united states. speaking to members of the naacp. we will play you the president's message. and a one-two punch to the heart of president obama's fight for health care reform. a warning the democrats' proposal wouldn't reduce costs, but drive up government spending. one democratic senator says the president isn't helping. we'll take you live to washington. breaking news from jakarta, indonesia. the marriott and the nearby ritz-carlton. reports say nine people have been killed and 50 others injured, including three americans. the coordinated attacks took place just minutes apart and cnn has obtained this exclusive cell phone video of the scene shortly after the second blast. you can see panicked crowds of people running away from the hotel. ind onesian authorities believe it's the work of a southeast terror network with ties to al qaeda. the associated press quotes

jakarta's police chief saying suspected bombers were guests at the marriott. cnn producer cathy quijano joins us live now from jakarta. what's the very latest from there, cathy? >> well, john, the very latest is the national police spokesman told the press that there were eight people who were killed in the two wlasts that hit jakarta early this morning. one was a foreigner and 53 others, including 18 foreigners were also injured. they were brought to hospitals and still being treated there. there were several americans who were injured.

among the 18 who were injured. now, the police also said and confirmed that they did find an unexploded bomb in one of the rooms of the 18th floor of the marriott hotel. they found an active bomb that they had to defuse, although he was said that the three bombs were similar and actually explosive devices. now, the police say that, you know, no one has claimed responsibility for this and, of course, the initial suspects, as we have been saying here, the terror network, which operates from indonesia working in other countries in the region like the philippines. john? >> kathy quijano. also responsible for the 2002 blast at the bali nightclubs that killed 188 people. unlikely if they are behind

these blasts they would claim responsibility for these either. one technical thing here. because we are using the internet and broadbound to bring you those reports from jakarta, there is a substantial delay from time to time between the time we introduce our correspondent and the time you actually hear them. please, bear with us this morning as we're using all the technology at our disposal to get you the latest from indonesia. rocked those two hotels just as guests were about to sit down for breakfast. peter toumy was in his room at the marriott when the bomb exploded. good morning. >> good morning. >> peter, tell me when you first became aware that something was going on inside the marriott? >> i guess the first indication, really, was the loud blast and explosion. i was in my room on the 17th

floor and were just about to head down for breakfast and it was a very, very loud blast and the building shook. now, i was on the 17th floor so it appeared to me this was something significant so i went to the wind sxoe i looked down and on my right-hand side looking down at ground level there was a large black smoke, lightning. evidence of an explosion. >> peter, did you know at the time that the bomb blast actually took place inside the hotel near the lobby? >> no. what was clear because i was looking down is that it was at ground level and from the blast

blown out on to the front of the hotel. it didn't appear it was an explosion. it didn't strike me at the time that it would have been a bomb or something like that. >> i don't know if you realize this, but authorities found an unexploded bomb in a room on the 18th floor, which would have been the floor above you. when you hear something like this, what goes through your mind? >> yes. i've heard that locally, as well. i said, you know, i was in a state of panic and the list is full and so i decided to go down there and we came down on to the street. it was only at that stage and

the situation shook me and i saw maybe four, five people walk into the room. it was then that the reality stopped. but it's quite difficult to see the scale of the damage at the marriott from the outside. it's on the first floor and the whole front and back of that room has been blown out. >> well, peter -- peter, we're glad. >> horizontal, maybe 100 meters. >> understood. peter, we're glad you made it out safely. thank you for joining us this morning and we'll hear more from other witnesses later on

"american morning." the hotel back in 2003 was attacked. western hotels have been certain frequent targets of terrorists. peter bergen joins us on the phone to talk about that. the last attack back in 2003 and now 2009. any idea as to why now? >> well, the certain group behind this attack has been fairly quiet as of late in the last series of attacks they conducted was in 2005 in bali just as the 2000 attacks. both the indonesian public both very much turned against this group and the conventional wisdom was they were more or less out of business. well, that turned out to be very wrong. you know, readily small numbers of people can do these kind of

attacks. certainly the case that the top leaders, top bombmakers were captured or killed in the last several years and it was several years back when it not only conducted inbali attack, but you mentioned, john, 2003 on the j.w. marriott and also an attack on the australian embassy. >> in the wake of the attack in 2003, security was ramped up considerably both at the marriott and ritz-carlton across the street. they put up barricades so the cars can't go in because in 2003 it was a car bomb and you have to go through screening to get into the hotel. it pew ers the people responsible for the bombings here were actually guests at the hotel. did they take a lesson from the mumbai attacks? >> possibly. this is not the only time that we've seen multiple attacks on j.w. marriott, which is a very

well-known american brand. we had the attack on j.w. marriott in islamabad recently, that is not the first time that hotel had been attacked. had been the subject of small bombs already in the past. so, it is not unheard of for these groups to come back and attack the same target. we saw that in the united states with the world trade center. first in '93 and then again in 2001. if, indeed, this is the case, to be the actual bombmakers in the hotel. i don't think we've seen that in the past, but just because the place has been hit once doesn't mean it won't be hit again twice, unfortunately. >> the trick is to always stay one step ahead of the terrorists because they're always shifting their tactics. peter, thanks for that, we'll talk to you in a little bit. when we come back, we'll talk about president obama's health care plan. a big setback for the president and the senate.

deign abash will join us live to tell us if the health care plan has a chance to be passed in august.

i think i'll go with the preferred package.

good choice. only meineke lets you choose the brake service that's right for you. and save 50% on pads and shoes. meineke. it was just months ago that banks and bailouts seemed to go hand in hand, but just this week two market heavyweights announced big earnings for the second quarter and today wall street is hoping to pull off a five-day rally, despite rising unemployment. so, is there reason to think that the worst of the recession is over? joining us now, jill sclesenjure. on the one hand we have the

stock market going up and goldman sachs making $3.5 million and jpmorgan chase doing very well and all these people out of work and revenue forecasts for big companies are really uncertain. what are we to make of all this? >> well, it's cross current. that's what happens at turning points at cycle turning points. so, forward-looking leading indicators are shooting up. that's what we focus on, mostly because we're trying to protect and these are shooting up in a way that are very consistent with the recession ending this summer and employment, instead of looking out your windshield you're looking out your side window and that's telling you right now the recession is still happening right now today. unemployment, that's kind of rearview mirror. that's not going to improve until well after the recovery is under way. >> you agree with what he said, the recession will actually end this summer? >> i'm looking more towards the end of the year because i'm more pessimistic than he is.

i think the hard part is you're at home and watching this and i don't care if you think it is getting better, it is hard to find a job and that's a critical issue that people are like emotionally depressed around this. almost two years from the top of the market and a lot of bad news and if you are out of work, you're competing with all the people that are part-timers and disgruntled. the unemployment rate about 16.5% and i think that is an issue because it makes people very anxious even if they have a job, they're less willing to spend money and that's why this will last longer towards the end of the year. >> such a difference between main street and wall street. walk down ninth avenue here in new york on my way home and so many businesses having a tough time of it. paul krugman has an interesting take on the whole thing. he said in the column today in "the new york times" he said first it tells us that goldman is very good at what it does.

unfortuna unfortunately, what it does is bad for america. second, it shows that wall street's bad habits, above all, the system of compensation that helped cause the financial crisis have not gone away. third, it shows that by rescueing the financial system without reforming it, washington has done nuthing to protect us from a new crisis, and, in fact, has made another. >> i think those are both on the table here. but in terms of what we were trying to do. remember last fall the financial system had seized. credit had stopped flowing. so, in that sense, you're getting what you paid for. okay. your elected officials were decided in the collective wisdom that they wanted to get the system running again by pouring money into wall street giving it for me and loan it out to you and me by hiring their profits. >> the question is, have we learned anything from this or just determined to repeat the mistakes? >> we made mistakes before and

we repeated them and we're going to make them again. >> that's the human quality of it. goldman sachs is in business to make money. i'm disappointed by the fact that the regulatory reform has been watered down and i think that has been a critical missing piece of this process. >> one of the other big things people talked about, including krugman and herald ford saying that we need a second stimulus package. do you expect that we'll see one, how big? their contention is that we may heal the economy through the first stimulus package, but a jobless recovery. >> first, the first stimulus package has very little to do with the recovery that we're having this summer. so, you've spent a lot of money and not while you're having a recovery. the recovery happening because as we back away from the credit market freeze, the business cycle dynamics take over and they always turn. that's why you're having a recovery. what you get for that $87 billion is the chance for that recovery to be reinforced

quarters from now because the bulk of the stimulus spending hasn't happened yet. don't sell or debate a second stimulus saying we need it for recovery. you can argue it for other reasons. >> you're arguing with it for jobs. >> i think only the point being, only a fraction of the money has been spent and this was a back-end loaded plan and most of the money will be spent next year, not this year. we will not know that. in the period between now and next year, a lot of people out of work and they'll say, i just paid all this money and for what? also premature to talk about stimulus when we have a trillion dollar deficit and another trillion dollars on the table in health care before we see where we are in this economy. >> i want to make one point in the middle of the depression in the '30s. unemployment was at 25% and began a four-year expansion when the economy grew at 10% a year. high unemployment rates do not mean recessions can't end.

>> god bless him, right? >> thanks. 17 1/2 minutes after the hour.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. president obama got a boost overnight when a committee passed one version of reform legislation but now there are even some in his own party expressing skepticism. cnn senior congressional correspondent dana bash is live in washington. dana, what are his concerns? >> one of the main concerns that democrats have, health care

legislation isn't doing enough to curb the exorbitant cost of health care for americans. and a voice in this debate is saying, they're right. it was a democrat who asked the question. will any of their health care plans actually reduce skyrocketing medical costs? the answer, no. >> the legislation has been reported we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of thorough health spending by significant amount and on the contrary the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs. >> reporter: with that, the head of the congressional budget office, whose words carry enormous weight in congress, dealt democrats a devastating blow. since president obama repeatedly says curbing health care costs is essential goal of reform. >> i set clear parameters in

terms of what we want to achieve. >> reporter: but cbo director warned democrats' plans would actually raise costs because many, including the president, are resisting what he calls a critical element to keeping medical spending down. taxing employer-provided health care benefits. it had been one of the ways a bipartisan group of senators planned to pay for health care reform. now that it's off the table, they're having trouble making the numbers add up and in a stunningly candid moment, the finance chairman blamed the president. >> basically, the president is not helping us with tax exclusion off the table. it's still difficult to come up with revenue measures and other savings measures. >> reporter: because of the president's prodding to move faster, there had been hope for a bipartisan deal this week, but that's no longer in the cards.

