that's christine o'donnell tomorrow night. that's it for us. "anderson cooper 360" starts right now good evening, everyone. 10:00 p.m. here on the east coast. tonight horrifying new video out of syria. unarmed people raising nothing more than their voices in anger being met not just with police batons and small arms fire but with explosions and heavy gunfire. [ crowd noise ] >> the video claims to be from the syrian city of hams. we also have the most disturbing video yet out of syria, a 2-year-old child shot to death by government forces say human rights activists. we're going to show you the video coming up because it cuts through all the syrian government lies. it shows you what brutality and repression looks like up close. keeping them honest, tough questions for president obama about how well he has been delivering on the promise to put americans back to work. he's on a three-day, three-state bus tour talking jobs at every

stop. promising a major new jobs initiative next month. in fact he and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been talking about jobs for a long time now. >> american peems's top priority is the creation of jobs. >> create jobs. >> create jobs. >> job creation. >> focus on jobs. >> new jobs. >> jobs. >> jobs. >> jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs. >> jobs. talking about jobs. >> are talking about jobs. >> and now it's time to talk about jobs. >> well, they're all talking about jobs. the president included. the question is, what are they actually doing about it? this afternoon cnn's wolf blitzer spoke with mr. obama. he asked him why wait until september? he pointed to initiatives already pending before congress. then he asked if the president may be planning something much bigger. >> there's been reports you want to create a new department of jobs, something along those lines. is that true? >> you know, that is not true.

but what is true is that i think we missed an opportunity a month ago when we could have dealt with our debt and deficit in a serious, balanced way that would have avoided these huge gyrations in the financial markets, given businesses a lot of confidence that washington had its fiscal house in order, and included in that, because of the savings that we'd be getting over the next 10, 20 years, more efforts on the front end to spur job creation. >> but dealing with the debt at least short term does not really create jobs. economists in the left and right both agree on that. another white house initiatives such as extending jobless benefits and payroll tax cuts are being blocked especially in the gop house. as for what the house republicans are doing, here is a printout of all the legislation they have passed so far this year. 214 items which seems like a lot. but in fact is the least productive house session on record. there are bills cutting the budget, abolishing healthcare reform, defunding the e. pechld

a. and gutting the new consumer credit watchdog agency. house republicans say such cuts and deregulation will create jobs. but none of the maej legislation has made us through the democrat-controlled senate. meantime congress is on vacation and the president is on the road. paul begala and ari fleischer, welcome. paul welcome to the world of twitter. >> it's only a matter of time before i use it to end my career. >> just don't send pictures. >> first off the white house says the president's bus trip to discuss jobs in key states no less is not a campaign trip. we all know that presidents do this. but still, i mean, it's campaigning, isn't it? >> well, it's both. you can't separate the two. this whole notion that somehow we should separate politics from governing, it would be like trying to separate mathematics from physics. politics is the language through which a democracy operates. so i celebrate both. i'm glad the president is out of washington. i'm glad he's out there talking

to real folks. and i am praying that what he told wolf today sort of hinting at a major new jobs package is exactly what he's going to come with. it's what the country needs. >> ari, when it comes to creating jobs, can the president really do all that? can't the president only do so much especially with a divided congress, a congress not likely to approve any additional stimulus funding? >> >> anderson, even with a unified congress the role of the washington government is to create an environment in wit private sector can grow and create jobs. i frankly don't think there's a whole lot presidents of either party can do directly to create jobs other than get a national climate in which the private sector does the employing. i suspect for barack obama these numbers are baked into his cake. and it really doesn't matter what he does at this point. we're going to be a nation that has excessively high unemployment for the first four years and maybe the only four years of barack obama if the business cycle happens to turn it's going to benefit whoever comes in place whether it's obama getting re-elected or the republican taking his seat. i think that is what we're really looking at. because nothing is going to

