waves and rip currents. rob marciano is tracking it for us this morning. >> hot-button issues. taxpayers will be forced to pick up the tab for health care for illegal immigrants. president obama says that's simply not true. is that really the case? we have the truth squad this morning. a bombshell accusation about president bush's white house straight from one of the most senior officials who work there. we're talking about tom ridge. he's out with a new book. in it, he claims the white house pressured him to raise the terror level days before the 2004 presidential election. the suggestion -- president bush's team was ready to use scare tactics to score political points. we'll talk to jeanne meserve. but first, the back story from our senior white house correspondent, ed henry. >> reporter: the friday before the 2004 election. only two or three points

separated democrat john kerry from president bush. suddenly, a twist. osama bin laden released a shocking new videotape and it played nonstop on the arab language network al jazeera. >> translator: your security is not in the hands of kerry or bush or al qaeda. your security is in your own hands. >> reporter: the next morning, 72 hours before the polls open, the president's top security advisors including donald rumsfeld and john ashcroft huddled for a meeting deciding whether to raise the threat level from yellow to orange. and in an explosive new book, ridge says a vigorous and some might say dramatic discussion ensued. ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level and supported by rumsfeld. there was no support for that position within our department, none. i wondered, is this about

security or politics? postelection analysis demonstrated a significant increase in the president's approval rating in the days after the raising of the threat level. the bush campaign was pushing the envelope on frightening voters listening to then vice president cheney ten days before the al al qaeda tape. >> it's they're smuggling weapons in our own cities and raises the spectrum of being able to kill hundreds of thousands of americans. >> a few hours before, the white house had raised the threat level. john charge the political manipulation. >> we don't do politics in the department of homeland security. >> reporter: now with the tense meeting the weekend before the election, ridge writes, quote seemed possible to me and others around the table that something could be afoot other than simple

concern about the country's safety. in the end, however, the threat level was not raised after ridge claim he and ohs pulled he and ashcroft and others, quote, back from the brink. he writes i know i had to follow through on my plans to leave the federal government. he concluded -- i considered that episode to be not only a dramatic moment in washington's recent history but another illustration of the intersection of politics, fear, and instability. townsend insists ridge was wrong. townsend suggests politics was not discussed at the meeting but it was based solely on intelligence. john, kiran. >> ed henry, thank you so much. we bring in jeanne meserve who covers homeland security live in washington for us. the interesting thing as we just said is this is one take,

ridge's, and frank townsend has a different take. is there any way to verify ridge's claim? >> fred townsend acknowledges that they argued for raising the threat level. she says there was no discussion of politics in association with raising it. bush doesn't say there was any such discussion. he said he lbd istened to the discussion and he wondered for himself, is it about security or politics? he drew one conclusion. fred townsend drew another. the only people who know what was motivating ashcroft or rumsfeld are those men himself. they haven't told us what they were thinking that day. >> what kind of guy was he for people who don't know him. does this surprise you that he's coming out with this claim? >> it does. michael chertoff, who followed ridge in office, he's a mix it up kind of guy. he likes to get in an argument.

but tom ridge seems like the man who never wanted to make waves. thinking about it a little bit more, tom ridge, however, is widely believed to have split political ambitions and perhaps this was a way to put distance between himself and the bush administration. >> thank you for your perspective this morning. we appreciate it. following developing news this morning on the island of bermuda which is on high alert with hurricane bill approaching. tropical storm warnsings there. the storm will be stirring up the east coast. rip currents can be seen in the carolinas and the coast of new jersey and maryland as well. rob marciano watching bill. he's in bowling green, ohio this morning. difficult to know exactly what the intensity -- the track seems a little more certain, but what's bill going to do in terms of intensity. >> that's the struggle that the national hurricane center has,

forecasting. what will the intensity be 12, 24, 48 hours out? sometimes they do their best guesswork. the models are getting better. they have a hand on the track and that for u.s. purposes is the most important problem at hand. it's become a little less organized, a dry air intrusion, southwesterly winds knocking it down a little bit. the same southwesterly winds are nudging it to the north. so you can almost see that curvature towards the north away from the u.s. coastline. now we're confident that it won't be a direct strike, at least, on u.s. soil. forecast track is to shoot the gap between the carolinas and bermuda, coming within 300 miles of bermuda. they'll get the bad side of the storm. the heaviest rains, certainly the heaviest winds. tropical storm warnings posted for that island. hurricanes out. the forecast to remain a hurricane as it parallels cape cod as we go through tomorrow

