but as i hand it over to you here and we try to get past that one -- >> i guess so. >> what have you got? you're going to d.c.? >> we are right at the top. all that's taking place, all the action is on capitol hill and on to the white house, too. >> it's all yours. so let us get straight to democrats and republicans, both scrambling to pass some kind of debt limit plan by tuesday. yesterday, the house passed a plan proposed by house speaker john boehner but senate democrats blocked it. and at this hour, the house is about to meet again, this time to consider a plan proposed by senate majority leader harry reid. we have correspondents at both ends of pennsylvania avenue. athena jones at the white house. we'll catch up with her in a bit at the bottom of the hour. first, let's go to joe johnson on capitol hill. joe, does the reid plan stand a better chance, at least in the house? >> reporter: well, frankly, fred, probably not. the house is going to vote on

this reid plan sometime this afternoon. expected to vote it down. it will be just a demonstration that the reid plan as is is not going to pass the house of representatives. meanwhile, the question is, what's going to happen in the senate, were there any meetings? no meetings scheduled among the leadersh leadership, a top republican leadership aide telling me mitch mcconnell doesn't want to meet with the democrats unless a representative from the white house is involved because the democrats don't have permission to sign off on anything unless the president says so. i also talked to one top democrat from the house this morning about what he thinks, that's congressman barney frank, the chairman of the house financial services committee. let's listen. >> significant reductions going forward, not immediate, in domestic and military spending, deferring the tax issue for when

the bush tax cuts expire and not cutting social security and medicare benefits are things we can look at including, in my point, further taxation of the upper income, social security and medicare benefits, i think it's a package that could package. >> reporter: it may look like an exercise in frustration for the congress. also an exercise in frustration for the house speaker, john boehner. we all know he worked very hard to try to push his bill through the house of representatives and finally got it though he had to give concessions to conservatives to do that. let's listen to him talk about how hard it was to do it. >> this will be the second bill we sent over to the senate and yet not one piece of legislation out of the senate that's passed that deals with this crisis. and my colleagues, i can tell you i've worked with the president and the administration since the beginning of this year to avoid being in this spot. i have offered ideas.

i've negotiated. not one time, not one time did the administration ever put any plan on the table. >> reporter: so the clock is ticking right now on trying to get a deal on capitol hill. while the clock also ticks on the borrowing authority of the united states which is expected to end on tuesday. >> joe johns, thanks so much. so the stalemate in washington has a whole lot of people concerned, not only in the united states. but cnn's jonathan mann looks at the worries around the world. >> reporter: while the debt ceiling debate drags on in washington, much of the rest of the world watches with growing concern. >> i am worried because this debt ceiling issue has not been cracked. >> reporter: and it's not just the head of the international monetary fund. people on the streets of beijing are aware the u.s. debt affects china's economy, too. >> translator: the crisis is not

only limited in the u.s., but also in europe. we cannot say the u.s. is not powerful now. as a big u.s. debt-holder, china will for sure be affected. >> reporter: and in australia, too. >> it makes it much more expensive for tourists to visit australia. those parts of our economy exposed to the tourist sector, we've spent a lot of money promoting australia overseas, are not going to benefit from that. >> reporter: in tokyo some economic experts see history repeating itself. they compare the current u.s. debt crisis to japan's crippling recession of the 1990s. >> it's the exact replay of what we went through in japan 10, 15 years ago. >> reporter: however the debate plays out in washington, experts say the financial ripples will be felt around the world. >> it's an issue that really is lurking in the background of each and every economy of the world. >> reporter: jonathan mann reporting. >> so what will it take to find a solution to our debt crisis?

