continues from destin to the pass in texas. and the movement, as i mentioned, is slow, and heavy drenching rain for the region. and the tract takes you all the way into tuesday and wednesday. we're watching for a threat for flooding, and that holds through the southeast. we will be in a flood watch from tonight until tuesday. t. j.? >> thank you very much. to our viewers. thank you for being with us this weekend and thank you to many who participated in our show sending in comments to things we're reporting on. right now, it's time to hand it over to candy skroely and state of the union. a jobless labor day for 14 million americans looking for work, and a million or so more who have given up the search.

today, who or what will move the u.s. economy out of its stall. we begin with tea party patron, jim demint, and then mr. hoffa. and we have homeland security chairman, joe lieberman. and all things political with peter baker of the new york times and mike duffy with "time" magazine. i am candy crowley, and this is "state of the union." the nation's capital and campaign trail will be a wash in jobs plans and presidential politics this year. the president's big unveil is on thursday, and republicans that want his job have ample opportunity to vie for it. dau mint holds twa in the tea party, and the tea party may

hold considerable sway in the republican party. senator, thank you so much for taking time. i wanted to start off talking about jobs. what you think has to be in a presidential jobs plan that you will hear about on thursday night and what cannot be in it. >> well, candy, i have spent the month of august visiting a lot of businesses, and manufacturing plants. i have been on shop floors. i have talked to a lot of the companies that create jobs in south carolina and across the country. what they want is less regulation. they just keep talking about the epa and fcc and all the different agencies and the national labor board that seems to be harassing companies, and they want to know what the health care cost and unemployment cost will be and they are afraid to hire people

because they are afraid of what the government will do to them. what the president is going to talk about thursday night i have heard is more of the same, and expending -- >> can i interrupt you quickly and ask you if you are opposed to extending unemployment benefits and opposed to expending the tax cut? >> i don't think they will create jobs. the president appears to be doing it -- frankly i am so tired of his speeches, it will be hard for me to watch. we need a plan in writing and he needs to send it to us and tell us what it will cost so congress and the american people can read it and businesses can read it, but without sending something in writing the president makes all of the grand gestures and it doesn't appear in any legtdtion and he will blame congress for not passing something he never sends over. it's clear what we need to do to

improve our economy, and we need to lower the risk in business and make sure there are ample reward for creating the risks. the president has it backwards. it's not a good formula. in the short-term things that he does the temporary things designed to create more consumption by giving people more to spend will not create jobs. it cost an employer, candy, about $65,000 to create a $40,000 a year job. if he creates a $5,000 a year tax credit, people are not going to hire for that reason. they may take the $5,000 tax credit if they were going to hire anyway. this is what we're hearing from the president but i hope he will do better than that. >> i don't want to argue economics with you because there are a lot of people out there with varying ideas, but as far as extending unemployment benefits, in your state alone there was over a 10%

unemployment rate right now, people who are hurting. so extending the long-term, and is that for 99 weeks of unemployment would no doubt help folks in your state, and there are study after studies showing that people on unemployment do spend that cash, and sometimes people who have a job and they get cash in their check will save it, but those who are unemployed spend it. spending money helps the businesses, and as the businesses earn more money they hire people. on a purely short of helping people basis, isn't extending unemployment something you would support? >> we have to have unemployment. but the longer you make it the more per verse incentives you create. i have spoke to some businesses who can't get employees back to work because they are getting unemployment and food stamps and they say call me when unemployment runs out. >> that can't be the bulk of

peop people who are unemployed -- you can't believe the bulk of people who are out of work prefer to stay on unemployment benefits? >> there are people that desperately need it and we need to make sure we have the safety net in place, and we have to realize there are a lot of people gaming the system right now and we need to do better than we have done with extending benefits, and there has to be incentives for people to get back to work and they have to phase out in a way we have not done it before. i am looking forward to see what the republican candidates are saying on monday about what to do with jobs and unemployment, but certainly we have to help those in need, but we have to realize every time we create a government program like this, people game the system like food stamps and other things, and we have to make sure the incentives move people back into the workforce rather than keep them

home. >> and as you know, we often refer to you as a tea party king maker and favorite, and you are on to the -- >> don't. >> certainly people are coming to your forum, a good many of them accepted your invitation because you are seen as somewhat of a power broker. i want to show you a poll from mid august that talks about whether people have a favorable or unfavorable view of the tea party. 57% of republicans have a favorable impression of the tea party, but independents, only 26% of independents have a favorable view of the tea party. so what would you rather have in a presidential candidate? do you want somebody who adheres to tea party values or an electable person? >> well, there is no "the tea