change the job picture substantially between now and elections day in 2012. that's a real big headache for barack obama. >> paul, when you hear the president talking about some sort of big jobs initiative, what do you expect? what can he really do? >> well, an awful lot. i strongly disagree with mr. fleischer. there are a lot of things that a president can do. the president he served did a lot to kill off a lot of jobs. the president i served helped set in policies that created 23 million jobs. case in point under obama. his first year, he passed his recovery act, the so-called stimulus. republicans like to say it didn't work. so i went and looked. the congressional budget office, nonpartisan score keepers, say it created up to 4.8 million jobs. that's good. 4.8 million, maybe 1.7 million. somewhere in that vast range. that's good. but we need at least 15 million. so it was good and it was a good start but it was not enough. now flash forward to this year. basically the president has cooperated with the republican agenda, cutting taxes. he signed one of the biggest tax

cuts in american history in december. $858 billion extending those god-awful bush tax cuts. and then so cut taxes, a republican agenda and then cut spending, a republican agenda. the economic policy institute says that the debt reduction alone will cost us 1.8 million jobs because the contractionary fiscal effect. so we're losing jobs as we follow -- attempt to follow republican economic policies. i hope the president gets back to democrat economic policies. >> ari, you're shaking your head. >> yeah. here's the fundamental problem. when barack obama came into office, there were 11.9 million americans who were unemployed. today there are 13.9 million americans who are unemployed. and we have trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see and significant because of the obama spending. many people in the private sector will tell you that they're frozen. they're frozen because of the regulations that are in place and the fear of obama care as that kicks in has people sitting on what they have because they're so uncertain about the

economic climate. presidents can make things a lot worse. and i think that's what's happened here during the obama presidency. and it's why you have an unemployment rate that is refusing to go down and it's a result in significant part of this uncertainty in the private sector. but the stimulus was a failure. the president promised us that if it was enacted, we spent almost $1 trillion of taxpayer money on it to create mostly government jobs that unemployment rate would not exceed 8%. it went above 10%. and now it is of course at 9.1%. this is the longest period since the depression where you have had this many americans be out of work for such a long period of time. something about the president's policies are not working. and that's nothing he's doing is going to change that unless he decide toss go for another stimulus and put more people on the government payroll. sure, that can create temporary jobs at an astronomical price. >> paul, i want to play another clip from wolf's interview with the president today. >> when you took office, you

said this and i'm sure you remember. >> if i don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition. >> you remember that? >> well, here's what i remember is that when i came into office, i knew i was going to have a big mess to clean up. and frankly, the mess has been bigger than i think a lot of people anticipated at the time. we have made steady progress on these fronts, but we're not making progress fast enough. and what i continue to believe is that ultimately the buck stops with me. i'm going to be accountable. but ultimately they say, look, he's the president. we think he has good intentions. but we're impatient. and we want to see things move fast. >> it's amazing, paul, first of all how younger he looks even just two years ago. but if unemployment is still at this level next november, can obama win? >> he can. but no one ever has. not since f.d.r. franklin roosevelt won with considerable higher but you have to go back to considerably before i was born to find that. he's going to have a terrible problem if he can't move needle on johns. i think he was essentially saying that to wolf.

i thought that was a very deft answer. he said it's my responsibility but i did enhater a big mess. he wasn't finger pointing but he didn't accept the blame for policies he didn't create. i think he needs the third step. he's hinted that at wolf. which is now i want the congress to pass my jobs package. why won't the congress pass my jobs package? if he can spend the next year and a half either signing into law new job-creating measures like he is proposing and i'm told from wolf's interview that he will propose or just campaigning against the do nothing republican congress who doesn't want to fight for jobs for the middle class, then i think he's got a good chance to be re-elected. >> paul, ari, got to leave it there. let us know what you think. thank you both gentlemen. we're on facebook. you can follow me @ anderson at twitter. we'll talk about what the president could do and isn't do on jobs more tonight on that scene ones streets in syria a peaceful protest torn apart by

explosions, machine gunfire. we've got the latest on that. we'll show you the regime's youngest victim, including one just two years old. the video you're going to see coming up is the worst that i have seen. first let's check in with isha sesay. >> just ahead tonight, part two of our special report "un-godly discipline". investigation of a controversial book on child discipline found at the home of a 7-year-old who was beaten to death. 360's gary tuchman talked to the authors. >> rubbing the spaghetti all over your head, you shouldn't have done that at seven years of age. >> okay. >> and that hurts and i'm 50. >> leave any marks on you? >> no. but you would hit a 5-year-old like that? >> yeah, sure. [ waves crashing ]