all the hurdles and options are broken down. don't miss "get it done" sunday night, 9:00 eastern time only on cnn. turning overseas now to libya where the government is calling a nato air strike on state-run tv an act of international terrorism. officials say three people were killed in the pre-dawn raid. nato is claiming responsibility and says the attack disabled three state television satellite transmission dishes in tripoli. the alliance says the strikes were necessary because the gadhafi regime is using the media to terrorize and threaten its citizens. and it's a battle over dna evidence in an appeals court in pressu perugia, italy, today. amanda knox is hoping to get her murder conviction overturned. earlier, a dna expert denied that crucial piece of evidence, that it was mishandled during the 2007 investigation. well, this week, two court-appointed experts cast

serious doubts on the evidence. knox, her former boyfriend, and another man were convicted of murdering meredith kercher back in 2007. family members and supporters of two american hikers detained in iran rallied outside the country's mission to the united nations yesterday. they are calling for the release of josh fattal and shane bauer. the two men were scheduled to have a final trial on espionage charges tomorrow. sarah shourd was released in september of 2010 after 410 days in solitary confinement. held without bond. the muslim u.s. army private who authorities say admits to a plot to bomb a restaurant popular with fort hood soldiers. naser jason abbo is charged with possession of an unstructured destructive device. he refused to stand when the

judge entered the courtroom yesterday. abdo later shouted an apparent reference to the muslim soldier charged with the deadly shooting spree in fort hood back in 2009. along the texas coast, a lot of disappointment after what was once tropical storm don made landfall. it came ashore as a tropical depression. but it wasn't the rainmaker folks were hoping for. much of texas is in a severe drought. and the rain could have helped out a lot. just three months after the world tuned in to see prince william marry kate middleton, well, his cousin says "i do." queen elizabeth's oldest granddaughter, zara phillips, wed mike tyndall about two hours ago in edinberg. unlike the earlier wedding, today's event was a very low-key, private affair. phillips is 13th in line to the

thrown. and if you are one of the millions of people who submitted your video, well, this is the weekend that you find out if you made the cut. the movie "life in a day" opens around the world. i'll have a preview of it after the break. and later, as a child, margaret cho thought she was just like every other american kid who could do just about anything in life. once on the stage, cho used comedy to actually tackle family issues. >> for asian american kids, i think it's a very common thing to make fun of your family and make fun of their accents because it's something you don't have. >> face to face, she's a comedienne, actress and activist. face to face with margaret cho coming up in 30 minutes. she's had these shoes a long time.

they're kind of my thing. and they were looking... nasty. vile. but i used tide and tide booster, and look at them now! now they can be my thing forever. yay. that's my tide. what's yours? i use tide sport because it helps get odors out of athletic clothes. i mean, i wear my yoga pants for everything. hiking, biking, pilates... [ woman ] brooke... okay. i wear yoga pants because i am too lazy for real pants. that's my tide. what's yours?

it's the movie millions of people around the world have been waiting for, partly to see who made the cut. "life in a day" opens this weekend bringing together unique youtube videos to show one day on earth. who better to tell us about this than our josh levs who actually told us about it in the first place when rid areally scott came up with this first place. but i got it wrong. it's not a 24-hour span but it's a depiction of life -- >> it's a 90-minute movie. it doesn't take you 24 hours to see. >> got it. i misunderstood. >> i got to see it in advance. it is the best time capsule in the history of the world. it's amazing. take a look at this. ♪ >> i really love my family. >> oh, my god! >> i love football.

>> do you promise to love and treasursasure each other? >> we do. >> what happened was people all over the world were invited to take videos of their lives on the same day a year ago. it was july 24th, 2010. open to everyone. and what i love is that they made cameras available in parts of the world and with that technology is not easily available. then they have the challenge of taking all these submissions, picking which ones belong and streaming it into a movie. look at how many people sent in videos wanting to be a part of this, 81,000 submissions totalling 4,500 hours of video, fred. so they spent months going through all this. and check out what made the final cut here. it's 350 different submissions, have portions of their videos in this final film. as you mentioned, it was produced by ridley scott, major

hollywood power player and directed by kevin mcdonald. he joined us to talk about the final product. >> it is a time capsule of a moment on earth. and it's made into a movie that really feels like a movie. people think it's a series of youtube clips. but it's made to feel like it's 95 minutes long. you go on a journey. you start mid one day and you end at midnight on the next. and you experience the world in that day. and you laugh and you relate to characters and i think you cry a bit. >> and he also calls it uplifting. he says it reminds him of our commonality. >> it did took touching, the elderly couple that was kissing. i can see how a lot of those moments -- the two little kids on mommy's pregnant bellies. >> some stuff makes you laugh and cry. >> thanks so much, josh. we'll have to look for that at our theaters.