now, publicly the white house and democratic leaders are downplaying the cbo's director stark warning and open frustration about the president. but, carol, privately, a senior democratic senior aide admitted to me it's devastating one-two punch and it couldn't come at a worst time a difficult time just got more difficult. carol? >> we'll keep an eye on it, dana bash reporting live from washington this morning. thanks. history made in new york city last night for the first time in the 100-year history of the naacp, the organization is addressed by an african-american president. what he said and his message for young minority children with suzanne malveaux, coming right up.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. something the founders of the naacp could not imagine. last night barack obama paid tribute to civil rights leaders who paved his way, but he said not all racial barriers have been torn down. >> the pain of discrimination is still felt in america. by african-american paid less for doing the same work of colleagues of a different color and a different gender. by latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. by muslim americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneeled down to pray to their god by our guy brothers and sisters still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights. prejudice has no place in the

united states of america. >> white house correspondent suzanne malveaux covered the president's speech and she is here with us this morning. quite a moment last night. >> you saw the barack obama from the campaign, the one with the energy that we have not seen. i wouldn't actually say it was the best speech, but it certainly had a lot of resonance particularly with this audience and one thing that he did was that he acknowledged. he said that discrimination still exists. that there are still institutional barriers but he called for reform and he also called for accountability and responsibility and that is something that this president believes that he can say with familiararity and credibility that previous presidents could not before this group. i want you to take a listen to something he said. >> we've got to say to our children, yes, if you're african-american, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that somebody in a

wealthy suburb does not have to face. and that's not a reason to get bad grades. that's not a reason to cut class, that's not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school. no one has written your destiny for you, your destiny is in your hands, you cannot forget that, that's what zee to teach all of our children! no excuses. >> no excuses. he deutthe chase. no excuses. he talked about the need for education emphasizing that as being really critical. president bush before this organization, i was there when he went before them in 2006, talked about the -- after ignoring them for five years and talked about the soft bigotry of low expectations and similar themes to both these leaders in what they were delivering, but you can see that president obama really had the credibility and he also identified and they took that in and he said this was part of a process.

that this is not something that just begins now and because he is the president. take a listen. >> 100 years from now on the 200th anniversary of the naacp, let it be said that this generation did its part, that we, too, ran the race, that full of the hope that the president has brought us. we faced in our lives and all across this nation the rising sun of a new day begun! >> he's on fire. >> he absolutely was. he was on fire and he, once again, in kind of typical obama fashion, used this to bring up the broad themes about what he's trying to accomplish, that he is trying to create more jobs, more opportunities for african-americans as well as the community at large. >> he took some heat during the campaign for being too tough on african-american men, but he doesn't show any signs of backing off on the call of

responsibility. >> generally speaking, he's not comfortable talking and calling race. when you get him in one of these settings and he's called to give a message, he is very strong with that mesage and he doesn't back down. >> i thought it was very interesting he brought up lebron james and lil wane. he said i want our children to be scientists and mathematicians and try to get away from that -- >> you need to be more than a baller or rapper. >> and one thing that they do, they don't advertise this necessary, but at the white house they're constantly bringing in a wide range of professionals, black professionals there. you see the president of b.e.t., you see business leaders. they bring the athletes and the stars as lil wane and all those guys, but they also expand this and that's something that they're trying to show by example that there's all kinds of folks out there who are achieving. >> you'll be back in our next hour, by the way. we'll put you together with tara wall and talk more about this. thanks so much.

reminder that we're just days away from the premiere of the documentary "black in america 2" only next wednesday and thursday. just about half past the hour and checking our top stories now. deadly terror attacks rock jakarta, indonesia. nine people were killed when bombs went out minutes apart at two luxury hotels. 50 people injured, including three americans. indonesia's president is promising to arrest those responsible the al qaeda-linked terror group is suspected, jakarta police say. some of the bombers were guests that marriott. one of iran's spiritual leaders is calling on the government to release those arrested following last month's disputed election. the ayatollah led traditional friday prayers for the first time since the election. he has openly supported mir hossein mousavi.

there are reports that mousavi supporters demonstrated in instreets after today's prayers. the senate proving a major expansion. the new legislation broadens the definition of victims and circumstances and gives federal protection of those attacked because of gender. race, ethnicity or religion. they passed a similar hate crimes bill in april. while many americans are struggling to land one job, our next guest has a resume that keeps on growing. the goal of working 50 different jobs in 50 states. daniel sediki grew out of frustration and daniel joins us now with an update. >> you are 42 weeks through. >> i am here in new york city, finally. >> you're here in new york city. >> this is way too fast for me. i should have done this first. >> you'll be so exhausted you

won't be able to go. >> remind our viewers why you're doing this. >> so many reasons why. i am a curious person that felt like there are no opportunities. and this is the land of opportunity and i wanted to go and find one in each state. >> now you're in new york city and i know you wanted to get a job on wall street, but that didn't work out. >> that didn't work out. >> why not? >> you know the economy. i'm not recessionproof. >> you're persistent. >> i am persistent, but i couldn't get that one. i had networking in that one and it didn't work out. >> what kind of job did you get? >> advertising is big. that's what i'm doing. >> what do you do in advertising? >> i'm on the creative side. i'm working on a website and doing creativity. >> you don't sound excited about this. >> it's not my passion. it's not like all the other jobs i sbeerexperienced. i loved being a high school football coach in alabama and i

love sports. >> that's your favorite job. you had interesting comments as i'm reading through your research. you loved being a high school coach, plus, that might not be your life-long dream because -- >> because of the money. it's sad that the jobs that most people enjoy don't pay very well. i don't know about you, though. do you enjoy your job? >> i love my job. i am very lucky, i'm well-paid, too. i'm considered blessed. i'm very blessed. let's go over -- i want to get off that topic. let's go over some of the jobs you had. you've been a model. you've actually been on television in cleveland, ohio. tell me about that. >> i was nerve racking and i didn't know what i was getting myself into. they just threw me out there in front of the camera. >> it's harder than people think? >> i think so.

you're behind the green screen and pointing in all kind of different directions. >> you have to know what the low front things do. >> you had to memorize the slides and i didn't do that very well. >> but you made it through. >> i never said i was good at any of these jobs. i said i was able to land them. >> so you have eight more states to go, eight more jobs. what is next on the agenda after you get out of the advertising thing in new york. >> i will work at the visitor's bureau in rhode island. they're not known for much other than sailing and i couldn't really relate that to a career. so, i'm going to work in the tourist industry and then after that i will be doing insurance in connecticut, lobster fishing in maine and surfing instructor in hawaii and lastly i'll be 30 jobs host. >> i think the most amazing thing you illustrated for us, if you're persistent enough and have a good plan, you can get a job in this economy. >> it's all about passion, too.

if i didn't have passion, i would have given up on the third week. persistence and using networks. you know, just trying to use everything i have. >> go, daniel. thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> you're going to be doing dirty jobs with mike rowe? >> he has like five years of episodes, he can give me just one. >> that is a big pair of hip waders to fill. >> cleaning a garbage dump in san francisco and that's where i'm from. >> excellent. >> really fitting. >> if anyone can do a great job, you can. >> thank you very much. and you can follow daniel's cross country adventure working 50 jobs in 50 states on our website. we'll link up with his living the map site go to cnn.com/amfix. it's all over for judge sonia sotomayor as far as the hot seat goes and now down to the voting. how is she going to do?

>> i think it was more the warm seat. >> you'd call it a hot seat. our brianna keilar coming right up with her latest take on sonia soto mayer and the confirmation hearings.

39 minutes after the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. in washington, senators promising sonia sotomayor a quick confirmation vote, possibly as quick as next week. brianna keilar is live on capitol hill this morning. how did things go in the final day of the confirmation hearings? >> sonia sotomayor kept it cool all week when she answered more questions about the controversial things she said about abortion, same-sex marriage and also about the second amendment. gun rights dominated the discussion as sonia sotomayor spent her last day on the hot seat. >> my constituents in oklahoma understand as do most of americans the right to own guns hangs in the balance, may very well hang in the balance with your seat. >> reporter: as republican senator tom coburn pressed her on the second amendment for the second day in a row asking if

americans have a fundamental right to bear arms, she demured. >> senator, would you want to judge a nominee who came in here and said, i agree with you, this is unconstitutional. before i had a case before me, before i had both sides discussing the issue with me, i don't know that that's a justice that i can be. >> reporter: fellow republican lindsay gram said he will vote for sotomayor and his hope that she will keep an oep on mind on gun rights. >> fundamentally, judge, you're able after all these years of being a judge to embrace a right that you may not want for yourself. to allow others to do things that are not comfortable to you, but for the group they're necessary. >> reporter: but even he, once again, addressed her off the bench comments, including her wise latina remarks.

>> you said some things that just bugged the hell out of me. >> i regret that i have offended some people. i believe that my life demonstrates that was not my intent to leave the impression that some have taken from my words. >> you know what, judge, i agree with you. >> reporter: though not many republicans seemed one over. >> that you appear to be a different person, almost, in your speeches and in some of the comments that you made. >> reporter: still with sotomayor's confirmation almost certai certain, democrats were already looking ahead. >> in an experience that will benefit all americans. when you walk under that piece of vermont marble over the supreme court, speaking of equal justice under law, i know that will guide you. judge sotomayor, thank you, god speed.

>> reporter: before this hearing republicans said this confirmation process was going too quickly, but now they say they're not going to try to delay or block a vote. we're expecting a vote before the judiciary committee on tuesday and then a vote by the full senate before congress breaks for recess. so, john, that would put sonia sotomayor on the supreme court ahead of the court's new fall session. >> the only question is, how many votes will she get? you have to love senator leahy promoting the home state there. >> i didn't know that. >> thank you for that. >> that was pretty cool. quick check of the stories coming up, covering two deadly hotel bombings in indonesia and new information from tom fuentes a former fbi director who was in jakarta last summer to work on counterterrorism efforts. after the first african-american president nominates the first his pan frequent the supreme court, just saying, is it time to do away with affirmative action? we want to know what you think

on this? cnn.com/amfix. and the debate rages on whether dick cheney ordered the congress to keep in the dark to kill al qaeda leaders. should we be surprised the white house is hunting down terrorists? it's 42 minutes past the hour.

the terror network jemaah

islamlyah blamed in the 2003 blast in indonesia, but so far no group has claimed responsibility for today's attack. a cnn contributor and former fbi director, do all indications, tom, at this time, point towards jemaah islamiyah they were believed in the 2002 bombing at the bali nightclub but they typically don't go around claiming responsibility. >> that's true, john. they have not claimed in the past. >> what leads you to believe that it is them? >> they're looking at the similar techniques. in this case, the police believe that an individual suicide bomber walked into each of the two hotels. the bomb was not from the basement or another location, but actually in the case of the marriott in the lobby coffee shop area, they found body parts, as well as portions of

the backpack. so, they believe that they have two suicide bombings and that's what they've had in the past in the attacks there. >> now, the 2003 attack in the marriott hotel was a car bomb outside and in the wake of that, they undertook some pretty stringent security precautions at the marriott and ritz-carlton between the two. marriott owns a portion of the ritz-carlton corporation, but this looked like it was an inside job, to some degree. there was an unexploded bomb found on the 18th floor of the marriott hotel and jakarta police say the people responsible were guests. they had actually gotten inside the hotel some time before the attack and it would seem to be, i don't know if they're taking a cue from it, but mirror what happened in the mumbai hotel attacks where the people responsible for those attacks were operating for some time from the inside.