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oh, and there's a smile. break news tonight, president obama sitting down wir witwithp witwith c the buck stops herrthe buck sp he'll be held accountable. p >> >> as you keep sayinge are some in congress and you

don't say who --. >> who do you mean by that? >> well, look, i think there is no doubt that the deal that i put forward to speaker boehner, which a lot of people in my party attacked me for because they thought that we were going too far, we were being too generous in terms of trying to compromise, the fact that they couldn't accept a deal in which you had significantly more cuts than revenue that would have done substantially more to close our deficit than the deal that ultimately we arrived at, the fact that speaker boehner and folks in his caucus couldn't say yes to that tells me that they're more interested in the politics of it than they are in solving the problem. and i think to his credit i think speaker boehner tried. i think he wanted. to but i think he had problems with members of his caucus that thought that somehow cooperation with this white house would help

us politically as opposed to thinking, what's going to -- what's it going to take to help the country as a whole. >> wolf blitzer joins us now along with chief white house correspondent jessica yellin and senior political analyst david gergen. i've been talking to a couple of folks who have donated a lot of money to the president and been a big supporter of him. and recently have been surprised at how -- what they said is how depressed he seems or how down he seems. how did he seem to you? >> he didn't seem depressed or down with me. he seemed to be finding his groove a little bit. he's obviously got a long way to go. and he's not in the midst of a campaign right now. he's being hit hard by rick perry, mitt romney, all the other republican candidates. he's being hit hard by all the tea party supporters. a lot of republicans in congress. from the left he's being hit hard by some democrats and liberals who are disappointed in his job performance. but he seemed okay. he seemed pretty lively.

the only time i saw him get emotional at all was when i asked him what the worst part of his job. he got emotional speaking about when he comforts family members who have lost loved ones fighting for the united states in iraq and afghanistan. but i didn't get any sense that he was depressed or anything like that. >> david, here's what president obama said when asked by wolf about why it's taken so long on some of these initiatives. >> what's happened is that number one, you've seen a lot of layoffs at state and local government. and that has been an impediment to the kind of robust job growth that we'd like to see. and there have been some headwinds over the last six months. japan's tsunami, the european debt crisis, what happened in terms of the arab spring that raised gas prices for consumes. >> do you think, david, those are legitimate explanations? >> reporter: i think they're legitimate explanations. but as with other presidents it's only part of the story. and he's going to tell his part of the story that helps his case. others will say, but look, you

should have done a lot more and what you did didn't work very well since the stimulus program that ari fleischer was just arguing. but on the delay, anderson, i think this is the critical point. i give credit to the president tonight saying i am going to put forward a plan on the deficit. we've all been waiting for that. good for him he's going to put it forward. but on jobs, to put forward a plan in september and then go out and hit to push for it means we're not likely to get a bill anytime this year. it could easily pass in the next year. i think most americans would like to see the president sit down tomorrow, bring the republican and democratic leaders in from the congress and sit down and see what they can work out and get something done in september 1 instead of waiting for some grand plan that's going to go through the wringer over the next several months. >> jessica, to that point, he's out there on a tour talking about jobs. why isn't he unveiling his major job proposal right now? >> reporter: well, first it's not done. but i talked to his advisors, anderson. they see no advantage in unveiling a jobs package in the dead of august when congress is