warren jeffs, the self-proclaimed prophet of a polygamous sect is back in court and causing quite the stir. you know that our legal guys have a few things to say about that. they are next. ...was it something big? ...or something small? ...something old? ...or something new? ...or maybe, just maybe... it's something you haven't seen yet. the 2nd generation of intel core processors. stunning visuals, intelligent performance. this is visibly smart. with diabetes, it's tough to keep life balanced. i don't always have time to eat like i should. and the more i focus on everything else, the less time i have to take care of me. that's why i like glucerna shakes. they have slowly digestible carbs to help minimize blood sugar spikes, which can help lower a1c.

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warren jeffs, the polygamous sect leader on trial for raping

a child says he can defend himself better than anyone else. so he's fired his lawyers. let's bring in our legal guys, avery friedman in cleveland, ohio, and hello to you. and richard herman, a new york criminal defense attorney and law professor joining us from tampa day. good to see you as well. this has gotten very interesting. he fires his attorneys and apparently jeffs has interrupted witnesses. he's gone on kind of a rant in the courtroom and even going to the point where the judge says he's threatening the witnesses. so did he fire his attorney so that he would have the freedom to do just this, use this as a platform? >> well, i think he fired his attorneys so he could stare down any of the prosecution witnesses that are put on the stand from his cult and intimidate them. but basically the other day in court outside the presence of the jury, he basically told the judge, if anybody rules against him or he has any problems as a

result of this, everyone is going to suffer and they're going to die. that's the message he gave to the judge. the judge warned him, if he does that in the presence of the jury, they're going to throw him out of the courtroom. his message is this -- he has a religion that's been around for 100 years. he believes that they can rape children, they can molest children, they can have -- they can father babies with children and it's okay because it's all cloaked under the veil of his religion. that's not how it works. and it will be a sad day if we get a repeat of a casey anthony in this particular case. >> avery, you see it differently? >> this has nothing to do with casey anthony. look, the fact is that the judge in san angelo has been taking control. she's been advising mr. jeffs, look, you're not making an opening statement, you're not generally objecting. when he did object, she permitted the objection, excused

the jury, let him rant, fredricka, for one hour. so she's protected the record to make sure there's an integrity in the process. ironically, he was convicted in utah of related activities but he had good lawyers. this time he burned through seven lawyers, gave them up. now he's put himself in jeopardy. and i think there's no question that within about one more week, he's going to get a conviction. >> put himself in jeopardy, facing life in prison. but also does it leave the door open that potentially he could face new charges for going on or breaking kind of courtroom decor decorum? might that happen, avery? >> well, he's making admissions that can indeed be used by law enforcement to recharge him for other crimes. if the matter weren't so serious, it's utterly zany. he's trying to get off.

>> what really upsets me in this case is that there's an enormous appellate issue here in that the judge released a tremendous amount of information that was provided as a result of a search and seizure based on defective information, basically a fraud call to law enforcement which allowed a search. that fraud was exposed. the judge said, we're going to allow it in. this is a major issue on appeal. even if it gets convicted, it could be worse. >> something tells me we're going to keep talking about this. let's move on to what's going on in new york. everybody remembers the steel beams being welded together. some are saying, we don't want this being moved into the memorial. is the issue that this memorial site, this muse sum going to be in a public government building and so this lawsuit being brought by this group actually has merit?

>> fred, the issue is was this an artifact? was it found in the result. it's a "t" joint that resembles a crucifix. it's brought peace to a lot of the workers there. the atheist group is seeking equality of all religions, et cetera. they believe this basically just sets up christianity and leaves out all the other ones. i don't know where this is going. it seems they may have merit on this. they might. but it's sad. >> avery, what do you think? >> very simple. this is not a first amendment establishment case. the judge as a matter of law will dismiss the case shortly. >> simply put. we'll see. avery friedman, richard herman, thanks so much. we'll sew you agae you again in. you brought up the name casey anthony, richard. there is something more to talk about in that case.

the judge apparently presiding over that has issued new orders impacting the jurors in that case. [ male announcer ] sitting, waiting, hoping.