>> they're reviewing the security cameras and the check-in cameras in the lobby and they believe in the case of the marriott two subjects checked into that room on the 18th floor two days ago or two days before the bombing. that's the location where they found the unexploded balm somb e defused it a short time ago. >> how could the bombers get their explosive materials inside the hotel? >> a large hotel like that, delivery trucks and catering services and variety of supply trucks and firms that will have access and bring material in and out of that hotel all the time. so, the possibility of being able to scrutinize even every small package that comes in and out through one of the other services would be very difficult. >> so, you may be able to protect from someone from the outside and explode a device,

sort of they come in and do it. you might be able to protect against that, but protecting an attack from the inside. what does that say about security in the future? >> it says it is going to be very difficult to stop this type of attack because as someone else that is cooperating as part of the network brings in the explosive material all they need to find is the people who vt the ability to come in and put the bomb together or in this case bombs together and go off and commit suicide and blow themselves up with the bombs. so, it is going to be very difficult to keep the material out of the hotel and when you have large numbers of guests coming and going all the time, that is next to impossible because the guests that are the suicide bombers are coming in unarmed without any equipment, maybe just a hand luggage. so, the equipment can be, can be prepositioned in that hotel through a variety of methods. >> you know, a former u.s. administration officials have said that we have to get lucky all the time in terms of

protecting it that the terrorists only have to get lucky once. tom fuentes, thanks for dropping by. >> thank you, john. ten minutes now to the top of the hour.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. affirmative action or quota system. a debate reignited because of sonia sotomayor's hearings. >> some people feel affirmative action is time to go away. just saying. with an african-american in the white house and a soon to be hispanic on the supreme court, is it time to say no to affirmative action?

born at the height of the civil rights movement, affirmative action helped students like sonia sotomayor get into elite schools like princeton. >> i am a product of affirmative action. i am the perfect affirmative action baby. my test scores were not comperacom comparable to my classmates. >> reporter: only 7% were women and only 11% were minorities. today the numbers have changed dramatically. half of law school students are women and 23% are minority. and minorities and women, overall, seem to be excelling. american black president and a woman as secretary of state. time to say no to affirmative action? >> for us to operate under the affirmative action and operate

on racial preferences is counterproductive. >> reporter: echoed by supreme court justice clarence thomas who wrote in his memoir of yale law degree, i graduated from one of america's top law schools but racial preference robbed my achievement of its true value and we found plenty of other americans who agree would him. >> i don't see the point in it any more. >> i don't think it's relevant any more. >> there will always be some group that needs it. >> i believe affirmative action should not have been in place in the first place. >> reporter: yes, we have a black president, but just one black senator and two hispanics. >> the day that we have a nominee for the supreme court and we don't bring up the word latina or woman, here's our new nominee, we're going to ask her questions. then we won't need affirmative action. >> couple more things to keep in mind. minority enrollment at major public universities has fallen, not exactly growing.

difficult to say discrimination on the job would disappear for ordinary people and voters in at least four states have limited the scope of aferrableative action seeing it as a quota system and seeing it as anything but fair. of course, we want to know what our viewers think about this this morning. is it time to say no to affi affirmative action? e-mail me on my blog at cnn.com/a mrrxfix. >> the reminder that the much-anticipated cnn documentary "black in america 2" premieres next wednesday and thursday at 8:00 p.m. only on cnn. when we get to a point where when the latest supreme court nominee or the latest candidate for president with no racial or gender identification, that would be a good place to be. >> we can talk about women politicians in general without the gender thing hanging out there. when hillary clinton ran for president, a lot of horrible things said about her, as well as sarah palin. >> it will be a good day when we

get to that point. 54 minutes, almost 55 minutes after the hour. the latest on the hotel bombings coming up live from jakarta. free credit report dot com!

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since the secret program to kill al qaeda members was exposed and shut down, former vice president dick cheney has taken a lot of heat from allegedly hiding it from congress and some terror experts are wondering what exactly was being hidden. barbara starr live from washington with more on that. good morning, barbara. >> good morning, john. we decided to have a reality check on recent cia and military hits. it's a world of capture or kill. >> someone started all this. >> reporter: in the movie "the bourn ultimatum" matt damon plays an exotic world of a cia.

leon panetta just shut down a program reportedly aimed at killing al qaeda terrorists. congress may not have been informed -- >> that's a serious breach. look, you can't gloss over it. >> reporter: but experts say no one should claim to be surprised that the u.s. is hunting down terrorists. >> we have seen a range of al qaeda leaders that have been assassinated since september 11th in afghanistan, in pakistan and a range of oother places. >> reporter: indeed, cia drones flying over pakistan have killed dozens of suspected terrorists in recent years, but jones says one of the diciest missions, u.s. troops secretly on the ground in pakistan in 2008 trading gunfire with al qaeda. >> a special operations force, direct action engagement for a very short period of time. >> reporter: other hits. somalia, 2007. air force ac-130 gunships

launched strikes into southern somalia but failed to kill their al qaeda targets. iraq, 2006. the u.s. military hunts down and kills abu musab alzu carrie. yemen, 2002, a cia drone kills an al qaeda operative, the u.s. says was involved in the bombing of the "u.s.s. cole" but whether it is the cia or u.s. troops on the trigger, there are rules to be followed. >> the united states cannot, ipso facto kill individuals in foreign countries. they're generally with foreign fighters, there has to be a determination that this individual and general is plotting and does threaten the homeland of the united states. >> reporter: but one of the bottom line rules of the game, john. if u.s. troops are going to go into a foreign country, they have to have the permission of the host government or face

diplomatic disaster if they're found out. john? >> barbara starr for us that pentagon with that. thanks so much. now brings us to the top of the hour. thanks for joining us in the most news in the morning on the friday, the 17th of july. i'm john roberts. >> i'm carol costollo in for kiran. two luxury hotels bombed in indonesia. more than 50 injured a live report straight from the scene in just a minute. then overhauling america's health care system. some house democrats complaining that the white house is slowing down the process. dana bash on the attacks president obama does not want imposed on you. the president's passionate speech to the naacp on its 100th anniversary. a celebration of how far we've come but some very tough talk, too. breaking through america's racial divide, just ahead. breaking news to tell you about right now, coordinated attacks on the ritz-carlton and marriott hotels in jakarta, indoesh donesia killed nine

people and injured more than 50. explosions ripped through the buildings this morning, bombs were planted in a coffee shop and restaurant. two hotels filled with westerners and foreign businessmen. several american citizens have been injured. police have sealed off the areas around both hotels. cnn's kathy quijano is on the phone with us from jakarta. what is the very latest from there this morning, kathy? >> hi, john. yes, the police had a press conference earlier that eight people died in these two blasts in jakarta this morning. including one foreigner. 53 others were injured including foreigners and most of these foreigners are being treated in hospitals around the city. they found a bomb inside the room of the 18th floor of the j.w. marriott hotel. it indicates that the bombers

were probably staying at the hotel prior to the explosions in preparation of the attacks. all three bombs were similar, but they are still investigating and looking into more what kind of materials were used for the attacks. the president of indonesia also said earlier that he condemned the attacks and he was sure to police the military forces will be able to find those responsible for these attacks. john? >> kathy, we mentioned a couple times this morning that security precautions at the marriott hotel and ritz-carlton across the street were heightened quite substantially back on that marriott hotel back in 2003. police suggesting that the bombers were guests at the hotel may have been there for a couple of days. did they have any idea how they got those explosive materials

through those security checkpoints or through the security operation there? >> i guess that's the biggest question everyone is asking here, especially investigators now who are at hotels trying to piece the whole thing together because security heightened and at the marriott hotel which was the target of a hotel in 2003. 12 people died there, including one foreigner, as well. since then, security has been heightened and all of the western hotels and the establishments in the city. it's very difficult to get into these hotels. at the marriott, cars can't drive all the way up to the entrance of the hotel. people have to walk through metal detectors. their bags are checked before we enter the hotel. you know, if it goes through the basement, the cars are checked and people also have to go through metal detectors to go through the hotel. so, it's a question that many

people here are asking, just how did this bomber get the materials into the hotel. after you check in and use one of the hotels. one of the operational centers that the police here was found on the floor. >> it would appear that despite the enhanced security precautions there, still exists a significant loophole there. significant hole in security. kathy quijano with us this morning from jakarta. president obama made health care reform a priority this summer and got a boost when a tax committee approved tax hikes to help pay for it, but the trillion dollar price tag is triggering press opposition from unlikely places. dana bash live in washington. who's complaining? >> actually, many conservative democrats, carol. they're skeptical that their party is trying to pass, will actually curb the cost of health care for americans. they have a reason to be

worried, at least that was a message from a very important voice in the health care debate. it was a democrat who asked the question. will any of their health care plans actually reduce skyrocketing medical costs? the answer? no. >> and the legislation has been reported we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of thorough health spending by a significant amount and on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs. >> reporter: with that, the head of the congressional budget office whose words carry enormous weight in congress dealt democrats a devastating blow. since president obama repeatedly says curbing health care costs is essential goal of reform. >> i've set clear parameters in terms of what i want to achieve. we have to bend the cost curve

on health care. >> reporter: but doug warned democrats plans would actually raise costs because many, including the president, are resisting what he calls a critical element to keeping medical spending down. taxing employer-provided health care benefits. one of the was a bipartisan group of senators plan to pay for health care reform, now that it's off the table, they're having trouble making the numbers add up and in a stunningly candid moment the finance chairman blamed the president. >> basically, the president does not, is not helping us. tax enshclusion off the table, still difficult to come up with revenue measures and other savings measures. >> reporter: because of the president's prodding to move faster, there had been hope for a bipartisan deal this week, but that's no longer in the cards. now, pub lauckily, they're

downplaying the stark warner and senator baucus' frustration with the president, but privately a senior democratic leadership aide told me it's a potentially devastating one-two punch that couldn't come at a worse time. this source admitted that an already difficult push by the president to get a health care deal by august just got more difficult. >> almost impossible. dana bash, live from washington this morning. also new this morning, former iranian president calling for the release of anyone who was arrested or detained in the government's crackdown on post-election protests. rafsanjani made the, t. pope benedict xvi has been hospitalized after a fall while vacationing in northern italy. the 82-year-old pope reportedly fractured his wrist and is having it surgery repaired. president obama made a

rousing speech last night before the naacp. the group celebrating its 100th anniversary. the challenge the president handhand ed down and reaction from the experts, next.