out of session. they believe it will get lost. and the thinking is, wait until congress is back, release it in september. when he'll come out with both a jobs package and this proposal for that congressional super committee that's going to work on spending and maybe taxes. and as david says, he'll hit selling it to the american people. it's the media they'd argue that are sort of hyper ventilating for action given that congress is somewhat unlikely to pass it any way why does it have to come at this moment? the president's job approval numbers are down right now. his advisers believe from experience that his numbers fall when he is locked in negotiations in combat with congress. so when he goes out and hits the hustings, it's their hope they'll rise. you're going to hear him fight and attack congress which is now code for him for republicans who are blocking his agenda and accuse them of not doing more. >> david, i see you're shaking your head. >> reporter: well, everything she said i think is absolutely right. it's just i don't know how that

really fits with what americans are saying, that is we need help now. you know, we're really hurting. we're really frustrated. this economy could be floating into a second recession. we do not know that yet. but there's a lot of fear and anxiety out there. and just because people can go out and campaign, it may be liberating, it may be fun, but it doesn't solve the problem. i think people are looking for action now, not four or five, six months from now. >> wolf, how much of the president say was president obama and how much was candidate obama out there? >> they were both out here. yesterday i watched him all day yesterday. today as well. this campaign has started its full speed. look, there's always a campaign whenever you're president. it's almost every single day you're thinking about it's the first term you're thinking about getting re-elected. but this week i think marks a turning point. sometimes it starts after labor day or whatever. certainly for the republicans they're at full bore right now. are going ahead with their choice for the republican presidential nominee. but i think for this president, he was out there and while he

was talking substantive policy issues he was certainly campaigning. he needs these states here in the midwest. he needs minnesota. he needs iowa. certainly he needs his home state of illinois where he's heading tomorrow. he doesn't carry these states, he's going to be in big trouble in his re-elections bid. so he's campaigning. let there be no doubt about that. >> jessica, when wolf was kind of asking him about romney, about perry, he didn't go there. how important -- i mean at this point does the white house simply just want to stay above the fray? >> reporter: absolutely. there's no advantage for them to elevate either of these candidates, any of them. and why start a campaign in full force until there's an actual nominee? instead, what you're hearing the president do increasingly is take his attack to republicans broadly. and as i said a moment ago, he doesn't even say generally republicans, he'll say congress which is again shorthand for the republicans in congress who have been blocking the agenda, his agenda. but they have a clear strategy

over in campaignland for how they'll go after romney if he's the candidate. they're working on one for perry if he's the candidate. he needs to in their view stay above it all, stay presidential and focused on jobs and the economy which is what the american people want of their president right now. >> david, when do you think that changes? when does he start to enter the fray? >> reporter: oh, i think it's going to be -- when a republican candidate emerges i think jessica's right he's going to go more hammer and tong at that person. here's what's ironic. wolf just said what's exactly right. usually you see this start up in full campaign mode after labor day. absolutely right. wolf knows and jessica knows that that's usually labor day of election year. now we've got a full campaign mode on labor day of the year before! and i think when the country's hurting, i think a lot of americans would like to see less campaigning and more action in washington. >> yeah. no doubt about that. wolf, great interview. thanks for being with us. jessica as well and david

gergen, thank you no end to syria's crackdown. we're going to talk to a human rights activist who says the syrian people are no longer afraid of assad's violent government. we'll also show you a video just stunning. that's hard to say after four and five mochbts of brutality that we have witnessed. this is a little girl shot to death by security forces. we'll show you the video. because people have risked their lives to get this video out. also our 360 special investigation. a little girl beaten to death by her parents who believed the bible told them to punish her with belts and rods. where do they get that idea? well, a book was found in their home. our gary tuchman tracked down the author. >> i don't use the term hitting. >> what's the word? >> spanking. >> and is there a difference? >> absolutely. [ female announcer ] goodnight gluttony, a farewell long awaited. goodnight, stuffy. goodnight, outdated.