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taking a look at the top stories right now. dna evidence is the focus of testimony today in the appeal for american college student amanda knox. court-appointed experts say they have serious doubts about the evidence used to convict knox of killing her british roommate. but police are denying

accusations that they bungled the investigation. ♪ and dozens of memorial services to remember the 77 victims of last week's terror attacks in norway will be held in the coming days. the first service was held in oslo yesterday and was organized by the youth movement of the labor party. the suspect in the deadly bombing and shooting rampage told police he had plans to attack other targets. but investigators are not revealing what those targets were. and nato is claiming responsibility for an air strike on libya's state-run television. the attack disabled three satellite transmission dishes in tripoli. nato says it was necessary because the gadhafi regime is using the media to terrorize its citizens. the libyan government says three people were killed in the attack and calls it an act of international terrorism. three days to make a deal,

that's all the time that congress has left to raise the debt ceiling. leaders of both the house and senate have floated plans. but so far, nothing has passed in both houses. cnn's athena jones is at the white house. what is the president doing today to try and twist some arms or make something happen this weekend? >> reporter: what's going on here is mostly behind the scenes. all the real action is on the hill. but the president has taken several approaches. we saw him come out on monday, again on friday to give speeches to keep the pressure on congress. and he did so again this morning. but behind the scenes, there have been high-level phone calls, lower-level phone call, phone calls at all levels between the white house and members of congress and their staffs. we had a democratic official tell cnn that both the president and the vice president have been talking with members on the hill the last several days. we're told that vice president biden has been in particular contact with senate minority leader mitch mcconnell who says the white house has to be

involved in any negotiations to reach a compromise. and so the president is going about this different ways. here's what he said this morning in the weekly address to lay out the stakes if the congress doesn't reach a deal. >> we need to reach a compromise by tuesday so that our country will have the ability to pay its bills on time, bills like social security checks, veterans benefits and contracts we've signed with thousands of american businesses. if we don't, for the first time ever, we could lose our country's aaa credit rating, not because we didn't have the capacity to pay our bills, we do. but because we didn't have a aaa political system to match it. >> reporter: so there you have it. the president laying out the consequences if this deal isn't reached, fredricka. >> so might the white house, might the president extend an olive branch and say, okay, i'll spend a little time on the hill, talk face to face, or is he planning to invite anyone to the white house for last-minute discussions? >> reporter: not so far. but the white house is standing at the ready, if people here or

people on the hill, congressional leaders on the hill believe another meeting here at the white house or to have the president come over there -- th if they believe another meeting like that would be helpful in reaching a breakthrough on the compromise, then we'll see. an anxious wait in texas for rain from a tropical system. but after hours, a lot of disappointed people. we'll find out exactly what happened. and fabio, yeah, the weather expert now? we'll find out what the famous model is doing on that weather set in portland, oregon, of all places. he toys ? sure, but let me get a little information first. for broccoli, say one. for toys, say two. toys ! the system can't process your response at this time. what ? please call back between 8 and 5 central standard time. he's in control. goodbye. even kids know it's wrong to give someone the run around. at ally bank you never have to deal with

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reynolds wolf, i think you need to be a little worried about your job. got a little competition out there. check this one out. does this man look familiar to you? >> from the satellite picture, it looks like this. lots and lots of wind and pushing the storm front right up into canada. >> that's right, he's doing weather now. that world famous italian model saying, i've got this gig, no

problem here. well, apparently this is also kind of his maybe audition, so to speak, to be the new old spice guy. i don't know. are you seeing it? weather, old spice guy commercial, you seeing the correlation, reynolds? >> when you speak about these storm fronts being pushed to the north -- i thought he did nor well. >> we need to bring in a little flowing hair and a muscle tee. will you do that? >> i'll do anything. fabio looks great for a -- he's 52, looks fantastic. >> he looks great. >> really does. got some weather out there. talking about this area of deep convection we have along the inner tropical convergence zone s. if there is further development, this would be a named storm, this would be emily.