a historic event in new york. the civil rights organization welcoming the nation's first african-american president to mark its 100th anniversary. president obama had been criticized during the campaign for his tough talk about black men living up to their family responsibilities and he certainly didn't pull any punches on that front last night, but he did offer plenty of optimism about the state of race relations in america. >> i understand there may be a temptation among some to think that discrimination is no longer a problem in 2009. and i believe that overall there probably is never been discrimination in america like there is today. >> where is our nation 100 years after the creation of the naacp. professor eric dicen and tara

wall conservative columnist and political analyst for "the washington times" join us this morning from our washington bureau and suzanne malveaux who covered the speech last night in new york is here. that statement that there has probably never been less discrimination in america than there is today. what are your thoughts on that? >> the president is recognizing the historic, but you're cherry picking on the clip you played there. mr. obama spent quite a bit of time that has flourished the african-american and poor and vulnerable people here and then he applied equally engaging talk about personal responsibility. so t was a balance between social structure and personal responsibility as it should be and then he talked aabout the nation coming to grips with the legacy of jim crowe even in the city of new york where it's much more difficult for a black person to get a job than a white person. so, he was a very insightful and

powerful orter who talked about the balance between big stuff and individual stuff. >> not our intention to cherry pick, michael. i have further statements from the president coming up on just those points in just a second. just to this issue, tara, of less discrimination in america now than at any point in our history. do you agree with that statement? >> it's hard to measure. i'm not an expert in, you know, as far as measuring numbers. obviously, i think we all know that absolutely discrimination still exists today and i think, obviously, you can ignore the significance of having the first black president appear before the naacp. this historic civil rights organization. i think the challenge going forward. what many will ask, what is the role, somewhat the proper role of government and addressing many of the despairties that president obama pointed out and president bush pointed out in many of his speeches and policies and the disparities that do exist between whites and blacks as it relates to education, health care,

economics and how we move forward and addressing those very real issues and making sure that the naacp and others are inclusive to all ideas that come about to address these issues, these very real issues. obviously, disagreements on how to address it, but you have to put it on the table. >> now to the issue of lingering discrimination in america. suzanne, we'll get you to weigh in on this. he said definitely still a lot that exists in this country and a lot of work to do to end it. here's what the president said. >> the pain of discrimination is still felt in america. african-american women paid less for doing the same work of colleagues of a different color and gender. by latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. by muslim americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneel down to pray to their god. >> and jesse jackson went on to say "i'm anxious about a shouting before the game is over.

we won the freedom struggle, but what about the equality struggle?" suzanne, a lot of work to do and any woman who's been in corporate america will tell you, you know, white, black, latino or whatever, there's still inequality in the workplace. >> one thing the president highlighted was the role of education and closing the education gap he said that the state of our schools is not an african-american problem, but an american problem. there's two things. again, he was trying to strike that balance between reform, calling for reform and also personal responsibility. this is a president who has kept the no child left behind from the bush administration to give that a little bit more muscle and a little bit more weight in providing for schools and accountability and those standards but he also did similarly what president bush did when bush talked about the soft bigotry of low expectations. president obama called for children, for parents, for educators to all rise to have higher expectations about what

they want for their families and for the community. >> now, the president certainly suggested a lot of things that government can do, such as early childhood education and health care coverage and community funding. how much responsibility should the government take here and how much should the private sector pick up? >> i think, you know, obviously, historically, the legacy of racial inequality is directly related to the government's enterprise and the report for slavery and the radical inequality that prevailed in this country for the '50s and '60s and the government bears responsibility, but, obviously, the government must inspire the private sector to take up for the call to arms that the government demands to be employed and private enterprise can join with government and local citizens to forge a connection between these vulnerable people looking for opportunities and those who have the resources to do so. >> tara, how do you see the balance between private enterprise and government taking a role in those particular

issues? >> well, i think one of the keys there that president obama pointed out was personal responsibility and i think the first step is that we all have to look at the stake that we take or the place we have as citizens and individuals and what role we play. the second part, of course, what the constitution allows and that suggests is a limited government and just what that means, what that limited government means, it was martin luther king jr. who did not say he wanted a government handout. he said we want to be at the table. it was james brown who said, you know, just open the door and i'll walk in and get it myself. that was his take and my mother's old saying, if god only requires 10%, why should i give the government any more? there is a balance and there is a role that government does have to play. but at the same time naacp, others, membership will have to ask and include those very real discussions about how much the government when it does intrude and how much do we want them to expand it will impact us and our

pocketbooks and our taxes and impact right now many small businesses are really expressing some concern over how it's going to impact them. as you know, small businesses are really the crux and the heart of the black community. >> a really intriguing part of the president's speech last night was his message to young people saying not everyone could aspire to be a lebron or lil wane. let's hear what the president said about that. >> i want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers and doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers. i want them aspiring to be a supreme court justice. i want them aspiring to be the president of the united states of america! >> michael eric dyson, is that message getting through? >> absolutely. he is the product of that message, not giving that message alo alone. working for the opportunity to provide for a barack obama to become president. without the structural barriers to racial inequality falling. barack obama would not have the opportunity to get up there, and, by there way, even though

he is casting some aspersion rightfully so, he got a mean flow himself. dip under to the african-american traditional and the baptist church and, so, even as he's denying lil wayne he may have to go break some songs up himself because obama is flowing in a mad way. >> you agree with that, suzanne? he was pretty passionate last night. >> we saw a barack obama that we haven't seen in a while. the last six months. it was the energy from president obama, yes. before that audience. very familiar. >> tara, he did almost appear to be a preacher at one point. >> but i have to say to eric michael dyson, i don't know how much lil wayne he's letting his kids listen to, but i get his point. >> certainly when he's talking about hurricane katrina, they'll listen to that song and maybe some of the others they shouldn't listen to. >> important case for him to raise. you know, movements and all, i think as president he certainly

does have a responsibility and, again, this is certainly a role model family for many young blacks coming up and i think to address that issue is a very real issue and i want to applaud him for continuing that effort that, again, president bush talked about, as well. that's something we definitely need to talk about. >> suzanne, put a button on it. >> not something the white house doesn't advertise. they are not just bringing in rappers and people from the black community. it is really about inclusion. not something that they advertising just part of the discussion. >> we'll see where we go from here. great to talk to you, thanks so much. just days away now from cnn's examination of what it means to be black in america. stories of people stepping up and taking charge and black in america 2 premieres next wednesday and thursday.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. there's been some criticism about the speed of the stimulus package in creating jobs around the country, a lot of people say, where are those jobs anyway? here at cnn we have been taking a hard look at that anyway. where is that stimulus money going and is it really reaching the streets? christine romans is here to answer that question. >> it is reaching the streets and i decided to give up on the wall street/washington argument and we wanted to find people who will actually touch your stimulus money. walking down this hallway, four people whose jobs have been saved. when these classrooms fill up

again this fall, these educators will be among 2,000 miami teachers whose salaries will be paid with stimulus money. she trains middle school counselors. >> we have to depend on the saving of 2,000 jobs or stimulus money, then so be it. we'll take it. better than nothing. >> reporter: florida is using $125 million of federal stimulus money to keep 697 guidance counselors, 343 librarians and more than 900 special ed instructors in the classroom. and in the library, where showanda has worked for 20 years teaching children to read, use a computer and research. >> by saving us, saving our jobs and helping the economy, we're helping the children and really should be about the children at this point when we talk about education. >> reporter: not a surprising view from a group with 88 years of experience. >> i don't look at my job to be

saved, but the people are being helped and serviced. i think that's the key to this. we are an important, integral part of the school system. >> reporter: the government accountability office reports instead of spending on new programs and new jobs, some states are using stimulus money to plug gaping holes in their budget. is plugging a hole with $125 million, but is it plugging a hole when 2,000 people's lives depend on it? >> look, there is no workforce without education. i think we know that now. underfunding education, creating a position in our country where teachers lose their jobs, where counselors lose their jobs cannot be defined as plugging a hole. a teacher does not constitute a hole in a kids' life nor dauz counselor. >> reporter: no doubt a hole in funding and the stimulus is only a temporary fix. >> my concern has shifted to the possibility of a fiscal abyss

two years from now when these funds sunset. >> a lot of reliance on real estate and tourism revenue to help their budgets. obviously, those things cratered. it's a real problem and so two years down the road they're looking at now what do we do with this money? for those of you wondering, where is my money going and is it actually out there? those teachers will be paid for by our stimulus and some didn't know it until we started talking about it. they're so concerned about getting kids to graduate and prepared for college, that there is this storm of how they're unwear of how they're going to be paid. >> they are thinking about the right thing. >> my stimulus dollars are paying my salary. >> she is paying herself. >> i don't want to say it's frightening or troubling, but it's interesting that stimulus money is being used to save jobs as opposed to create new ones. what happens with all these people that are already out of

work? >> what happens in two years when they have to find another way to save those jobs that have already been saved now and we are playing defense with this money in many cases. this isn't playing offense. it's going out and saving jobs. >> thanks, christine, minding your business this morning. >> be sure to catch ""your $$$$$"" with ali velshi and christine romans. they'll explore whether taxing the rich is the best way for health tax reform. got the latest on the bombings in the hotels in jakarta coming up with tom fuentes, former director of the fbi, and peter bergens. stay with us, 25:30 after the hour.