party." a lot of obama and a lot of the democrats and folks in the media have tried to speak of the tea party in derogatory terms and suggest that it's a small right-wing group, but over 70% of americans think we need to balance our budget and stop adding to the debt, and that's pretty much what the tea party is, thousands of small groups around the country who are concerned about the spending, the borrowing and the debt, and for everybody person that goes to a tea party rally, there are hundreds of people that share those concerns. so what the democrats are criticizing is legitimate genuine citizen actaism, which brought accountability to washington. that's what i want to be part of. >> why do you think 26% of independents have a favorable view of it? do you think it's just pr? >> yeah, they have been blamed for the downgrade and all of the other things and obstruction, which they have not had anything to do with. these are ak tifr citizens.

i have been to tea party rallies, candy, and they include a lot of democrats and libertarians and conservatives, and lot of independents. it's a case where you had the media putting down the tea party and then a pollster coming in and saying what do you think of them? but if you ask what do you think of citizen activism, you will find 70% of americans agree with reducing the debt. it's not so much the label "tea party," it's just getting citizens active. that's what i am trying to listen to and that's the voice i am trying to take to washington. i am not a head of the tea party. there's no head of the tea party. the good thing about the tea party, there is no head of it. there are thousands of leaders that become active as citizens. as americans understand more about that, that's something they really appreciate. >> you have kept your powder dry, as they say, when it comes

to selecting somebody that you think will be your choice for the presidential nominee from the republican party. i understand you want to hear from them and all of that, but what i want to know is when you look at the slate of republicans who are in there now, is there anyone you could not support should they win the nomination? >> well, candy i appreciate cnn televising the forum we are doing on monday. this is a chance for the candidates to define themselves in their own terms. we picked the candidates that are over 5% of the poll so we narrowed the field a little. there is no one in the group that i could not support as a nominee, and nobody that could not do a better job than the current president. i want to find the candidates that understands the principles of american exceptionalism. >> thank you for your time.

>> thank you, candy. when we come back, what organized labor wants to hear from president obama about jobs. teamsters president, jim hoffa, is here next. lling away misperceptions about energy independence. did you know that today about a quarter of all new transit buses use clean, american natural gas? we have more natural gas than saudi arabia has oil. so how come we're not using it even more? start a conversation about using more natural gas vehicles in your community.

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♪ [ resumes ] [ man announcing ] we are insurance. ♪ we are farmers bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ here to talk about what unions want for the economy and from president obama, jim hoffa, president of the international brotherhood of teamsters, more than 1.4 million members, i think i have that right. you will see him tomorrow on the traditional labor day detroit event. what you have told him you want to see in a jobs bill? >> we want a bold plan. labor wants a bold program -- >> does that mean something expensive? usually when somebody says i want a bold plan, it's something that takes a lot of money. >> well, we're still at 9% unemployment, and it's not working. look what happened with irene. we have to rebuild the roads and

dams and highways, and our schools, and we need a wpa type of program. what he has to do is challenge business. this is -- you know, labor needs everybody to be in the game. what is happening is everybody is saying what is obama going to do? what obligation does american business have? they are sitting on trillions of dollars right now and not spending money. we have lost 8 million jobs since '08, and we have to challenge them to get into the game. another faction of what he needs to be doing is put in a tax incentive to spend money and get off the sidelines and into the game and start to spend the money here in america and put america back to work. it can't be done by the federal government and it has to be done by all of us, and they have to put aside labels like republican and democrat. they have to spend money here and instead of building the next factory in mexico, build it

here. >> i want to talk about trade, because the president wants free trade deals which i know you are opposed to. what you are talking about is a tax credit for businesses for every person they hire. senator jim demint said if they are going to hire somebody anyway, they will take the 5,000, but it won't induce people to hire, because it scares them what health care will cost them and what they fear is regulation, how much bureaucracy will have to be built in and how much that will cost. do you accept that as a premise? do you think businesses are sitting on money and waiting for what? >> i think businesses are sitting on money -- look at apple. they have $76 billion in their checking account. >> they are allowed to have that. >> and they are not doing with it. instead of investing here everything they do is in china. look at honda. they are building $1 billion

plan the. and they want to build it in mexico. don't they have an obligation to build it in america and put people to work here instead of in mexico. that's what i believe. i think the president should challenge the patriotism of the american corporations sitting on the sidelines saying why do we have high unemployment and i am not going to hire anybody. they have an obligation just like the federal government and obama. we have to all get into the game. i don't see that happening. the trillions and billions that they have on the sidelines, general electric has trillions overseas, and let's start a program to get america going again. the problem in america is not that we don't have enough money. we have more money than any other country in the world but the problem is american businesses are not spending it and getting it in the game. that's how we will get america going here again. >> i hear tweets across the universe here.