it could get close to the w winward and leeward islands over the coming days. development is looking pretty good. we'll keep a sharp eye on it. as far as its possible effect to the united states, it is way too early to see. we'll keep you posted as more information becomes available to us. there will be a good chance of storms today especially in the northern plains. back in the upper midwest, strong storms, especially between the hours of 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. could be kind of rough, very noisy up there. hazy, hot and humid for much of the central plains and into the ohio valley. although, i must tell you, not nearly as hot as it was last week. 89 in kansas city. 100 in dallas. 95 in washington, d.c. 86 in boston. back over towards ceseattle, 84 degrees. >> that's why he was wearing the muscle tee. >> it was appropriate. the guy was phenomenal. he did a great job. >> reynolds, thanks so much.

i don't think you have anything to worry about, though, still. you know i was just joking around. fabio, good luck to you. we continue to bring you the latest opt debt ceiling debate in washington. chief business correspondent ali velshi will be drilling down on the issue in a special live edition of "your money" coming up right after this hour. joining us from new york, ali, good to see you. what do you have for us coming up? >> fredricka, i am frustrated like everyone else is in america. misinformation has hit fever pitch in washington, uninformed bumper sticker slogans have become accepted fact. things like, we don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem and that tax increases could kill our economy, even though there's no evidence that it could. pandering to deficit hawks and fiscal conservatives has overtaken common sense as politicians campaign for a

better -- not for a better america, for a better outcome for themselves in the 2012 elections. we've got a special lineup, including bill gross, the world's foremost bond investor. a lot more for you in the hour coming up at 1:00 eastern. >> we'll look forward to that. i know a lot of folks are very hot under the collar on all sides of the aisle over this wondering what is going to happen. and the clock is ticking. thanks so much, ali. we'll check you out top of the hour. so here's a scenario for you. you're arrested by federal officials. should they be able to collect your dna even if it turns out you are innocent? our legal guys are ready to weigh in on that one.

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[ male announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. it will be another three months before we know who was on the casey anthony jury. judge belvin perry says he won't release the names until october 25th at the earliest. our legal guys are back, avery friedman in cleveland and richard herman in tampa. so by law, gentlemen, the judge has to release the jurors' names. but this judge says he's worried about the safety of these jurors. so he's imposing this kind of cooling-off period. avery, how unusual is this? >> very unusual. but the wonderful thing about what chief judge perry did is he looked at public policy. nobody argued it. bottom line, he has to be concerned about what he calls the voicelessness of jurors. he did the right thing, let them cool off against the wingnuts out there who want to do violence.

>> richard, many of the jurors have stepped forward but on their own volition. this is to protect those who say, i don't want to step forward on my own. this buys them a little bit of time, i guess, too. >> it buys them time and perhaps safety because of some of these lunatics who are threatening to go after these jurors who don't understand the legal system. he did the right thing. he made some other comments i take offense to, but we don't have time to get into those today. >> let's move on to what's going on in the philadelphia area. talking about an appellate court making a ruling calling it reasonable that the collection of dna samples would take place from anyone who may be arrested, even if they are released or eventually acquitted. is this something that is exercised in many jurisdictions? is this very unique to philadelphia?