afternoon and tomorrow night in to sunday morning. as you mentioned, the threat for the u.s. will be the dangerous surf that's alreadybahamas. it will reach the u.s. coastline later today. tonight and tomorrow will be the worst day for a heavy surf. i suspect a lot of the coastline from florida all the way up to the cape will be posting some of those surf advisories as well. it will be rough. another big weekend as summer comes to an en, joend, john and. we're here in bowling green to check out the national tractor pull championships. it's a unique event, a lot of sound, a lot of horsepower coming up in half an hour. >> behind you, ron, is the biggest i've seen. that thing is -- >> you've got a chance to drive one of these things, rob?

>> i don't think they'll let me on one of the suckers with 10,000 horsepower. lobbying for a smaller version. we'll see. >> you could be the jeff gordon of the tractor world. let's go. >> maybe for five minutes. >> check back with you, thanks, rob. >> i'm not qualified. eight minutes past the hour right now. also new this morning, we could learn the initial results about afghanistan's presidential elections. right now, they're counting the millions of ballots. yesterday's vote is being called a success even though there were concerns that taliban threats kept some voters away from the polls. the government says 26 people were kill in election day violence. attention, shoppers. four days left to take advantage for the cash for clunkers rebate program. it ends 8:00 p.m. eastern on monday. car dealers and the government have been overwhelmed by its success. half a million clunkers have been traded in for new fuel-efficient models totalling $10 million in rebates.

many say uncle sam is too slow to pay them back for their deals. and there may be a day when your local newspaper no longer carries movie listings. they're directing consumers to internet sites which offers listings for free. two of the top movie chains have stopped newspapers to print movie listings. >> all right. we hear about what's in the health care bill. a lot of what we're hearing is not in the health care bill. one of the great myths is it covers health care for illegal immigrants. debunking that one coming up and tell you some more what is and isn't in the health care bill.

this is my verizon small business specialist, tom. now, i know the catering business but when i walked in here i wasn't sure what i needed. i'm not sure what i need. tom showed me how to use mifi to get my whole team working online, on location. i was like, "woah". woah ! only verizon wireless has small business specialists in every store to help you do business better. you're like my secret ingredient. come in today and connect up to five devices on one 3g connection. now only $99.99 good choice. only meineke lets you choose the brake service that's right for you. and save 50% on pads and shoes. meineke.

♪ you're hot and you're cold you're yes and you're know ♪ ♪ you're in and you're out the beverage you're about to enjoy could be extremely hot. if you have to have that mint frappuccino no whip half caff at starbucks, you're going to need extra coin. they're boosting on the complex concoctions but the coffee chain will charge less for a cup of joe. cutting prices 15 cents. >> i think you ordered that before. >> it's the pumpkin frappuccino. >> with a tiny cinnamon. >> i'm a plain latte kind of guy. a bill to cut california's prison population by 27,000 inmates passed the state senate. it's expected to trim $1.2

billion from the state's correction budget. that plan would allow lower level inmates to serve out the last year of their sentences under house arrest. it reduces the number of pa row lees to return to prison on technical violations. it does face strong opposition in the assembly. the heated health care wars may be taking a toll on president obama. 49% of americans say they are confident the president will make the right decisions for the country down from 60% in late april. as president obama struggles to regain the grip on the debate, he took his fight yesterday to conservative talk radio. >> i'm confident we're going to get it done. and as far as negotiations with republicans, my attitude has always been, let's see if we can get this done with some consensus. i would love to have more republicans engaged and involve in this process. i think early on the decision