i want to go back. are you questioning the patriotism of apple? >> yes, i am. what is it with a company -- they sell most of their products here in the united states. you have apple stores everywhere else. they are sitting on that kind of money and every time they do something they do it in china or somewhere else. there's something wrong with that. >> the high cost of labor and health care and the high cost of environmental, you know, drove them out of the country. >> i don't believe that at all. we have a lot of companies that make a lot of money like ups, and a great number of companies functioning that are union, and they are doing very, very well. can you do it here. the answer is you have to have the incentives. all the companies like mr. coffee, they move to mexico, and they are unpatriotic. we need to say we're an american company and let's put america

back to work. >> and perhaps aflcio would not be focused on the presidential election but really on 24/7 help for its members. are you happy with president obama pushing for at least three free trade agreements, which you oppose, are you happy enough for him to fully invest in his re-election. >> we will have to. president obama, there are a number of things that we don't agree with, but overall he has done a great job. he took over the worst economy in 80 years when he took over in '09. we had the crash of '08, and he will have a difficult time turning around. when the alternatives are

michele bachmann and sarah palin, and rick perry, it takes it an easy decision. those people are anti-union and anti-worker. they don't believe in what i believe in. i don't think that we have a choice here. if you hear what they talk about, they talk about basically, you know, no taxes on business, and cutting unemployment, and getting rid of social security, medicare, medicaid, when you cut through all of the rhetoric, that's where you end up. that's not the american -- what america wants and that's not what the teamsters want. >> if you ask a tea party member, most of them, what they stand for, they would say smaller government and lower taxes and less federal spending and less regulation. do you think that there are no members of the teamsters or of unions in general that believe in that? is that such a hoerid -- >> i think when you explain it to them -- i will not say there are some republicans in the teamsters, obviously there are,

and it's a big union and a lot of ideas in the teamsters union, but when you cut through it all and say do you want your social security, if you put it on that basis, they understand those are the things i worked for and those are the things i need and that's what i expect of america. when you do it that way and cut through the idea, the rhetoric that they have, the tea party does, then people realize what is at stake here. you see what they have done in wisconsin and ohio, and they go after clekive bargaining for workers. that's the first thing they do. they have tax cuts for the corporations, both in wisconsin and in ohio, and that's the first thing they do. so you kind of see where they are going. when you explain that to people to say that's where they are at and that's where we're at, most people will go with obama. >> thank you so much for coming by. >> great to be here. up next, grading america's safety ten years after 9/11. "hey wrinkle face!"

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the heads of the 9/11 commission say the country is safer now than ten years ago before the attack, but nine of the recommendations made by the commission in 2004 remain unfulfilled leaving gaping holes in homeland security. the list includes an inability to reliably detect explosives hidden on airline passengers and the failure to implement a nationwide broadband communication, and the failure to implement federal benchmarks for birth certificates and driver's license. up next, we will talk to call 1-800-sandals. conditions apply.

with the tenth anniversary of 9/11 one week away, we wanted to get a report kaurld on national security. joining me is chairman joe lieberman, and house intelligence committeeman mike rogers. thank you for being here. it's a bit of a scary anniversary, but what i wanted to ask you first, we hear no specific credible threats. do you both feel reasonably sure that we are safe on this -- particularly in new york and washington on this anniversary. >> i believe we are safer, but there are still plenty of folks that get up every single morning with the sole intention of planning, conducting and financing an operation against the united states. i do believe with all the action taken over the last ten years,

we're safer. >> i agree. part of the anniversary is to look back, and i think if you look back the american people and the american government have a lot to feel proud about. we really transformed ourselves to meet the new threat of islamic terrorism. i don't think anybody on september 12, 2001, would have predicted in the following ten years there would not be another major terrorists attack on the homeland, and there has not been. the enemy has secured no major gains in their worldwide effort to attack us, and they are still out there and we're still in a war, and tragically it will go on for a while but we are safer and stronger than ten years ago. >> having said that two chairman of the 911 commission issued a report card and said here are our recommendations we put out in 2004, and here is where we are falling short.