>> we've never seen it before in american jurisprudential history. from suspects, a terrible decision. 6 to 8, it's an intrusion of personal privacy. it's an intrusive procedure. i'd like to say it's going to the supreme court. i don't think so. 8 to 6,s a close as it gets. >> this is the 21st century, consider the fingerprints of the 21st century and that's what it comes down to. is that a reasonable expectation? >> exactly. that's the point. the court is saying, as an arrestee you have an expectation of privacy. the government's ability to make a proper identification will trump that. the intrusion is minimal. it's like fingerprinting. they take a q-tip, swab the inside of someone's mouth and that's it. they get the dna. i think it's going to be okay. federal court are doing it.

it's happening right now. >> this majority of these judges said that this is reasonable. but the question still remains, that fourth amendment, protecting against unreasonable search and seizure is the argument that still many are going to make, avery. >> yeah, professor woodfield, there you go. and it was the expectation of privacy. is there one -- there's a databank in washington where the information goes. a cop got arrested yesterday for going into that bank. there is no insurance of privacy when that information goes in there. it is a wrong decision and it's the first of many to come. we have to see other federal judges and other federal appeals courts dealing with that. >> you see this going to the supreme court, richard? >> i think it very well may. i think it's a precise form of identification which is a very important objective when making arrests and prosecuting. therefore, i think it's

important. and, again, i don't think it's that intrusive to swab someone's mouth. you can get a court order for that. here they're bypassing that step. if it's going to result in the right person getting arrested and prosecuted, that's more important. >> i guess the worry is if it's not the right person, that's the scary part. >> right, go get a court order. >> hopefully the dna will separate and let the right person go. that's the point. that's the whole point behind it. but people are afraid, they don't want to have their fingerprints in date banks or dna in data banks. that's the theory behind that. >> absolutely. what do you think, avery? punctuation, done. avery, thanks so much. richard -- >> fabio was about 5'6". reynolds is our man. he's got nothing to worry about.

maybe some hair extensions but reynolds is the guy. >> and maybe the hair fan, would that work, having the hair flowing and all that? >> definitely. reynolds is our man. >> avery, richard, thanks so much, gentlemen. always good to see you. see you next weekend. >> have a good weekend, fred. margaret cho is a fascinating person. she's a comedienne, an actress and activist. and cho tells how growing up she thought that she could do anything because her family told her she was white. >> in their mind, i was white. i was fully american. and so i should be into it told all sorts of things. >> the rest of her explanation is actually really interesting and actually very funny. wait until you hear her comparison to cindy brady of "the brady bunch." face to face with margaret cho straight ahead. orgot jack's cer. [ jack ] what's for breakfast? um... try the number one!

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here's margaret cho face to face. >> well, i think for me, i have to create my own work. for a minority in entertainment, you need to create a space for yourself because previously there's none available. for me, it's all been about writing and creating that thing -- whatever that is. if it's comedy or making a movie or even making music, it's all something that i generate myself. >> i'm really into complimenting myself and i think you should do the same because i can see you and you are gorgeous, all of you are beautiful. we've got to compliment ourselves because we get enough [ bleep ] in the world. i did this radio show and the deejay asked me, what if you woke up tomorrow and you were beautiful?

it's only really recently that i started to get jobs like in more of a traditional way, like an acting job or something. but mostly it's something i have to generate myself. >> when you embarked on this career, you knew at a very early age in your teenage years that you wanted to be a comedienne. >> yes. >> your dad very funny, writing korean jokebooks. >> yes. and he's also a writer anyway. so he introduced me to kind of a creative life that you really enjoy writing and that you enjoy that -- it's a very fulfilling part of the existence -- of human existence. >> and your mom clearly a very head-strong woman. she was somebody who said, you know what, i'm not into this arranged marriage thing. and she defied that at a time

that some folks might find as crazy. >> my mother is so funny. she was kind of a groupie in her own way. my father was a musician. and she would go and sing with him. it was very romantic where she was going to marry somebody very rich and she just said, now i want to be with my piano player. so she ran off with my dad. then they came to america. they really saw so much racism and so much strife coming here in the early '60s as asian americans. they suffered for it a lot. >> in what way did they help prepare you for a journey and you already mentioned it being a minority in the world of comedy, which is generally dominated by white men. how did you muster the courage, the guts, the wherewithal to