was made by the republican leadership that said, look, let's not give them a victory. >> president obama fired up his liberal base at democratic headquarters telling supporters not to believe reports he's off his gain. he can still get the three pointer from the outside, he said. and one debate is who's going to pay for illegal immigrant health care. president obama says they woechwon't be covered under his plan, but is that the case? >> it's not as easy as everyone thinks it is. it's not will power. you need groups. >> reporter: she's a recovering add dick. she's getting free treatment. most of the patients here are hispanic and have no insurance. >> you don't have the money when you come out of it to pay for the services. >> reporter: marco runs the mental health center. >> senora. >> reporter: dr. frank castillo

sees dozens of patients every day. he doesn't know who is legal and who is not. he looks into their eyes and not into the background. >> i take care of the person in front of me who comes for help. >> reporter: 84% aris panic, 40% are uninsured. no one asks about their immigration status. they're treated regardless of that status and to pay. he's on one side of the debate for health care. jesse ruiz is on the other. >> before we create perverse inseptemberives and undocumented immigrants, we have to worry about the people who are here. >> reporter: he says when life or death is an issue, there's a solution. >> the great thing about our nation is we do have laws that we don't allow people to die in our street. >> reporter: everyone, regardless of status, should get treatment for contagious diseases. >> it's h1n1.

if it's a pandemic, we need to consider everybody. >> she's now drug free and says any type of benefit for the uninsured benefits everyone. >> people out there stealing, robbing, committing all sorts of crimes to try to feed their addiction and the society is paying for it whether they realize it or not. >> reporter: obama said he would like to include the children of illegal immigrants in health care reform because they'll be playing on the same playgrounds going to school with other children making the possibility of spreading disease very high. several thousand children are in this country illegally. john, kiran. >> thanks so much. talk about the stimulus where, the dollars are being spent. one community means saving their police force. but i try not to let it slow me down. i go down to the pool for a swim... get out and dance... even play a little hide-n-seek.

i'm breathing better... with spiriva. announcer: spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled maintenance treatment for both forms of copd... which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. i take it every day. it keeps my airways open... to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announcer: spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. stop taking spiriva and call your doctor if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, or have vision changes or eye pain. tell your doctor if you have glaucoma, problems passing urine or an enlarged prostate, as these may worsen with spiriva. also discuss the medicines you take, even eye drops. side effects may include dry mouth, constipation and trouble passing urine. every day could be a good day to breathe better. announcer: ask your doctor

19 minutes after the hour. we have christine romans minding your business. the difficulties with so many people out of work and how it relates to try to pay for health insurance.

there's something you should know about cobra. >> it's available for you if you lost your job. you pay and you can stay in your company's -- your company's health insurance plan for a while. but the government, under that stimulus plan, is subsidizing 65% of your cobra fees, what it costs you to get cobra. a lot of people get laid off, they don't sign up for cobra. it's expensive. you get you're not getting a paycheck and then you need insurance. cobra enrollment has spiked, tripling in some categories. manufacturing, look at these numbers. it tells you costs is a problem for health insurance. if the government kicks in 65%, look what happens. people flocking -- manufacturing, retame, leisure. this is cobra since march. you have about 38% overall of all of the people eligible for cobra in the program. that's double what it was even at the beginning of the year.

14 million people are eligible right now. now, think of this -- 6.24 million people are continuing to see jobless benefits in this country. we saw that yesterday. 6.24 million. that's up twice, almost three times. baltimore -- the population of baltimore. a lot of people. so all of the people are unemployed and eligible for this. a couple of things to remember -- it's going to run out. nine months of benefits. i suggest people take a sharp look at it if you have money to spend on the co-pays at this point. and another couple of things -- if you just lost your job, a couple of things to remember -- you think you're losing your job, or you're severing your relationship with your employer, you want to get in legal ease what's called without cause termination. you want to get the benefits. without cause termination, remember that. and ask for more time if you can. talking to a lot of employment experts. some employers are on the fence. they're on the fence of doing

the last little bit of layoffs. ask for another month. stay on the books, stay with the company for another month. things are turning around. >> maybe you'll last just long enough. >> maybe. >> you have a romans numeral? >> 12,680. >> the average cost of a health care plan for a family -- >> i'm not hard enough. >> tell him what he win, johnny. >> we went through this yesterday. >> i want the new car. >> $12,680. the annual cost of a family policy without the subsidy. if you just lost your job, costing you $12,000 a year. in some cases, it's costing more than your rent to pay for your health care. all feeds to the debate about what we're having here right now. the most important thing for you right now is if you lost your job, you're eligible for subsidized cobra. >> instead of $1,000 a month, you can pay $350. for your family, it could be a huge difference. >> that could be a burden for a lot of people. >> you're right. 9% of home loans are in default.