remarkably to me one of them is there is not a reliable mechanism for detecting bombs aboard airline passengers. we had the entire discussion about how you could see everything in these new machines, and now according to the report, they are not that reliable for detecting bombs. how is that possible? >> well, i am not exact lawyer sure of everything they looked at. the enemy gets up every day and takes a look at our security changes and adapts, and that's what makes al qaeda dangerous. and they want to reengineer ways that they can get bombs on aircraft. and that's -- it's a dynamic process. i don't think you will see one solution at the tsa station that will do it. it's going to be a combination of things that get us to a safer place and allow you to get on the airplane with some sense of relief. >> and another thing, senator, i found jaw-dropping, is ten years

after 9/11, police and firemen, emergency rescue workers during an emergency cannot talk to one another because the broadband wid has not been approved. governor cain said people died in katrina, because the policemen saw the twin towers wavering, and they could not tell the firemen inside to get out, and i think most people would find that inexecutionable. >> i agree. those are realities that you just described. the truth is, the ability of first responders to talk to each other is better than ten years

ago. we have spent millions making that possible. and we want to give them the so-called d-block spectrum, so they can have the same ability to transmit, video, maps, etc. that most teenagers have on their cell phones. and until we do, we will not have learned a lesson. but i do want to say, hats off on tom cain who headed the 9/11 commission. congress adapted most of what they recommended. creation of the department of homeland security. we're safer because our government is better organized to meet the terrorists threat. but there is still work to be done and that's why the report this week is so important. >> were either of you disturbed when there was an earthquake in washington, d.c. and cell phone

service was unreliable? every time a major thing happens the first thing to do is your ability to make a phone call. >> that's always a challenge pn. >> should it be? >> you have to remember, the burden we put on the systems today is exspa deny shawly charger than ten years ago. it didn't go out for long, and the emergency communication network, the folks that had the absolute top priority to communicate could communicate, and that's the most important sector where you ought to focus, and then we need to get the civilian side of the communication network up-to-date so when this particular thing happens, if it's a hurricane or natural disaster or a man-made event, you don't have service that goes out. up next, we will turn to the situations in syria and libya and the stakes for the u.s. [ male announcer ] members of the american postal workers union

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♪ there it is. [ man ] so i used mine to get a whole new perspective. ♪ [ male announcer ] the new citi thankyou premier card gives you more ways to earn points. what's your story? citi can help you write it. we're back with our guests. let me ask one final wrap-up 9/11 question, and that is al qaeda, we spent ten years

diminishing their capabilities. are they now less of a threat than the lone wolf than somebody that shares the ideology but hard to track because he's a crazy person on his own? >> it's a combination of both. they are down. we have heard them with the number two just getting taken out just recently. it had a tremendous impact on the organization, such an operational guy. it's a combination of both. those lone wolfs are part of their strategy to recruit in places like western europe and the united states. even though they may act independent of a structured operation, they are still part of al qaeda's mission statements and organizational operation if that makes sense. >> i agree with mike. we definitely weakened al qaeda. they have not achieved any of their major goals and bin laden has been killed. the war we face on terrorism, it's not a particular group in

al qaeda, it's an ideology of islamist extremely, and it's not islam but a group that perverted a religion. it appears in a lot of different places and sometimes through lone wolfs here, and unfortunately this particular war will go on for a while. >> let's go to libya. gadhafi is gone but still there. he's not in power but someplace in libya, everybody believes. let me ask you, what is best for the libyan people as honestly as you can answer this, would it be better if he was captured and died or better if he ran into some people that killed him? >> that's clearly up to the libyan people. the most important phase of this, i believe, is now is the where is the waldo event of trying to find moammar gadhafi. but the next several weeks, two,

three, four weeks, it's important for their establishment of government and avoid a insurgents. their ability to get resources in the short term, their own resources, and engaged in government development so they can take control and show the libyans they can govern, and not to make the same kind of mistakes in iraq about dismissing all of their military and their intelligence appear rattious. they need to co-op some of that in the next few weeks. if a combination of all of those things happened, it's probably of little consequence which route or which thing happens to moammar gadhafi. >> and i spoke to a person in the intelligence community who said i am not that worried of the mustard gas because there is not that such ever much of a

