains locked tight. U.S. intelligence officials are monitoring the situation.
Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joining us now from Washington with much more on this. Barbara, I know you've been digging on this. There have been reports of military officer affections. We heard from secretary of state Hillary Clinton about signs the Syrian elite are moving money and even family out of Syria. What are you learning about what's happening there?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Randi. Just yesterday, I spoke to three senior U.S. intelligence officials who are directly monitoring the situation in Syria. And they say the U.S. assessment right now is that the regime is not cracking, that Assad remains firmly in control, in command of his forces, in communication with his people and there's no real cracking of the inner circle.
The defections that have been made are people not really directly involved with him. And their conclusion, the U.S. intelligence community conclusion is that Assad could hang on for quite a while. Unless you get the defections from his circle and you begin to see those fundamental cracks. Right now, they feel that the regime has basically talked themselves into sticking with this plan of assaults and violence. They feel they're fighting an outside terrorist enemy. Of course, what they are doing is killing men, women and children, civilians on the streets of Syria.
KAYE: Yes, when you look at the visit today by Kofi Annan, I mean how do you think this is going to affect the U.S. plan for Syria?
STARR: Well, you know, this is one of the -- Annan's visit is certainly one of the hopes of the international community to get some progress here, to get Assad to agree to stop the violence. I think there's a good deal of skepticism right now that Assad would agree to any of this. And that's fundamentally the problem. As long as Assad believes he is in a position to win against the people and certainly right now even U.S. military officials have said he's got the tactical advantage. He doesn't show any signs of slowing down.
As long as he believes that, the diplomacy route is likely to be very problematic. The goal is to somehow do something to make him believe he has no option, that he must have a transition of power. And right now, his regime appears to be on the upswing.
KAYE: Yes. And what's really alarming now is that when we talk about Syria, we're also talking about Iran. There's been a lot of talk about Iran's support of Syria. What have you been able to learn?
STARR: Absolutely. These senior intelligence officials say that Iran is, in their words, all in to support the Assad regime in Syria. Iran is shipping in small arms. Very interesting, shipping in computer monitoring tools. What are we talking about? It's the same kind of high tech gear that Iran used in its own country to put down their rebellion so many months ago. Shipping it into the Syrian regime now so they can try and track down the opposition, track down the YouTube videos, the social media messages, all of the things appearing on the internet. So it's internet tracking tools, internet jamming tools, communication jamming, that kind of thing. To put down the opposition and even the use of drones overhead, unmanned aerial vehicles by the Syrian regime to try and track down the opposition as they move through the cities. Randi.
KAYE: Barbara Starr, thank you for your reporting on that, as always.
In Washington state, officers are hunting for a man who shot a deputy, stole her gun and then stabbed a judge inside a county courthouse. Multiple agencies are scouring the community. Police have identified the suspect as Michael Thomas. The judge who was stabbed actually talked with our affiliate, KOMO.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDGE DAVE EDWARDS, STABBED IN THE NECK: When I went to assist the deputy, he had a weapon, a knife or something and he was stabbing at her. He got the gun away from the deputy and pop, pop, and turned and looked at me and -- with the gun in his hand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: The judge, we're told, will be OK. Police still do not have a clear motive for the attack.
The final group of parolees pardoned by former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour could leave prison as soon as today. The state supreme court has upheld Barbour's controversial pardons of more than 200 convicts. Mississippi's attorney general says he's looking into his next options after the court rejected his challenge. Barbour has defended the pardon and says the former inmates have been rehabilitated. Economists are calling the latest jobs data, "encouraging." New figures show that U.S. employers created 227,000 jobs in February while the unemployment rate remained at 8.3 percent and the Labor Department points out that it is the third consecutive month with more than 200,000 new jobs, which is considered a good sign for the recovery going forward. Leading the way, the private sector which had added jobs every month for the last two years. President Obama spotlighting the growth of the sector in his weekly radio address.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: More companies are choosing to bring jobs back and invest in America. Manufacturing is adding jobs for the first time since the 1990s and we're building more things to sell to the rest of the world, stamped with three proud words, "Made in America." And it's not just that we're building stuff. We're building better stuff. The engine parts manufactured here in Petersburg will go into the next generation planes that are lighter, faster and more fuel efficient.