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there appears no end to the brutality of the syrian government's crackdown on its own citizens. at the top of the program we showed you a piece of video, protestors, fear les protestors who appear unarmed in the street last night demanding that president assad grant them freedom and human rights. this is how security forces responded. [ crowd noises ]

[ gunfire ] >> new information on whether protestors were killed or wounded. we were not allowed into syria. but we do know this bloody conflict has claimed another young life, a very young life this time. once again, the video of the victim has gotten out of syria. people have risked their lives for you to see this video. i do want to warn you it is extremely disturbing, es teamly disturbing to say the least. protesters report that over the last few days security forces have targeted the seaside city of latakia firing from both tarngs on the ground and gun ships off the coast. gun ships. they focus on one neighborhood that's been a hot bed of anti-government activity. government forces warned residents to leave the area. that's when one family, desperately trying to flee to safety, was apparently caught in the crossfire. human rights activists say the family's car was fired upon by government forces and that a

2 1/2-year-old girl was shot and killed. we can't independently confirm that claim or the video that we're about to show you. our reporters are not aloud inside syria as i said so we don't know whose bullet took this poor child's life. but we believe it's important for to us continue to show you the deadly violence that country. remember, a toddler did not fire a gun at anybody but now she is another victim. this is very graphic, but we think it's important for you to see the reality of what is happening in syria and people who have risked their lives just to show you this video. activists say the little girl was shot in her right eye. her lifeless little body lying on a sidewalk in latakia. one person on the tape can be heard calling president assad an evil man, a dog and a pig, two major insults in arabic. later the child wrapped in a white shroud, blood washed off her face, a large piece of cotton over her wounded eye. the syrian government has blamed all casualties on armed gangs, terrorists they keep saying. before we talk more about the

death of this child we want to show another video to you. a man lying in the street. the man who shot the video says they can't get to him because of sniper fire so they use a wire to pull him in. it is unclear if the man was unconscious or dead. again we can't independently confirm the details of this story. with but we have seen videos of this so many times before, dead or wounded protestors lying in the streets and people risking their lives to reclaim their bodies so they can be buried by their families, something the regime often tries to stop. now to the death of that child. a short time ago i spoke with a human rights activist. >> in the four or five months that this uprising has taken place, and of all the brutality and all the murders and all the killings that we have witnessed and that we have seen video of, i think this video of this little girl, two years old, shot dead in the streets of latakia, is perhaps the most disturbing of all the videos we've seen for its sheer simplicity and its

sheer brutality. do you have any information as to exactly what happened to this little girl? >> she es 2 1/2 years old. she was with her family. and the syrian army started shelling their neighborhood. the father took the family and tried to flee the area and take his family to a safe location. crossing on the checkpoint for the security forces and the death squads, they shot the girl on the eye. when the father stepped out of the car, trying to help his daughter, he was shot in his right shoulder. and he was kidnapped by the security forces. >> and i know i'm going to get e-mails and tweets from people who say we shouldn't show the video, and people who are no doubt going to turn the channel. and i understand that because it's incredibly disturbing.

but i think it's important to show these pictures. because people are being murdered in silence. and this has been going on for months and months and months. and yet, every night i'm just stunned by the bravery of people still willing to risk their lives, risk their family's lives, to come out on the street and stand with their heads high and stand and demand dignity, demand the freedom that we here all take for granted. >> from my end, anderson, i love the people here appreciate the fact that you are showing the videos. you are showing this video in particular. this little girl is not the only one. so far we're talking about 148 children that have been killed by the death squads and by the security forces. syria's worst nightmare, anderson, is not what you're showing but what we don't know about. it's what we haven't documented. it's what no one has filmed or was able to film. so whenever we have a video like

this, i think people are taking risks on their lives just to show what's being done to their community, to their families. and they deserve to be shown to the world. >> and it reminds me of what we saw happen to 13-year-old hamza several months ago who after being held in custody for weeks and weeks and his family had no word of of him, his body was returned to his family riddled, clearly tortured, according to all the people who examined the body, his penis had been cut off, his kneecaps shattered. it is stunning to me how this regime not only arrests children and tore churs children and shoots them dead in the street, but will return the bodies to families as a warning to those families and to others. they want people to see these mutilated corpses. >> i remember back in march when the uprising started and the first time i think we talked together, we talked about the

wall of fear, the high wall of fear that was in syria. that has collapsed. and the regime is using every tool, every way possible, no matter how brutal it is, no matter how inhumane it is, to try to build that wall of fear again in people. they do not spare children. they do not spare women. they do not spare old men old women. they do not spare anyone. they have a simple target. they want people to feel afraid again. and they want them to stop protesting. and they will -- they have used children. they will continue to use children. and they will do it until they feel that people are scared again. and this technique is not working. and people are not scared. >> and people are risking their lives to take these images and put them on the internet. i feel like the least we can do is show them.