sign that he could deliver the gas himself, and what worried him is the shoulder missiles, and if one gets one of them it could bring down an airline. are you tracking that in any way? >> we're working with the new government of libya, which is western oriented. they are nationalistic, but they are grateful to nato, because they know without nato, including the u.s., they would not have overthrown gadhafi. they were the boots on the ground but we were their allies and supporters. we're working with them to secure the mustard gas and the mu nigss that i worry would fall otherwise in the hands of the enemy of the u.s., including terrorists. it's important to say one of the bonuses, believe it or not, of the iraq war, gadhafi got scared he would be next and he came in

from the cold, as it were, and agreed to get rid of a lot of highly enriched uranium and a lot of other weapons of mass destruction he had, and there's less for us to protect now than there would have been. >> my concern has been, and that's what is important in the next few weeks, what are we doing to secure those -- >> what are we doing? >> we have a unique capability in the united states. we have to shake out of the notion that nato is going to do it all or the tnc is going to do it all. >> we're not as involved as you would like us to be? >> we need to use our special capabilities that really only the united states has, to secure and account for those weapons and render them safe. we need to do itd now. i will tell you al qaeda and other terrorists organizations identified by the state are interested in getting their hands on the missile systems and other weapons, and stock pile prekerrers.

the race is on. this is a case we need to win. >> and the fact is, it's sort of chaotic there, and inside chaos you can grab a lot. >> the black market. i would say the new libyan government is moving to create stability. very important for us to get them get gadhafi, and then to encourage them to create a government that doesn't punish everybody that was on the other side, but creates unity. there are tough days ahead. but what they have done is a tremendous victory in getting rid of gadhafi. it's important throughout the arab world. >> senator joe lieberman, and mike rogers, thank you and happy labor day. next up, sarah palin sounded like a candidate in iowa yesterday, so is she in or out? we ask two veteran reporters next. [ male announcer ] this is the network.

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we are joined now by peter baker, white house correspondent for the new times, and mike duffy, a correspondent for "time." i want to ask you, is this going to be politics or bipartisanship? >> is there a difference? i think the idea is to look bipartisan while playing politics, of course. this is not the first time we have had a big job reboot by the president. he will have to make it sell a little better this time. >> that's a big forum to go up and not say much. >> i think we will see two pieces. there's a short-term speech he will give this week where he talks about extended tax cuts and other ways to get people to hire, and unemployment insurance, and i think they will come back in a week or so and do the long-term deficit reduction proposal, which, of course, they were working on last summer, and the president is quite devoted to. i think they want it to be seen

on thursday as the first of two kicks of the can, both long and short. >> so he wants to get out ahead of the super committee and say here, super committee, this is how i would like -- the people that have to come up with the deficit reduction by the end of the year, the 12 senators in congress? >> well, they will put it into a bill and send the bill to congress, and jim demint earlier on the show said they would not do, but they are going to do it. it's paid for, and then they will give the super committee several types of proposals, so it looks serious. >> and there was a quote in the "new york times," where he said the president wants to work with republicans and democrats to create jobs and grow the economy, if nothing happens it will be because republicans in congress made the conscious decision to do nothing.

>> there is a desire here not just to put out a proposal, and a lot of things we heard from him before in terms of the payroll tax credit and the only way he can explain to the public going into next year that unemployment is still at 9%, and that's to say that the other side won't do something about it. the other side is what is responsible for hamstringing our ability to get us out of this economic humdrum. >> yes, we're going to do a new stimulus plan, but they won't call it a stimulus plan, but we want to spend money to prime the pump, but we will pay with it for the following cuts. and the republicans are going to come back and say we can duty cuts and not do the spending. >> and that is the question of september. the republicans have their own jobs plan that they would like

to put forward, and the president will be specific in his. both are trying to get past the perception of washington is really good at bickering and fighting about silly stuff and not actually good at getting anything done. we will find out whether september is where both parties turn the party on the public frustration or keep doing what they have spent the summer doing. >> let's turn to the campaign trail here. sarah palin was in iowa yesterday, imagine that. just a little quau win key din k. and she didn't say whether or not she was going to run. here is the gist of what she was talking about. >> the challenge is not simply to replace obama in 2012 but the real challenge is who and what we'll replace him with, because it's not enough.