That last part is important. Because whether you're paying for a plane ticket or filling up your gas tank, technology that helps us get more miles to the gallon is one of the easiest ways to save money and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: But some Republicans are countering saying the president and his fellow democrats should focus on the deficit to truly boost the economy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JACK DALRYMPLE (R), NORTH DAKOTA: As a nation, what progress has been made to balance our annual budget deficit? Have any real spending reductions been proposed by the democratic majority in the Senate? Has President Obama made any real attempts to reduce spending? All we see are budgeting games. The American people are growing tired of the constant pleas for tax increases from this administration, long before any real proposals appear for spending reductions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Eight million jobs were lost during the recession. The Labor Department says less than half of those jobs have been recovered.
The next battleground in the Republican race for the White House, Kansas. Forty delegates are at stake as the state holds its caucuses today. CNN political editor Paul Steinhauser has more. Paul.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Hey, good morning, Randi. Caucuses ran in Kansas kick off later this morning. At stake, 40 delegates. The caucuses are closed which means only registered Republicans can take part in the GOP presidential contest.
Rick Santorum made two swings in Kansas over the past three days. He could do well there with the state's conservative Republican voters. Ron Paul is there today for the second straight day he's campaigned in Kansas. Now neither Mitt Romney nor Newt Gingrich stumped in the state. Instead, they're spending all their time in Alabama and Mississippi, which hold primaries on Tuesday. Romney is trying to appeal to southern voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I got started right this morning with a biscuit and some cheesy grits. I tell you. Delicious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEINHAUSER: But he's also lowering expectations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMNEY (ON THE PHONE): I realized it's a bit of an (INAUDIBLE) game, but I also think we're going to pick up some support in these -- the states that remain this month.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEINHAUSER: Santorum is hoping wins in both states could knock Gingrich out of the race.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you go out and deliver a conservative victory for us on Tuesday, this race will become a two- person race.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEINHAUSER: Gingrich doesn't sound like a man about to give up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe I will become the nominee with your help.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEINHAUSER: But doing well in Alabama and Mississippi is crucial for Gingrich. Randi.
KAYE: Thank you, Paul.
Mitt Romney can add a few more delegates to his victory column. He has won all nine Republican delegates in Guam. That brings his current count to 438 delegates. Take a look there. You can see the comparison, 170 delegates for Rick Santorum, 118 for Newt Gingrich and 67 for Ron Paul.
Well, she burst on to the national political scene in 2008 and has been making news ever since. Coming up, Sarah Palin, the focus of a new movie and one she's not so happy about.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Welcome back. The movie, "Game Change," is getting a whole lot of attention for its up close look at the 2008 election and Sarah Palin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN, FMR. ALASKA GOVERNOR: You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my god, what have we done?
PALIN: It wasn't my fault. I wasn't properly prepped.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Julianne Moore who plays Palin says the movie gave her new perspective on the U.S. political process. But not everyone is thrilled with Hollywood's portrayal of the campaign, especially Sarah Palin who says she is not going to watch the film and called the movie "false narrative."
Public relations expert Howard Bragman joins us now from New York to give us his perspective on all of this. Good morning, Howard. So tell me, what do you think about how this movie paints Sarah Palin?
HOWARD BRAGMAN, PUBLIC RELATIONS EXPERT: Well, you know, it's really interesting. Most of the people who have seen the movie said the movie is a very, very fair portrayal. But that's not going to make people on the right or the left feel that it is. I think people on the right are going to say "It's unfair, it's a product of the liberal media." I think people on the left are going to say, "Oh, they should have been a little tougher on her. She's a very polarizing figure." And that's what's going to come out when people talk about this film, Randi.