wissam tarif, i appreciate you joining us. thank you still ahead a man who has written a book that claims the bible demands the parents discipline their kids with force. it's part two of our 360 investigation, "un-godly discipline". first isha sesay authorities in england are getting tough about the rioting last week. violence erupted in london and other cities. police say two young men in northwest england posted facebook messages calling for riots in their town. the court has sentenced them to four years in jail. russell armstrong the estranged husband of taylor armstrong, one of the real housewives of beverly hills, has apparently committed suicide. that word from los angeles police. russell armstrong's lawyer says his client suffered from depression. the couple were divorcing. and here's a strange story. authorities in kentucky say this man, a paul douglas peters, is wanted in his native australia for allegedly tying a fake bomb around the neck of a young woman as a way to ex tort money from her family.

he then flew to the u.s. where he was tracked down and arrested. and sorry to all you friendly and good-hearted guys in the office. you earn less money than your crankier colleagues. oh, yes. a new study shows that men who are stubborn and disagreeable around the water cooler earn bigger bucks. >> wait. does that mean that piers morgan is like making a lot of money? >> it means he's probably rolling in it. [ laughter ] >> he's not disagreeable around the water cooler. >> no. no. >> he does stand at the water cooler. >> he has the water brought to him. but i should also add that just in case people out there have decided tomorrow they want to go in and be an schmuck, there's no guarantee it's going to work for you. so if you get fired you're not coming to live with me. >> i'm glad you put that disclaimer out there. time for the shot tonight. it actually remind me a little bit of, well, family reunifor ones i've been to. who doesn't mike a fierce monster truck rally.

we found this on youtube. the guy on the right definitely needs a new truck. yeah. >> that's just a typical day on the moore family farm there. >> i'm going with he needs a new life, not just a new truck. >> i think that's purple mann actually right there. >> you know this how? >> i don't know. i'll send you the turtleman video. if you haven't seen turtleman go to youtube. coming up next serious stuff. family kids in foster care after their little sister was beaten to death by their parents. they say they're following the bible in how they punished her. going to introduce you to a couple who wrote a book that says god wants them to spank their kids to cause physical pain. >> i've never met any well-trained emotionally secure, happy, creative children that weren't.

>> five people dead and dozens hurt. a fair spokesman says it as a freakish act of god. engineers have also been called in to investigate. we'll have the latest coming up. . same great protection. . depend. good morning. great day.

crime and punishment tonight, part two of a 360 investigation of a parenting book that's controversial to say the least. a book that says god want parents to spank their children and the spapging should be hard enough to cause physical pain.

the book was found in the home of parents in california who were convicted of beating their 7-year-old daughter to death. the couple who wrote the book say they're in no way to blame. gary tuchman investigates. >> reporter: michael pearl is a competitive knife and tomahawk thrower. he never misses the target. but it's just a hobby. his life's work is preaching. he targets what some might call extreme discipline of children. >> i've never met any well-trained, emotionally secure, happy, creative children that weren't spanked. >> reporter: pearl is a minister of the gospel, a devout christian. he and his wife are best-selling authorses who have written. religiously themed books. but their most popular and most controversial is a book called "to train up a child" in which they write about the need to inflict physical pain. >> i don't use the term hitting. >> what's the word? >> spanking.