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will keep the heat factor down a little bit. >> it was a steam bath here yesterday. >> it was. on to the news now. a hepatitis c scare in colorado is triggering health investigations here in new york and in texas this morning. >> yes, thousands of patients may have been exposed to tainted needles by a surgical technician. this is really a bizarre story. mary snow joins us with details. has anyone been infected so far? >> so far, officials in colorado say there have been ten confirmed cases of hepatitis c and tests are being done to determine whether they are linked to a 26-year-old woman now in federal custody. the investigation has expanded to places where she worked in the past, and that includes a hospital in a new york city suburb. 64-year-old madeline pettitte shows us where she was tested for hepatitis c. she is one of roughly 2,700 northern westchester hospital who are now being urged to get tested for the virus, that's

because a former hospital employee, now under arrest in colorado, may have put patients at risk. make people like pettitte nervous. >> so many diseases out there and, naturally, you put your trust and i love this hospital. >> reporter: this new york hospital is just the latest to investigate a hepatitis scare linked to kristen parker, seen here in a police videotape. parker also worked as a medical technician at rose medical center in denver. she admitted to injecting herself with a pain killer and refilling those used syringes with saline. they were put back into stock, intended for patients. >> i can't take back what i did. if i would have known, it would have been different. but now i got to live with what i did and so does everybody else. >> reporter: rose medical center has notified 4,700 patients to

get tested. an aft states that parker told an investigator she believed she got hepatitis c by using heroin. it is usually spread by sharing needles and can cause an infection of the liver. in worst cases, it can lead to liver cancer. >> to the extent that people would be sick for the rest of their lives because of me and that's something i can't take back. >> reporter: we reached out to parker's attorney thursday but he couldn't be contacted. he faces three drug-related charges and the u.s. attorney's office in denver says additional charges could be possible. >> she seems pretty remorseful now about what she did and many people think awhy didn't she think that before? >> this has spread to new york, texas is also now start an investigation. it's unclear whether she was infected at that time. i talked to a lawyer in denver

who said he is getting calls from people who don't know whether they're infected. they include a pregnant woman. >> mary, thanks for that. terrible story. 31 minutes after the hour. checking our top stories right now. pope ben fiedict xvi taken to t hospital. he fell during a vacation in the alps. the pope suffered a fracture to his right wrist. a second person has died, building a stage for a madonna concert in france. the concert has now been canceled. madonna issued a statement saying she's devastated. secretary of state hillary rodham clinton is kicking off a week-long trip to india and thailand. she will be meeting industry leaders for business partnerships between two countries. updating you out of jakarta,

indonesia. promising to hunt down those responsible for the deadly bombings at the ritz-carlton and marriott hotels. nine people were killed and 50 others were injured, as far as we know, three americans. jakarta's police chief believes that the suspected bombers were guests that marriott, which was also bombed back in 2003. that incident killed 12 people. police suspect the terrorist group, they were responsible for the deadly marriott bombing almost six years ago believed to be responsible for the 2002 bombing at the nightclub in bali, which is also part of indonesia. joining me now is tom fuentes and peter bergen, cnn terrorism expert. they're both in washington for us this morning. peter, does this seem to bear all the hallmarks of jemaah islamiyah. >> not only the attacks you mentioned, that they conducted

and a second wave of bali attacks in 2005. they had a long history of these kind of multiple attacks on western targets, attacks designed, mass casualty attacks. so, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it very likely is a duck. >> tom fuentes, you have been to jakarta several times and a small fbi office there. the fact that three americans were injured in this, would that mean that the fbi will get involved to some degree in this investigation? >> the fbi is already working closely with the indonesians in a number of criminal areas and the areas of terrorism. so, there's been a close working relationship going on since actually the marriott's first bombing back in 2003. so, my sources are telling me that there's actually seven u.s. citizens that were injured, but that all the injuries are minor and nonlife threatening. >> that does increase the number that we had by four, but it is good news to hear that none of those injuries were serious.

peter, i guess, one of the huge challenges was trying to defend yourself against terrorism and in the wake of the 2003 bombing security precautions at the marriott and the ritz-carlton across the street were enhanced substantially. it was a car bomb that was responsible for that explosion back in 2003. vehicles can now no longer get close to the hotel without going through security checkpoints and people can't get inside the hotel without having their baggage screened or purses screened or whatever. the fact that these bombers were able to get their explosives inside and actually register in the hotel as guests, obviously, would seem to indicate that there is a big hole in their security precautions there and how do you address something like that? >> well, i think that's very tough. hotels are in hospitality business and they can't turn themselves into fortresses and can't frisk every guest at every moment. what this seems to suggest is either an inside job with help

from the staff or, indeed, the guests bringing in some of the explosives and assembling them in the room. we've seen these kind of attacks before, but you may recall the first trade center blew up a bomb which he assembled in the bathroom of a plane in '94, a plane that was leaving manila. bombers with the right kind of materials can assemble these bombs in locations like a hotel a bathroom. this might be the m.o. that was used in this attack. >> they are bringing in components and assemble them over a period of time. you think the bombings took any kind of influence, any kind of notes from the attackers in mumbai who had actually plotted for quite a number of days by staying in those hotels. it was an inside operation from that standpoint. could that be the future m.o. for terrorists who are looking to bomb hotels rather than running up with the suicide bomber and trying to drive

through security with a car bomb, they actually get inside and work it from there. >> that's true from having staff inside that they work with but this is different from the mumbai attack and an attack on the sclteam. they didn't go with guns blazing to take over the building. in this case, a secretive operation on their part. the police have determined that two people were in that 18th floor room of the marriott that they had checked in two days earlier. they believe that is where they assembled the suicide bomb backpacks and they left one bomb behind. so, those two individuals, they believe, left the marriott. one went downstairs to the cafe area in the lob rby and the oth went across the street to the ritz-carlton and detonated their bombs. at this time they have two suicide bombers and trying to determine if there were

additional people involved. this was a much more secretive attack and using explosives in a secret manner as opposed to guns blazing like the other attacks. >> tom fuentes and peter bergen this morning from our washington bureau. thanks so much. >> you're welcome. i want to show you a picture, let's put up the picture. there it is. would you buy a car from that man? maybe you would if you got a free ak-47 with the purchase of a pickup. this is a true story. we're going to talk to that man when we come back. 37 minutes past. 

the perfect song for this next story. the rough economy has been particularly tough on car dealers, so many of them have come up with innovative promotions to get vehicles off the lot and then there's this. starting in august, max mueller, president of mac motors will be giving away free ak-47 assault wep wnz the purchase of any truck. you heard right. ak-47s. joining me now from his car lot

near kansas city, max, good morning. >> good morning, carol, it's mark mueller, but that's okay. >> i so apologize. now i feel bad from the get go. but, tell me about the promotion and why you decided to do this. >> well, last year we gave away a free handgun with the purchase of any vehicle and it went over very well. spiked our web traffic and we sold, we estimate 35 extra cars during the promotion than we normally would have and this year we're trying to sell an extra 100 cars more than we would have. we're trying to generate some traffic and excitement and it seems to work real well. we're just not going to give people an ak-47 gun. felons buy guns, too. we'll give them a voucher where they can go to their local gun dealer or we have local gun dealers we would strongly recommend where they can buy a gun and go through the proper background checks so the guns

wind up in the right hands. >> how much money, how much does an ak-47 cost, i'm just curious? >> it depends. you can get a good ak-47 for $450, maybe $500. >> some people watching this might think owning a handgun is one thing, but owning an ak-47 is something else and maybe this is just a tad irpossible. >> it's a little grandstanding, but how about that guy that just had his, he wishes he had an ak-47 as his maggots busted through his door and slaughtered him and his wife in front of his children. >> police officers are shot in the line of duty all the time and they carry gunalize the time. so maybe some might not think that is a great argument. >> well, i'd personally like to have a chance instead of just becoming a victim. i guarantee you those guys that

broke through those doors did not have legal guns and did not go through the proper steps to get them. those are all illegal guns and i would bet my bottom dollar on it, i haven't seen the facts, but, look, there is a bunch of evil in the world and people need to protect themselves. we're country folks down here. we live down here and real firm believers in the second amendment and we don't want to become victims. i live outside of the country and the response time to my home is about 15 minutes and i'm counting on the police, we have a great police force in baites county, great sheriff, response time is still 15 minutes no matter how great the people are and how great their intentions are. >> i grew up in rural america, too. we had guns in our home, but they weren't ak-47s. i mean, but -- >> how long ago was that? >> when i was a teenager. 20 years ago, 30 years ago. >> things have changed

dramatically. i don't know if you know anything about missouri where i live in this county, there is a tremendous crime problem with people doing methand these people lost their souls. they don't care about you, they don't care about me, they care about one thing, getting more dope. >> i understand evil in the world, but i'm just questioning the -- like a semi-assault weapon to protect yourself. that's all i'm saying. your motto is god, guns, guts and american. why did you come up with that particular motto? >> actually it's god, guns, guts and american pickup trucks, because we sell cars. >> right, but you include god in that and, you know, some might wonder why god is included in a motto that it also includes guns. >> you don't have a problem with god, do you? >> no, i don't.

but the combination some people might between god and guns, some people might have a problem with that. >> we're a christian nation. we're christian people. i believe that 70%, 80% of the nation would classify themselves as christians. 90% of the people in this country believe in god, whoever their god is. to try to remove god from everything. >> that's not what i'm saying. i'm saying putting god in a motto that also includes guns might be a little upsetting to some people. >> you don't think god wants us to defend ourselves? i'm confused. you know. >> i don't know. i could ask you the question, you know, we could do the what would jesus do, would he carry a gun? >> no, they didn't have guns back then, but i do believe he would carry a sword if he needed

it. but he was so powerful, he didn't need any weapon. >> thank you, i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> interesting debate this morning. >> i have been having interesting debates all week. >> come up here for a couple days. 45 minutes past the hour.

oh, yeah. oh, yeah. there's a place to be. miami, florida. where it's now fair and 88 degrees. later on today, isolated

thunderstorms and a high of 92. we're in that time period in miami where the temperature range between night and day is about four or five degrees, but it's always 95% humidity and feels like you're walking around wearing a warm, wet blanket all day. >> it's good for your skin. >> yeah. except you have to stay out of the sun otherwise you get that leather look. >> i'm trying to stay positive. >> you have to take precautions this time of year. if you think the weather has been weird and wild in some occasions, you ain't seen nothing yet. remember that weather phenomenon as el nino. it's back and so is reynolds wolf. hey, reynolds, we haven't heard of el nino for a while, but it looks like it is coming back. let me tell you, when it comes to el nino part of the normal eband flow that we see on the earth. we'll explain first what el nino is. let's go to google earth and we're showing you the pacific ocean and little bit of the

atlantic. when it comes to el nino, basically a gradual warming you'll see in the waters off south america and in this area two areas where things are warming. a few few degrees celsius. now with these two bodies, areas of warm water, it gets picked up by the jet stream and carried across parts of the southern u.s. what that can mean to us is as we get to winter time, we can often bring flooding to places like southern california. you're not going to have the issue of wildfires, but potential of floods. cooler and wet conditions for parts of the southeast, but when you get to the northern tier states clear over to the great lakes, usually warmer and drier conditions. to tell if we're in a true el nino episode, we have to watch this. this demands a lot of observation, and we look at it for a period of several months. now, as we get into next year, we'll know if we're in an episode. if you happen to look at these

weird lines, they're computer models, and if you look at the extremes, 2 degrees above celsius, look at the high side and the low side, looks like a moderate episode. one good benefit is a lot of times with these el nino episodes, a lot of people take a look at the storm track and if it is a bit stronger, that can introduce a bit of sheer into parts of the atlantic and into the caribbean, which might mean fewer hurricanes. back to you. >> do we know if it's strong enough this year to say that subtropical jet will have the sheering effect on the hurricane development this year? >> it is way too early to say, but i will tell you one time we did have an el nino event was back in 2004, you'll remember, that was a very busy hurricane season. >> and we all remember 1992. reynolds, thanks very much. by the way, monday morning, the meteorologist who developed the weather monitoring for nasa

is going to be joining us live. see what gene norman has to say for us. monday on american morning. and coming up, sanjay gupta is going to talk about obesity and race. >> do we get to renew the bromance? >> they have a little thing going, john and sanjay. but anyway, dr. gupta will be talking about obesity and how race effects obesity. if we don't act, medical bills will wipe out their savings. if we don't act,

she'll be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. and he won't get the chemotherapy he needs. if we don't act, health care costs will rise 70%. and he'll have to cut benefits for his employees. but we can act. the president and congress have a plan to lower your costs and stop denials for pre-existing conditions. it's time to act.