KAYE: Why is it, though? I mean when you look at Sarah Palin, why is she so compelling? I mean you love her or you hate her, but it seems as though we can't stop watching her.
BRAGMAN: Well, you know, there are certain figures in society that as you say, most people love her, we hate her or we love to hate her. Everybody has got an opinion on Sarah Palin. She's one of those people that just generates a great deal of buzz. She knows it. She plays into it. She manipulates the press for her own purposes and that's what we're seeing play out when we talk about this movie that's airing tonight.
KAYE: What do you think the moviemakers were actually trying to portray about Sarah Palin in this?
BRAGMAN: You know, when you get the politics away from that and stripped it away, it's a pretty fascinating story. It's the governor of a state who had no national presence who most people were not aware of by any stretch of the imagination and all of a sudden she's a heartbeat away potentially from being the most powerful person in the world.
It's fascinating. It's great drama. There's a great story to be told here and that's what I think we're trying to do is simply tell a great story.
KAYE: She's certainly bashing the movie without even watching it. Does that surprise you at all?
BRAGMAN: No, you know, Sarah Palin doesn't even like to do traditional media interviews. She likes to be in very controlled settings. She likes to give speeches. She likes to talk to her friends at one of the other networks that tends to be a little more conservative. She likes to be on reality TV in which she gets in all those things is control. So I don't think she's reacting so much to the film. I think she's react to go a lack of control over the content.
KAYE: Do you think it will have any impact at all on her image and the Palin brand?
BRAGMAN: I don't. People who love her are probably going to love her more. They'll probably going to hate the filmmakers, get upset with HBO and really focus on why they don't like it. People who don't like her are going to go, "See, this is what I told you. But I'll tell you, I think -- you know, I'm not a big fan politically, but I'll tell you, I think she was put in a totally unfair position.
I don't think you get nominated for the vice president and take a weekend and learn about foreign policy. I think you spend a lifetime learning about foreign policy. I think she was clearly in over her head. And I think she's an interesting, fascinating figure. We're going to see her for a long time. She is a young woman. She is a vibrant woman and she's got a very interesting voice in the national political debate right now.
KAYE: You know, I've heard it said many times, and I'm sure you've heard it said as well being in the field "PR is PR, right? Good or bad." So is there maybe just a little part of her that is enjoying this?
BRAGMAN: Oh, she loves it. She loves it. I don't believe at all that all press is good press, but I do believe that she loves being the focus of the discussion. And what this is is a vehicle for her to go to her supporters, express her displeasure and with the disarray in the Republican nominating process, it keeps her front and center.
Today, we're probably going to talk a lot more about Sarah Palin than we are the other Republicans running for president right now. That's a win for her in many ways.
KAYE: Yes, it certainly is. Howard Bragman, great to have you on the show. Nice to talk with you. Thank you very much.
BRAGMAN: Thanks for having me, Randi.
KAYE: Still ahead, we all hate cancer, but what's making celebrities like Kesha and millions of others say "f cancer"? We'll explain. But first each week, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta profiles innovators from all walks of life, in all fields of endeavor on the "The Next List," tomorrow at 2:00 p.m.. He talks with a group of art collectors known as Sin Labs. They create extraordinary art, commercials, and videos as well. Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
We decided to build a 100 foot long double helix made out of 512 individually computer-controlled, full color LEDs and then connected all that to a music source. We have DJ come and the light sequences were preprogrammed to play along with the tempo of the music. And it was beautiful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Welcome back. I want you to take a listen to this. The American Cancer Society says half of all men and one-third of all women in the U.S. will develop cancer during their lifetime. Many of us have a friend or a loved one living with cancer right now. But let me ask you, have you heard of the group called "F Cancer"? It's a name you probably won't forget any time soon.
A group hopes to change the way the world perceives cancer. Yael Cohen is the organization's founder and president. She is joining us this morning live from Austin, Texas. Yell, good morning to you.