say, i'm breaking through this and i'm going to create my own path? >> part of it has to do with, i think, when i was really little, my father was deported. so he had to leave the country for three years. and this is right when i was -- until i was about 3 years old. so i was so traumatized by that as a child and a very young child. my whole family was traumatized. so they really made an effort, because i'm the only member of my family who have been born in america -- my mother would always push me forward and say, she's white! i spent my whole childhood thinking i was white. so that gave me the confidence to do a lot of stuff. >> so psychologically, that really did give you an armor. >> yeah, because i'm white. they just were like -- in their mind, i was white, i was fully american. so i should be entitled to all sorts of things. and so i think because of that,

i had that in my mind and it helped me. >> so was there a point where there was this epiphany -- >> when i realized i wasn't white? >> you said it. >> i think when i was a little bit older, i was watching "the brady bunch." and that was such an -- that iconic family in all of our minds as kids and i saw cindy brady's braids and i kept wondering why my hair wasn't like that because she was a little girl and i was a little girl. and it dawned on me, it's because i'm not white. and i was so angry. >> you were? >> i was -- i remember having these crazy racial rage -- at like 9 or something. you get over it but it was a strange realization. >> duz did it become a conversation with your mom? were you grappling with it internally? what did you do with that rage? >> yeah, it was this weird thing

where it was something they couldn't explain. they couldn't really explain racial differences because they didn't understand it themselves. they didn't understand what class differences meant or how to explain them to me. so it was really where they were really at a loss, my family didn't know how to prepare me for that. the announcer said, hey, margaret, we're changing over to an abc affiliate. so why don't you tell our viewers in your native language we're making that transition. so i looked at the camera and i said, they're changing to an abc affiliate. >> but then you have this incredible confidence and people see it on the stage. >> i fired my manager after that.

he said some amazing [ bleep ] to me. he said one time, he goes, you know what, margaret? i think the asian thing puts people off. >> you are self-deprecating, you do make fun culturally of a lot of things and then you do this hilarious impersonation of your mom. and i wonder, how did your mom embrace that? >> my mother kind of flipped out a little bit. she still talks about it. she calls me and leaves me these messages on my machine. [ laughter ]

are you gay? well i think when you're an immigrant that the most simple thing to do is kind of make fun of your background, in order to separate yourself from it. and to sort of prove that you're not that. i mean, for asian american kids, i think it's a very common thing to make fun of your family and make fun of their accents because it's something you don't have. so you kind of -- you're like, i'm better than that. and so you make fun of them. and that's where that comes from. that's where my comedy comes from, that immigrant struggle. >> does that become difficult, too? >> i don't think so. to me, it's just a natural way of my sense of humor developed and it came out of this feeling

of being disenfranchised with my upbringing and my culture. >> face to face, margaret cho is on the stage, the screen, the television. coming up in the 2:00 eastern hour, she talks about her experience on "dancing with the stars" and the ongoing presence of bristol and sarah palin. >> they're like the alaska kardashians. they're a weird hybrid of entertainment and politics. not so much politics anymore. i would say it's much more entertainment. >> face to face with margaret cho in the "cnn newsroom" in the 2:00 eastern hour. ♪ i'm your fire ...needs protection. introducing venus proskin with moisture rich shave gel bars enhanced with a triple blend of body butters that create a layer of protection for your skin with every close stroke. leaving your skin beautifully smooth. and your goddess just beautiful. ♪ well, i'm your venus

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a look at our top stories right now. it's a working weekend for members of congress as they try to hammer out a compromise to raise the nation's debt ceiling. right now, the house is considering a proposal by senator majority leader harry reid. the senate will take it up next. and president obama is also spending lots of time on the phone trying to get both parties to broker a deal. american student amanda knox is back in an italian appeals court today where a battle of dna evidence is going on.

the two court-appointed experts say crucial pieces of evidence in her 2009 trial were mishandled. but today, a police forensic examiner denied that. knox is serving 26 years in prison for the murder of her british roommate, meredith kerch kercher. another royal wedding in the uk, but this one without all the pomp and circumstance. queen elizabeth's oldest granddaughter, zara phillips married soccer player tindall. prince william and catherine did aid tend. but unlike their event, today's event was relatively low key. documents related to possible phone hacking or bribery of public officials. news corp. has been bogged down in the scandal in great britain. cnn obtained a cop