at least nine people are dead, and more than 50 injured in two hotel bombings in indonesia. and authorities report finding an unexploded bomb in the 18th

floor. that bomb had to be diffused. two explosions ripped through the hotels early this morning. an al qaeda-linked terror group is suspected and may have been guests in the hotel. it was somewhat of an inside job, as opposed to someone who just drives up to the hotel and explodes their device. they may have worked on this for a couple of days from inside the hotel. >> frightening. the high rate of obesity in this country plays a big role in the rising cost of health care. but now this startling new information about race and weight. one ethnic group has the most alarming obesity numbers. we're paging dr. gupta to find out who and why. >> well, it's african-americans and it's staggering higher than whites and hispanics. what's interesting, carol, i started working at this network, we talked about the rates of people being overweight, and now we talk about obesity as we talk about overweight. thest gotten that much worse.

but there are concerning numbers about african-americans and the rate of obesity. what they really try to do is break down obesity rates by state. 36% of blacks, more than 1 in 3 are obese. 29% of hispanics, 24% of whites, 40% of black women overall. this is what has gained attention. we talk about health care, as well. obesity is related to about every chronic disease as you can imagine. many types of cancer. uniformly across the country the rates have been going up, but a couple of areas hard hit, the south and the midwest, you can take a look at the numbers overall. certain states more so, mississippi, alabama, maine, ohio, and oregon, 40% or more of the people there and those states are obese. with it, more diabetes cases, more heart cases, this is part of the problem with health care, you have so many preventable diseases occurring that you have to target those when you're

trying to lower costs. >> let's talk about 40% of african-american women being obese. is it a cultural issue? because, you know, african-american women are more accepting of their body type. they're not as like overly concerned, perhaps, as other cultural groups. >> that's a good point. that was something that emerged a few times, which surprised me a little bit about how we sort of view body type as a whole and whether or not there was a way we measure obesity is accurate. we use body mass index and a lot of people take issue with that. there are socioeconomic concerns, access overall to simply good foods. i did this documentary called "killer diet" last year and we looked at urban gardens, how easy is it to get good foods in urban centers? >> green leafy vegetables. >> absolutely. >> something that's hard to get otherwise. >> you will not be able to find that around here. >> all you'd find beef jerky,

twinkies, no vegetables. >> greens are a big part of the southern diet but fried foods are too. >> that's right. and she'd have to get on two trains and a bus ride to simply go buy vegetables and fruit. and it's hard to have a healthy diet that way. these urban deserts. >> i know, i wish there was one great big answer to solve these problems, but there's not. >> i'm amazed at how much more expensive it is to buy an apple than a heavily processed piece of food, something that's been through chemical factories. we need to change that around a bit, as well. >> that would be great, wouldn't it? >> yeah. lots to do. >> thanks. we're just days away from cnn's examination of what it really means to be black in america. watch stories of people stepping up, taking charge and creating solutions. the documentary black in america 2 premieres next wednesday and thursday only on cnn. it's 58 minutes past the hour. taking its rightful place

in a long line of amazing performance machines. this is the new e-coupe. this is mercedes-benz.

and good morning, everyone. happy friday to you. it's july 17th, i'm carol costello in for kiran this morning. >> and i'm john roberts. the stories we'll be breaking down for you. first to breaking news. two luxury hotels inç indonesi bombed. at least nine people reported dead, more than 50 injured, including three americans. so that number may increase. a live report straight from the scene coming up in a moment. with all this talks of plans to kill al qaeda kept secret. new information from the pentagon on the programs already in place to take the terrorists down. and this morning, rising opposition to president obama's plan for health care reform from some in his own party. in a moment we'll talk with nebraska senator ben nelson, a democrat who is still not sold on the plan. he met with the president yesterday at the white house. so was the president able to change his mind? but we begin with breaking news out of jakarta, indonesia.

the attacks at the marriott and the ritz carlton hotels coming minutes apart, nine people killed, 50 injured, including three americans. jakarta police say some of the americans were staying at the hotel. we're monitoring developments from indonesia this morning. dave rivers live from the capital of jakarta. dan, bring us up to date. >> reporter: well, carol, we've just had a press conference from the police here who have given us a little more detail. they think that four suspects may have been involved with this twin bombing. that say they were suicide attacks, there were four unidentified bodies. they think that the potential terrorists were checked into this hotel, the marriott hotel, that they used the room on the 18th floor as the sort of command and control center. but in that room, an undetonated

bomb was found. two other explosions went off. one in the lobby, the lounge area of the marriott, and one in the ritz carlton which is just a few meters across the road. so far the death toll they are giving us here is eight dead, including one foreign, they're saying that that foreign is a new zealand man, and we have a fairly large number of injured casualties. more than 50, as you say, including u.s. citizens, people from italy, south korea, japan, norway, the netherlands, so a fairly wide number of foreign casualties. you may remember that indonesia's had a lot of tubl in the past with islamic extremists targeting the hotels. the marriott was hit in 2003. they're no strangers to this outrage in jakarta. >> and then you said there were four suspects, then you said bodies, police believe are dead. are there more still alive out

there? >> reporter: no -- that what they are giving us the impression that the four terrorists that they think were involved, we believe are among the dead, but we're trying to get that confirmed. but they certainly are saying they think this was a suicide bomb attack. there were reports that they had found a decapitated corpse in the marriott here, which i think was one of the suicide bombers. we're just waiting to get confirmation whether the eight dead victims of this attack include four terrorists or not. we're trying to get confirmation of that. this still as the police are really going through forensically, meticulously trying to get as many clues as they can. they also said the explosives used were of a similar sort of to a bunch of explosives found a couple of weeks ago and at the time there was speculation that was linked to the terrorist

group. now we haven't had confirmation whether they have claimed responsibility for this attack, but they have a long track record of hitting western targets across indonesia and bali. i interviewed some of the bombers before they were executed and key suspects and all of them very unrepentant. and dedicated to killing as many westerners as they can. >> dan rivers live with new information. we appreciate it. our next guest witnessed the explosions from his hotel room. he is the vice president of corporate security for marriott international. he was staying across the street at the ritz carlton to review the safety situation there. he joins us by telephone to describe this morning. what safety precautions are being taken in jakarta. can you describe the scene this

morning? how it all unfolded. >> i was in my room just getting to go down for breakfast when the first blast happened. it wasn't very loud. i certainly heard some kind of an explosion. then, i guess, about -- i looked out my window and i could actually look down at the marriott and i saw some people running in front of the hotel. a couple of minutes later, there was another blast, and again i looked down and saw smoke coming out. so i went ahead and went down to the lobby, but i got on the elevator. and people didn't seem to know that anything was amiss. one lady said did you hear something? and it wasn't until we got down to the lobby that we saw what had occurred. >> right. we know that eight or nine people died in that attack. at least that's the early estimate of deaths.

as many as 50 people were injured. what was the level of damage you witnessed? >> well, when we looked at the damage, it looked like -- it looked a lot worse than it was. most of the damage was to glass and to the furniture. we have done an assessment and haven't found any structural damage to either of the hotels at all. so as i say, most of it seemed to be a lot worse than it actually was. >> it's kind of ironic, allen, that you were there to review security obviously you were there to make sure that things were all right. this would seem to be an indication that there was some gaping hole in security. what do you know about reports that at least a couple of the bombers or somebody associated with the bombers was using the room in the 18th floor at the marriott as a commander in control center? >> you know, i don't know anything about that, john, i got that information from the police probably just like you did, but

they didn't tell us any more. that is all part of the police investigation. and we're not part of that. i can tell you, though, that both of those hotels had very robust security. it was, you know, when you pulled up in front of the hotel, all vehicles were inspected, everybody went through a walk through metal detector, all luggage was inspected with sophisticated explosive vapor detectors. we had about 40 procedures that the hotels are required to follow under -- we had them under what we call threat condition red, which is our highest level. so we had very, very robust security in place there. >> yet even so, these bombers were able to get explosive materials inside that hotel. unknown whether the bombs came through whole or in components. you've got to be scratching your head this morning, alan, saying,

where did we go wrong? what did we miss? >> i am, believe me. and that's what we want to find out is who did this and how they did it. and that's what we're going to be focusing on in the next short while here. >> any initial thoughts on how they might have gotten inside? could they have gotten inside by themselves? does it suggest that perhaps they had cooperation from people who might have been working at the hotel? >> doubtful that they had cooperation from anybody in the hotel. most of the people we have working at the hotel have been there for a long time. i think that's doubtful, but it would be me speculating to say anything. we're just not sure at this point. >> all right. alan orlob joining us on the phone this morning from jakarta, thanks so much, we appreciate it. and good luck in your

investigation and whatever security protocols you have to upgrade and revamp in trying to provide security in the future. appreciate it. >> that's frightening. you know, the united states has its own efforts to hunt down al qaeda terrorists. they have programs in place you may not know about. barbara starr does, though, and she'll share them with you.

a secret program to kill al qaeda members was recently exposed and shut down. and former vice president dick cheney's been taking a lot of heat accused of hiding that from congress. but some are wondering exactly what was being hidden. pentagon correspondent barbara starr is live from washington this morning to tell us. okay, we're intrigued. >> well, good morning to you, carol. you know, after all of this emerged a few days ago, we decided to have a reality check on the world of capture or kill. >> someone started all this. >> reporter: in the movie "the

borne ultimatum" he plays a secret assassin, but does it really exist? leon panetta shut down an agency program reportedly aimed at killing al qaeda terrorists. congress may not have been informed -- >> that's a serious breach. look, you can't gloss over it. >> reporter: but experts say nobody should claim to be surprised that the u.s. is hunting down terrorists. >> we have seen a range of al qaeda leaders that have been assassinated since september 11th in afghanistan, in pakistan, and a range of other places. >> reporter: indeed cia drones flying over pakistan have killed dozens of suspected terrorists in recent years. but jones says one of the diceiest missions, u.s. troops on the ground trading gunfire with al qaeda. >> there was a special operations force, direct action,

engagement for a very short period of time. >> reporter: other hits, somalia 2007. air force ac-130 gun ships launched strikes into southern somalia but failed to kill their al qaeda targets. iraq, 2006, the u.s. military hunts down and kills zarqawi. a cia drone kills an al qaeda operative the u.s. says was involved in the bombing of the uss coal. there are rules to be followed. >> the united states cannot kill individuals in foreign countries. i mean, there are generally with foreign fighters there has to be a determination that this individual in general is plotting and does threaten the homeland of the united states.