>> and is there a difference? >> absolutely. a hand is hitting. a little switch is spanking. a wooden spoon or spatula, rubber spatula, that's spanking. >> in the book, the pearls who live in rural tennessee, declare the rod is a gift from god. use it as the hand of god to train your children. they say, "any spanking to effectively reinforce instruction, must cause pain". this couple believed in the pearls. kevin and elizabeth shotz, parents of nine children read their book. as a matter of fact, the book was found in their house and put in an evidence bag after the california couple pummelled one of their daughters for hours. 7-year-old lydia shotz, adopted from liberia, died after suffering horrific injuries all over her body. mike ramsey is the district attorney in butte county, california. >> what we're talking about was and as we charged torture. torture over hours. >> reporter: this past spring, the shotz's pleaded guilty to

the killing of their daughter lydia and seriously injuring her older sister zoria. these are photos of some of the sister's wounds. the marks left by the rods. many of the images too gruesome to show. the shotz said they also regularly beat their other children. we're covering the faces of the survivors to protect their privacy. >> the book was there. it was underlined, underscored. >> reporter: no question in your mind that this book by the pearls influenced the shotz's to beat, brutalize and terrorize their children? >> none at all. >> reporter: no question? >> no question. >> reporter: but the pearls feel differently, saying their book rejects parents losing control and acting out of anger. >> reporter: you're not accepting any blame. >> absolutely not. >> reporter: how scared were you that there would be blame pointed at you? >> i don't think we were scared at all. there's never been a discussion to anyone that someone's lost control because of what they read in our book. >> reporter: the district attorney clearly disagrees and puts blame on the pearls for the

tragedy. but he acknowledges that's about as far as he can go. >> reporter: was there ever any consideration at exploring legal charges against the pearls? >> not really. because they have a first amendment right to say awful things. >> reporter: the pearls say they feel badly for the girl who died, but are unapologetic. they're not shy about using props and humor. ♪ i'm going to spank the cnn man ♪ >> to show how they believe god wants parents to spank. >> rubbing the spaghetti all over your head. you shouldn't have done that at seven years of age. >> okay. >> and that hurts. and i'm 50. >> okay. >> leave any marks on you? >> no. there's no marks. but you would hit a 5-year-old like that? >> yeah, sure. >> reporter: the pearls say you can never be too young for some physical pain. for example, when a baby bites during breastfeeding. >> i would gently pull their

hair, very gently. it's enough to make them let go. >> reporter: the spankings with various objects, say the pearls, are actually done out of love. the pearls appear to be staying prolific with their writings and preachings. they say they are now simultaneously writing four new books. there is no indication that any controversy slows them down. and why should it, say pearls. they say it worked for their children. and most importantly, this is what god wants. >> we don't punish our children. but we sometimes need to get their attention. >> reporter: the eight surviving shotz children are now all in foster homes. they and their sister lydia certainly got our attention. >> gary, how popular is the pearls' book? >> reporter: the pearls are very influential in fundamentalist circumstance else. over the last 17 years since their book's been out, it's sold more than 650,000 copies around the world. so you know they have a lot of influence. what's really important to note, though, anderson, is neither of the pearls have any educational

background in child development. they say this is just biblical common sense. >> do they have children of their own? and were those kids raised using what they call the spanking to cause pain method? >> reporter: they have five children, 19 grandchildren. they say all five of their children were raised this way. they say they're all good kids. as a matter of fact, the five children work for the parents. but i can tell you, every day in the united states you have children entering emergency rooms because they've been pummelled by their parents. it's impossible to know how many are pummelled in the name of religion, but we do know that's what happened to lydia. >> it's just a shocking and disturbing story. gary, appreciate you bringing it to life. thanks come u in the program, an engineering program has been hired to look into the cause of that deadly stage collapse at the indiana state fair, five people killed, 40 hurt. details on the investigation ahead. and something to make you smile, the ridiculist. believe it or not, there are people out there who are slamming a rap video made by a group of sorority girls in alabama. we're going to show you the video and why people are so wrong to criticize them.