[ cheering ] >> it was run, sarah, run, and we didn't have lips to read. we look at the polling, and i don't see turf for her that is not already occupied, and the ground swell of come on in, sarah. what is she going to do? >> she said there's still room for her to get in and is teasing it out until the end of september. is there a way to have some sort of role in this, it's hard to say. i think you are right, her novelty seems to have run out, and she is laying out a serious message here, the populist message on kraeny capitalism. that goes against the mitt romney side of the republican house. she is making a case and if she runs can you see her adopting

her old alaska anti-kind of establishment demeanor. >> i thought it was interesting, and longer and it was a presidential kind of speech. if the dance of the veils leads her not to run, it will be interesting to see that she took this last dance. and the polls that don't encourage her to run, it's for strippers and cross-country skiers, and if she doesn't run we will miss that. >> and yeah, we have rick perry who is no slouch in the color department. >> this is a republican, rick 3. mitt romney, 18%, michele bachmann, yesterday's news apparently, at 12%. and on down the line, everybody gets into single digits after that. there was an add put out by a group supporting michele bachmann but is not affiliated

with her campaign. she was not behind this ad. i want to play a little bit of the ad. >> rick perry is spending more money than the state takes in, covering his deficits with record borrowing, and he's supposed to be the tea party guy? there is an honest conservative, and she's not rick perry. >> which is not a bad ad. >> there's always a bigger fish. bachmann knocks out tim pawlenty and now rick perry comes along and is bushing michele bachmann to the side and forcing romney -- he's sort of smoking out romney as well. already this race is still three or four months before it really gets going is having a huge effect on the field. and perry has overhauled the thing in a month. >> it's going to be interesting in september. three debates coming up starting this week on wednesday. for the first time romney is going to be challenged in a more demonstrative way. he's been able to sit back and let everyone else squabble while he sat on the top of the field

with the money and endorsements and infrastructure. now he's no longer the front-runner. he has to make his case. perry, being the unknown figure, except to excite conservatives will have to defend his record. he said this week i can take a punch as well as deliver one. >> we'll probably take quite a few punches. there was zip honeymoon from his fellow republicans. what i wonder is does rick perry necessarily just push michele bachmann to the sidelines or is there a route back for her? >> if she keeps making ads like this, she may make a dent in his progress. he has a lot of money, a staff that executes well. he turns out to be a pretty ferocious campaigner, not afraid of saying things designed to delight the base. it's interesting a group of old line evangelical leaders met with him last weekend under a tent. in part i think because they're

not ready to endorse a woman. a lot of sources will gather to see if he can take the heat. >> he's a good campaigner. there was all this time is it going to beat fred thompson. the fact is he's a far better campaigner than fred thompson ever was. when you look at the polls, the polling here which shows him -- everybody really quite excessive with the president at this point. how does the white house react to all this? are they quite happy to let this go on and he gives big speeches to the joint session of congress. >> it's a moment of real peril for the white house. i think they have to be feeling quite nervous about where they're at. put you have an incumbent who says it's not going to be better next year absent any great movement on the part of washington. that's just a debilitating

position for a president to be in on on of of the questions about leadership. how quickly this changes. four months ago we were talking about bin laden being killed. all the talk was he just secured his re-election. that lasted for two news cycles. the best thing for obama to hope for is republicans nominate somebody thought of being too radical for a lot of independent vetters to stomach. >> my guess is even if not, he'll present them as that. >> if the economy doesn't come back, the republicans will be the target in the race for thement. >> to be continued. thank you both so much. up next, a check of the top stories, and then on "fareed zakaria gps" a look at what women in the developing world need most. that's at the top of the hour. copd makes it hard to breathe,

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time for a check of today's top stories. tropical storm lee triggered tornado warnings along the gulf coast and is pounding southern louisiana with heavy rains and high winds. it's a slow-moving storm expected to drop as much as 20 inches of rain by tomorrow night. as officials keep an eye on tropical storm lee, president obama travels to patterson, new jersey, to survey the damage from hurricane irene. the state's governor, chris christie, will join the president on a tour of the flooded areas. a typhoon in western japan left at least 18 people dead and dozens more interested according to japanese news sources. the storm which struck yesterday also caused massive mudslides. at least 50 people are missing. dominique strauss-kahn is back in france. the former international monetary fund chief had been under house arrest in new york after being accused of