>> and the experts warn, carol, if the u.s. decides to put troops or cia operatives on foreign soil and that government doesn't know about it, there is a risk of diplomatic disaster if they're found out. all of this, very carefully scrutinized by the u.s. government. carol? >> barbara starr, reporting live from the pentagon this morning. thanks. >> so president obama told senate democrats he wants an agreement on the health care plan by this weekend. not going to happen. says he wants it signed by the august recess. that may not happen now. ben nelson has got some real concerns about the health care plan making its way through the house and the senate bill, as well. the president brought him over to the white house yesterday to try to control him, get him to come over to his side. 15 1/2 minutes after the hour.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. president obama is pushing for quick action on sweeping health care reform. and he got a boost when the hois committee passed one version of reform legislation. even now there are some in his party that aren't sold on the problem. ben nelson is joining me. it's great to talk to you this morning. you were invited over to the white house by the president yesterday. i guess he was trying to get you to see his point of view on things. you've got problems with the legislation. what troubles you? >> well, when he invited me over, i didn't take a sling. it wasn't any arm twisting, but he did ask for my point of view. we have to have a bipartisan approach. and the only place, i think, that's going to happen is through the senate finance

committee. and i expressed my concern, i'm working with others on a bipartisan basis and we're all expressing our concerns about deadlines. we don't want delays, we don't want to rush into this because this is a very complex situation. we want to reduce the costs. we want to improve the level of care, and we want to do that at the same time, having health care become available to people that don't currently have it. but not detrimentally impact the americans who are currently insured. >> on this idea of reducing costs, you did not get a favorable report from the congressional budget office director. here's what he said yesterday regarding the plans that are making their way through congress. >> and the legislation has been reported, we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount. >> in fact, he said it would actually expand federal

responsibility for health care costs. i mean, that went through capitol hill like a cannon shot yesterday. >> absolutely. that's the last thing we need to do. we have to find a way to reduce the cost. shifting the cost from one tax pocket to the other tax pocket isn't going to get true health care reform. one of the main things that we need to accomplish is is to establish incentives for healthier lifestyles as well as improve the level of care. i think 45% of the procedures that are applied to patients today are inappropriate. not malpractice, but inappropriate. so we've got waste in the system that we've got to find a way to take out or this spirallingç ct will continue no matter what else we try to do. >> now, in the house version of health care reform, they want to offset those costs by imposing a surtax on high wage earners in the united states, a maximum 5.4% for the wealthiest americans that would raise their tax rate to 50%.

first time in a long time that it's been there. and there are some people like senator dick durbin of illinois who we talked to earlier this week who said, hey, we want to do it differently than the house does. is that surtax a non-starter? >> i think it's a non-starter. you know, a tax is a four-letter word. so you have to be very careful with what you do with tax policy in connection with this, as well. because people don't want this additional cost added to the deficit, but at the same time, we have to find fair ways of -- means of financing as we try to help those people currently aren't insured find access to coverage. >> are you saying to congressman wrangle that idea is dead, it's not going to fly in the senate. >> i never try to advise the house. >> but the idea of the surtax -- >> the idea. i don't think it's going anywhere over here. i'm not hearing anybody pushing it. but the truth of the matter is, we have to find some way to

finance it and one of the best ways is to reduce the cost and improve the level of care. >> and you talked at the beginning about deadlines. the president wanted an agreement by this weekend, wants a bill he can sign by the august recess. you said after your white house meeting quote for my part, i suggested we not impose an arbitrary deadline to get something done. if not now when? >> well, i think there's a point where we have to have something done, but if you say it has to be this week, they're not ready to go and senator baucus and senator grassley have indicated they don't see how they could get something done this weekend, we're creating an impossibility to perform. and that's very, i think, damaging to the process. >> senator bill nelson -- ben nelson, always great to talk to you. thanks very much, save travels back to nebraska. >> thank you, john. >> carol? you know, john, coming up, we're going to talk to zach, the youngest person to ever sail around the world. you'll hear about his adventures, and he ran into some

pirates, dealt with hunger, bad weather, and the loneliness. he'll join us with his parents. it's 22 minutes past the hour.

imagine, taking a trip of a lifetime before you're even 18 years old. zach the teen sailor set a record by sailing around the world nearly 28,000 miles all by himself. here's a moment straight from the high seas. >> i've just been through my first big swell out here. and just crazy. it was pouring with rain for

like five minutes and pouring is like filling up the -- the whole boat got soaked in like five seconds. the boat can keep on track by itself. i was hand steering were all my strength trying to keep the boat running downwind. and it's crazy. so, i think i'll do a damage check real quick. >> that's scary. zach is joining us from california this morning where his trip just ended. zach's relieved mom and dad are there too. and thank you, all, for getting up so early for us. >> you're welcome. good morning. >> good morning. so zac, you're home finally after such an arduous journey. as you sit there with mom and dad, what goes through your mind? >> yes, it's great to be back. it's been 13 months since i set out, it's weird to have that behind me. it's going to be interesting to see how the next couple of days

ago. seeing all my friends and family. >> how does it feel to set a world record? >> it's awesome. i've been fighting for this thing for the past 13 months, it's awesome to finally have that done. >> i'm going to ask your parents, marion and lawrence, finally your son is back after 28,000 miles, he ran into pirates, we just saw the bad weather he ran into. so what are your feelings now that he's standing safe and sound beside you in? >> well, obviously we're relieved. it's good to have him back. and we feel like he's just done a great job and he's learned so much and seen so much, it's been a wonderful year of excitement, but we're glad for a little normalcy. >> i bet. okay, zac, tell us about some of your adventures, we saw a little bit about how you dealt with the weather. you also ran into pirates, tell us about that. >> yeah, i was on the way from

australia and had light winds out in the indian ocean there so i ended up to going to the coast of indonesia and picked up some wind and i had this boat following me around and i was altering course to get away from it. but 20 minutes the boat kept following me around all over the place and ended up calling in coast watch and got them in there and as soon as the australian coast watch was coming in, the boat took off. still it was like an hour and a half of just waiting and just pretty crazy hour. >> i bet you were praying too. i want to show our viewers a map of your journey. it's incredible. you set off from marina del ray, you went to cape town in africa, australia, this is just an amazing journey. what did you have to eat on board your boat? >> yeah. when you're out at sea for, you

know, 20 to 30 days at a time, fresh food doesn't keep very well. i was down to the moon food. i had kids helping me out with hi food a little bit. they were keeping me healthy out there. but yeah, just kind of bland food, lots of calories, and good to be back, fresh food. >> how much weight did you lose? >> about 15 to 20 pounds. >> wow. that's incredible. you know, you said something interesting as i was watching your news conference, i think it was yesterday. you said that you wanted to do this at such a young age because kids between the ages of 15 and 18 really aren't expected to do much. can you expound on that for us? >> yeah, well, i mean it's kind of the american kind of expectation that, you know, if you're between the ages 15 to 18, you go to high school, do whatever, hope you get into a college. but other places in the world once you're 16, you're pretty

much considered an adult. and you're capable of pretty much everything that an adult is capable of and with the right motivation you can do pretty much anything you want. so you've got to, you know, fight hard and go for what you want. >> well, you certainly have proved that and we're glad you're safe and sound. thanks for joining us this morning. >> wow, pretty incredible journey. just amazing. 30 minutes after the hour. checking our top stories now. first breaking news. pope benedict xvi has been taken to a hospital in northern italy. reportedly having surgery to repair a fractured wrist. the spokesman says the pontiff slipped and fell on vacation. a second person has died building a stage for the pop singer madonna. the concert has been canceled. madonna issued a statement saying she's devastated. ayatollah is calling for the release of anyone who was arrested or detained in the

government's crackdown on post election protests. he made the demand at his sermon this morning in tehran where tens of thousands of opposition supporters gathered. the ap reports that police fired tear gas at some iranians as they headed to the prayer session. secretary of state hillary rodham clinton is kicking off a week-long trip to india and thailand. paying respects to the victims and attacks. she'll be meeting leaders to strengthen business partnerships between our two countries. well, we're following breaking news and following it all morning from jakarta, indonesia, powerful bomb blasts leaving nine dead and more than 50 wounded. the attacks at the marriott and the ritz carlton hotel came minutes apart. the indonesian government is blaming suicide bombers, some of whom, officials say were actually staying at the marriott. they were guests there. we're monitoring the developments through the worldwide resources of cnn. cnn producer is in jakarta for

us this morning with the very latest. hi, kathy. >> reporter: the national police spokesman -- there were eight people killed in the two blasts that hit jakarta early this morning. one of them was a foreigner. 53 others, including 18 foreigners were also injured. they were brought to hospitals, and are still being treated there. and as you mentioned, there were several americans who were injured. among the 18 who were injured. now, the police also said and confirmed that they did find an unexploded bomb in one of the rooms on the 18th floor of the marriott hotel. they found an active bomb that they had to diffuse. although said the three bombs were similar and actually low explosive devices. now, the police say that, you know, no one has claimed responsibility for this yet, but, of course, the usual suspects as we've been saying.

the terror network which operates from indonesia and has cells working in other countries in the region like malaysia and the philippines. indonesia's certainly no strange tor to these types of bombings. in october of 2002, there was the big one on the resort island of bali, blasts killed 202 people, most of them were foreign tourists. three years later bali was hit again, four explosions rocked popular tourists spots, 30 people were killed and more than 100 wounded. and the marriott hotel was a target in 2003, 12 people killed in that bombing. they greatly enhanced security at the hotel and the ritz-carlton in the wake of that bombing, but obviously they have a big hole in their security precautions there. just into cnn, $3 billion for citigroup in the second quarter.

christine romans is here to tell us exactly what that means. >> it means that the big banks in this country that took so much taxpayer support are making money again. these banks have paid back, many of them, their t.a.r.p. funds and bank bailout funds and now in the second quarter showing they are making money again. bank of america also reported better than expected earnings this morning, jpmorgan did yesterday, goldman sachs did earlier this week, $3.4 billion in profit for goldman sachs. what are they doing right? well, the trading divisions of many of these banks are doing very well. they're making money trading in the markets. but when you look at anything related to consumer loans, many of them are cautioning that the consumer part of the business is still a little bit rough that they're setting aside money because they know that so many of their customers are not paying their credit cards on time, they're defaulting on business loans, they are defaulting on their mortgages, and so they're looking with caution ahead at that part of the business. but indeed, they are starting to make money again. citigroup getting a boost also

from selling smith barny. a little note, as well. do you know that they have cut 96,000 jobs from their peak and they've cut 30,000 jobs just since the first quarter. >> i'm confused, but i understand very little of what happens in the world of finance anyway. citigroup's stock $3 closed yesterday, we continue to hear that it's in dire straits. >> yep. >> and yet it makes $3 billion? >> it's supported by the government and the government is supporting this company and because they want it to get back and healthy again and want it to start making money again so it can be a healthy participant in the global economy. >> obviously they're doing something right. >> well, they separated out two different parts of the business and they recorded a profit, a net profit for the quarter. >> it's just disturbing to hear their credit card customers, you know, they're going to default on their credit cards and probably be penalized for life for that. and then they're making so much money -- >> well, the consumers still weak here. we want them to be healthy. we don't want the banks to be weak -- >> how much money they make

versus what kind of shape we heard they were in. >> well, i don't think they're -- they're called the walking wounded. i don't think this means they are back to pure health. and they're raising a lot of red flags about what the consumer's going to look forward to over the next couple of years and setting aside money to try to prepare for that. these banks are doing better than we thought they would at this point. that is not a controversial statement. they are doing better than we thought -- >> that's an understatement. >> yeah, well -- >> thanks, christine. we're asking you a question this morning. should we do away with affirmative action? it's part of my just saying segment. a lot of you have responded at cnn.com/amfix. we're going to read your comments and explore the issue of affirmative action. it's 36 minutes past the hour. ry for an annuity with guaranteed income for life. that's right, guaranteed income for life. my annuity from fidelity means my retirement income is safe. it's guaranteed, no matter what happens.