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i am isha sesay. anderson will be back in a moment. first a 360 news and business bulletin. in libya rebel forces appear to be closing in on muammoment ca

fire's seat of power. just 30 miles from tripoli, a bloody battle is raging in lawir. these photographs show fighting there today. rebels say they seized most of that key city and hope to start advancing on tripoli by the end of august. a new york engineering firm has been hired to investigate the deadly stage collapse that killed five people and injured 40 others at the indiana state fair. state fair officials say they'll make the findings public. in los angeles, a $40 million rembrandt stolen from a luxury hotel has been found. it was apparently too hot for thieves to handle. so they left it in a church and someone tipped off authorities. abercrombie and fitch says they will offer a substantial amount of money to the cast members of "jersey shore" to stop wearing its merchandise. the clothing retailer says it's worried any association between its brand and the cast members could damage its image. in a statement, the company mentions mike the situation

sorrentino specifically and this massachusetts pizza parlor recently filled an order for 150 pies. pretty impressive. but another number is even more impressive. 1400. that's how many miles david shuller, the man who placed the order, drove to bring the pies home hechlt lives in mississippi but he carries a torch for his hometown pizza joint outside of boston. now back to anderson. >> so we mentioned turtleman earlier. and i didn't know, isha, that you had not actually seen turtleman on youtube. let's just show a little bit of it. >> let me hear this. >> got to do that little cry out there. where you catch another one. >> this is the man who -- he catches turtles. >> yeah. >> but i -- >> you can't understand that. >> i can't understand anything he's saying. >> i understand every single thing he's saying. >> i think he said he was quite

engine? >> you got to watch it on youtube. coming up, the ridiculist. a bunch of sorority ladies. a rap video. need we say more? day on the red hills of georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. i have a dream today! [ male announcer ] chevrolet is honored to celebrate the unveiling of the washington, d.c., martin luther king jr. memorial. take your seat at the table on august 28th. aflac! oh, i've just got major medical... major medical. ...but it helps pay the doctors.

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try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. time now for the ridiculist. tonight we're adding a group of people we're calling alabama slammers. they're the people who are slamming what i happen to think is a fantastic video featuring sorority girls from the university of alabama rapping. like a wicked case of

monosweeping through the phi house the video has gone viral and fast. i've maintained for years that nothing says rap music like white sorority girls. people have always argued with me for some reason about this. but now at least i am vindicated. >> yeah, yeah, we'll see what you push in seven days. what it be? >> what it be indeed? what it be? yo. they got mad street credit. yo. let's hear a bit more from the rough and tumble young ladies who put the hell in panhelenic -- >> it's rush week all because we want you to go greek. look at you now. look at you now. oh. can't wait for big day. >> scoff if you like, delta zeta haters. i'll tell you one thing, i don't want to be around when the east coast-west coast sorority rap war starts.

it will probably start with a barn dance but it's going to end in blood, sweat and tears. mostly tears, tears which will be comprised mostly of boone's farm. >> wait. hold up. hold up. hold up. remix! >> oh, snap! i have a feeling it's about to get deep, yo! >> 7:00 a.m. waking up in the morning. makeup fresh got to go outside, got to grab your heel, got to grab a meal. seeing everyone the time is going. ticking on and on everybody's rushing. got to get down to sorority. >> wait a minute. how did brunettes sneak in there? so remix is a take on rebekah black's friday. bold choice, ladies. these rappers are not afraid to show their edgier side. by now you've probably noticed this is all about rush week. you may be asking, panhelenic association, what is going to happen during the process? do the pledges really got to get down? fear not. it's all about to be explained. in other words, delta delta delta's going to help you help

you help you. >> rush week rush week got to get down on rush week. going greek, going greek, yeah. fun fun fun fun. looking forward to our big day. >> people are making all kinds of snarky comments on line about this video and all sororities in general. it's all stick to your keg parties this and eat a baked potato that. there's one thing i have to say to all the skeptics. i'll let chris crocker say it. >> leave betty alone! >> yes, i know he was talking about britney spears but i think it's totally appropriate. according to the latest gallup poll, 84% of sorority girls are in fact named britney. so leave them alone. those university of alabama sorority rappers are the fiercest, the toughest, the -- oh, wait. hang on this. just in from the kapp kappa kappa gamma house at the university of florida. ♪ we're living in a sorority