First, let me just say so I don't get in trouble with my bosses here, we're going to use the politically correct version of your charity's names. We'll go with "F cancer." This is morning TV after all. So tell me first about your organization.
YAEL COHEN, FOUNDER "F CANCER" MOVEMENT: We are about two years old and we're early detection (INAUDIBLE). So we're focused on activating Gen Y to engage with their parents about the early detection of cancer.
KAYE: And you're targeting the group, why do you think it's so important to get the attention of this group in particular?
COHEN: You know, I think that we're a generation that's left out of this huge conversation. We're not talked to about cancer because we're not in the highest risk demographic and we certainly aren't the large donors. But if you want to create a paradigm shift and really change how a generation, society thinks about cancer from something you wait to get and pray there's a cure to something you're actively looking for and finding what is most curable, you have to go to the youth. We're the ones with the time, energy and tools to really make this change.
KAYE: And t sounds like you're getting some pretty good support. I mean I know that you've enlisted some big name celebrities to encourage children to have the cancer talk, if you will. Let's take a listen to one of these celebrities. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KESHA, SINGER: I think it's only fair that -- cancer is very real and I think it's time that we sat down and talked to them about cancer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: So take me through the cancer talk. I mean what exactly happens during the cancer talk?
COHEN: The idea for the cancer talk was that since day one, we've asked kids to talk to their parents about cancer. And you know, a few of them came back to us and said, "Oh, that's awkward. How do you even start that conversation?" And so we sat around our board room table and tried to think of the most awkward conversation any of us have ever had. And pretty unanimously it was the sex talk. And so we built a campaign around it. The idea being that your parents sat you down for the sex talk because they love you and they care about you and they wanted to keep you safe. Not that they particularly want to talk to you about sex and now it's our turn to sit our parents down for the cancer talk. It's time to make sure that our parents are being safe about cancer.
KAYE: And so -
COHEN: -- the video.
KAYE: This is really about awareness and education, right?
COHEN: Exactly. It's about talk -- you know, finding out about your family history, your risk factors, the earliest warning sings and making sure that at its simplest, your parents are getting the annual diagnostics.
KAYE: And what has been the reaction from parents? I'm just curious.
COHEN: We had great reaction, actually. You know, the campaign started with the videos that you just saw. There was about 15 or 20 celebrity videos. That serves as a hook for the kids. You know, they told a funny or embarrassing or awkward story. And then there was a voice mail component which was a repurposed political platform actually. This sent a voicemail to the parents that was customized based on some questions the children (INAUDIBLE) online and it said nothing about cancer. It basically said "Your child has something really important to talk to you about tonight, make some time and set some time." And so, Thursday at 7:00 p.m..
And so we got a lot of parents coming back saying, "I thought my kid was pregnant or expelled," which was really funny, but it means they had the talk because they wanted to know what their kid wanted to talk to them about. So it was a really positive response in the end.
KAYE: Well, listen, I think what you're doing is great. My family was touched by cancer and I think really any more awareness and education you can bring to the world is wonderful. So Yael, thank you very much for all your doing. COHEN: Thank you.
KAYE: Just a ahead, a Hollywood actor's real life drama. A star of "Kill Bill" and "Reservoir Dogs" is in trouble with the law after a alleged fight with his teenage son. Details ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Checking top stories.
Actor Michael Madsen who starred in the movie "Kill Bill" was arrested after allegedly getting into a fight with his teen son. Officers were called to Madsen's home in Malibu on Friday. Deputies say the 54-year- old actor appeared to be drunk. Madsen was charged with cruelty to a child. His son did not need medical attention.
Hopefully you are waking up refreshed this morning because you are about to lose one hour of sleep tomorrow. It's almost time to spring forward. Daylight savings time begins at 2:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. So don't forget to set those clocks an hour ahead.
I'll be back with more news at the top of the hour. YOUR BOTTOM LINE starts right now.