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good morning, hotlanta where it's cloudy, 74 degrees, isolated thunderstorms, a high of 87. it's affecting business travel on this friday morning. the only significant delays we have been able to find this morning are at philadelphia where the average delay is about 50 minutes right now. but there's also a little bit of junk happening in charlotte and

there in atlanta. so call ahead to the airline before you go out. might be a good idea. of course, with thunderstorms coming their way in atlanta later on today, that might create some problems. >> check online because you'll never get through on the phone. i've been there. >> you're such a cynic. every -- like the little silver line, let's paint it black. >> i was trying to be positive this morning. it's not working. anyway, welcome back to the most news in the morning. let's talk about affirmative action. because it's been a sticky subject. affirmative action or quota system? a debate reignited because of sonia sotomayor's confirmation hearings. it's clear some people feel affirmative action should just go away. just saying. with an african-american in the white house and a soon to be hispanic on the supreme court, is it time to say no to affirmative action? >> reporter: born at the height of the civil rights movement, affirmative action helped minority students like sonia sotomayor get into elite schools like princeton.

>> i am a product of affirmative action. i am the perfect affirmative action baby. my test scores were not comparable to that of my colleagues in princeton or yale. >> reporter: keep in mind back then only 12% of law school students nationwide were women and only 7% were minorities. today, the numbers have changed dramatically. almost half of law school students are women, and 23% are minority. and minorities and women overall seem to be excelling. america boasts a black president, a woman secretary of state and the list goes on and on and on and on. >> i'm just saying. >> time to say no to affirmative action? >> time for us to operate under the affirmative action to operate on racial preferences and quotas is idiotic and counterproductive. >> reporter: it's a sentiment echoed by supreme court justice clarence thomas who wrote in his memoir of his yale law degree.

i graduated from one of america's top law schools, but racial preference had robbed my achievement of its true value. and we found plenty of other americans who agreed with him. >> i don't see the point in it any more. >> let's have it go away. >> i think it's time to consider ending it. >> i don't think it's relevant anymore. >> i believe it should have never been in place in the first place. >> reporter: but others say not so fast. yes, we have a black president, but there is just one black senator -- >> i think that's a great day. i think we'll just say, here's our new nominee, we're going to ask her questions, then we won't need affirmative action. >> a couple of other things to keep in mind. experts say minority enrollment at public universities has actually fallen in recent years and it would be difficult to say discrimination on the job has completely disappeared. you hear people complaining about that all the time. despite this, voters in at least three states have limited the

scope of affirmative action. seeing it as a quota system. e-mail me on my blog at cnn.com/amfix. we're getting a lot of interesting comments. most of them say we should get rid of it. >> i love that one woman said, let's get to a point where there is no gender differences, no racial differences, you know, no ethnic background differences. we're all just people. >> well, she believes affirmative action programs should stay in place because she doesn't say that day has come yet. >> not looking for utopia. >> cnn.com/amfix. one of my favorite songs of all time. one pill makes you smaller, one pill makes you tall. everybody's taking energy drinks to get up, well, guess what, now there's the anti-energy drink to

bring you back down. our dr. sanjay gupta has got all of the details. >> why would you want to take that? >> well, drink too many red bulls, you've got to take a drink to get back down, i guess.

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well, are you sick of getting hit with bank fees every time you blink? are you mad as heck, you're not going to take it anymore? >> yes. well, you don't have to put up with it gerri willis is here to tell us why. >> they are changing banks and in a big way. according to research from javelin strategy, 40% of the folks who switched banks over the past three months switched because of rising fees and let me tell you one of the most onerous ones. overdraft fees, $35, these are short-term loans in case you overdraw your account and they don't even tell you you're doing it. i had this happen to me recently and spent almost $400 because i was out using my debit card and didn't know i was over drawing. so people are angry and they're switching banks and you may be wondering exactly how to do that. so the best thing to do is to get a switching kit. at your local bank's office or online, it'll give you all of the forms you need to switch

banks, tell you how to do it. don't forget to keep money in your old account, because you want to be sure you can cover everything you want to cover. have those closed accounts verified in rising because you want to be able -- >> you have to fill out papers and get a switching -- >> you know, you don't. but the good news about a switching kit is you won't forget something. look, people are relying their bank accounts, depositing their checks in there, you're paying your bills out of your online account. there's so much going on with these accounts. maybe you have a social security check deposited into that account. you want to make sure you move everything the right way. and don't forget one thing you can do, obviously, if you're not happy with your bank, instead of changing banks, you can call customer service or talk to your local branch manager and says, look, i want some of these fees cut out. i want you to forgive some of them or raise my rate on my interest bearing account. >> you had $400? >> nearly $400. look, this is a big deal. in fact, consumer reports was in front of congress last week testifying on this thing. this very issue of overdraft

fees. they feel like they're not fair and obviously you don't want to overdraw your account, but people don't really know these fees are piling up. hundreds and hundreds of dollars that you know translates into millions and millions to the bottom line. >> you know whose bank i want, i want the guy who got charged for the pack cigarettes. >> that's the good bank. it took him two hours to talk himself out of that. >> thanks so much for that. 49 minutes after the hour. dr. sanjay gupta coming right up. this one you've got to see to believe.

♪ >> a little ramones to set us up there. it had to happen, with all of these energy drinks designed to get you up. somebody had to come along and say well at the end of the day when you're full of sugar and caffeine, you've got to have something to bring you back down again. right? >> i'm not getting this. why would you ever want to be brought down? >> yeah. you've got your roll on, carol. this is about slowing your roll down. >> dr. gupta here to tell us about this. >> i'm not sure i'm buying it either. i'm siding with carol on that

one. that was the thinking you have all of these drinks that give you energy and get you up during the day. if you need to relax at night, what can you do? and people are starting to tap into this market. this is one example of a drink called drank. i looked it up where they got the name. in inner city houston they'd mix codeine with drinks and it would bring people down with alcohol. >> is that what that is? >> no, this does not have any alcohol or any codeine, but it has all of these various substances which we don't know what they do in combination but in isolation have some soothing effects. >> it's got a lot of b vitamins. >> and melatonin. it makes you tired. valerian, and rose hips, as well. >> yeah, in tea. >> boiled in water can be somewhat soothing, as well. you know what's interesting, i started to investigate this. you have this whole list of

substances by the fda that are called grass substances, generally regarded as safe, which means we don't know a lot about them and how they act in combinations. we've talked to the creator of it and he said we've been selling millions of units, no reports of adverse effects. >> so has anyone tried it? been a guinea pig? >> well, i haven't tried it myself. >> i'm about to get on an airplane and fly for three hours. >> drink it and tell us. >> yeah, you can have a segment on monday. >> give it to john, he'll drink anything. >> they do say that about you a lot. there are other ways to relax. i will tell you that. we talked about this a lot. you don't have to do the drank. getting exercise during the day, but not too close to bedtime. trying to get a good night's sleep. and carol, this will surprise you maybe. i meditate every afternoon now. >> really? >> somebody told me about this a few years ago. about ten minutes. someone told me how to do it and

it involved focusing on a single word. i picked the word gentle. >> you gave us your mantra. you're not supposed to do that. >> say the word, focus on it, the first few minutes you won't be able to focus at all. but in a few minutes you're quite comfortable with it. >> that surprises me about you because you're -- he's running like a million miles an hour. how do you find it within yourself to stop? i find it difficult. if i'm not doing something at every moment, it drives me crazy. >> i'm driven crazy by the fact that there's so many things pulling at me. i get ten minutes of my time, don't get interrupted, focus on the word. it works. you can tell me if it works better than drank. >> i'm a.d.d. -- >> you've got to focus on five words. >> he'll drink that stuff we don't know how it affects you. i'll meditate. >> how long does this last, though? >> i don't know, i don't know how they work in combination. people do take it typically

before bedtime. my gift to you. >> you're such a bro. >> the bromance back on. >> i'm becoming nauseous. i've never seen any place as beautiful as rio degenero. >> the bad things. >> it's the kids here. >> sometimes i get scared.ç >> they don't have many options. kids die every day from making the wrong choice. but every time i see him, the first thing that comes to my mind is potential. i'm an olympic medallist, but the best part of my life is changing people's destiny through sports.

i usually tell the kids that we can't let ourselves get used to the violence that surrounds us. we have to fight back somehow. instead of fighting the streets, they learn how to use their energy in the right place. >> i feel less afraid. flavio helps me win championships and feel very proud of myself. >> helping kids avoid the wrong choice is one of our goals. they don't need to follow the destinies everyone told them they would have. they can change it. they're the true heroes.

how many washes did it take cheer brightclean to get this from dingy to bright? one might be surprised. twelve. no. uh, excuse me! four? one... would think it would take that many washes. ten? man & woman: okay, we got it this time. yes? it's six. seven. why? why is... one-derfully bright, hmm? oh, one... yes, yes! hundred. cheer brightclean. surprisingly bright in just one wash.

i'm just reading our blog here. and it's been amazing how many people are writing in. >> a lot of people, yeah. >> you know, i wasn't sure if we were in commercial or on air. and thank you for writing into our blogs this morning. . and we've been asking you our viewers to tell us your thoughts about our just saying segment this mo