people are having a hard time paying the bills. li triaging your bills every month. everybody is one paycheck away from total financial ruin. >> people are declaring bankruptcy. >> one half have to do with medical. >> christine romans, thanks so much. >> friday, john avalon's wingnuts of the week. calling out people on the left and right taking the political discourse to a whole new level. he'll join us in a couple of minutes. ♪ yes, you're lovely... ♪ what do you think? hey, why don't we use our points from chase sapphire and take a break? we can't. sure, we can. the points don't expire... ♪ there is nothing for me... ♪ there's no travel restrictions...

we could leave tomorrow. we can't use them for a vacation. you can use the points for just about anything. i know... ♪ the way you look tonight ♪ chase what matters. get your new chase sapphire card at chase.com/sapphire. there's no way to hide it. sir, have you been drinking tonight? if you ride drunk, you will get caught... and you will get arrested.

♪ we can work it out we can work it out ♪ a beautiful shot today. the sun coming up over long

island sound. looking east from the time-warner center here over central park. 79 degrees right now. try the thunderstorms later on in the day. lit be up in the high 80s. keep that in mind if you're traveling somewhere for the weekend. welcome back to the most news in the morning. we made it a priority to show you where the stimulus money is going. well, we found one struggling police department that's seen it and used it to save half their force. let me tell you, it was a force that could not stand to be cut. here's cnn's kate baldwin. >> reporter: john, kiran, $1 million is going to help law enforcement across the country keep officers on the job. in this town, that means saving half of the police force. officer rick burrows making the rounds in smalltown wardensville, west virginia, population, 275. >> one mile from the west -- from the east end of the west

end. and we have a variety of everything here. so, like i said, from petty theft to drugs. >> reporter: after 14 years in law enforcement, burrows faced certain unemployment because of the economy and budget shortfall. scottie miller is the town's mayor. >> if you don't have the money, you don't have the money. >> reporter: you were supposed to be laid off in july. >> right. >> reporter: that must have been rough. >> it was scary, yes, ma'am. >> reporter: the thing is, burrows represents half of the department. jeff diskill is the police chief. >> small community, 50% of your department, your operational capacity. that's a lot. >> reporter: then the stimulus came to the rescue. a $156,000 rescue for this rural community. wardensville is one of more than 1,000 agencies, a fraction of the total grant request, looking for a stimulus boost through the

justice department program community oriented policing services, known as cops. but that smalltown assistance has some big city police departments complaining they were passed over. eric holder explained how agencies were selected. >> we received app lplications m more than 7,000 cities and towns and made funding decisions on crime rate, financial need, and policing communities. >> you want a sucker? >> two for the price of one today. >> reporter: for a soft spoken officer who admits he tries to fight more crime with sweets than with firepower, burrows says he's glad this time around washington didn't forget towns like wardensville. >> i don't know how to put it in words. just thank god the money came through. >> reporter: these grants pay for both salary and benefits for the next three years and require the local agencies to cover those costs for at least one additional year. sounds like this one across the

country are counting on the economy to turn around by then. john, kiran. >> kate boldwin for us. thank you so much. hurricane bill packing winds of 120 miles per hour and turning towards bermuda. tropical storm warnings are posted there at present. the category 3 storm could cause significant flooding on the island because of highways. it's expected to produce rough surf and rip currents along much of the east coast this weekend. a lot of people will be going in the water. be careful. prepare for an explosion of h1n1 swine flu cases. that's the warning from the health organization. they'll see cases double every three or four days for several months. it estimates 2 billion people, 1/3 of the world's population could become infected over the next two years. and cheers for a mass killer in lib libya. the only man convicted in the

pan am bombing 103 arrived home yesterday. he received a hero's welcome. thousands on hand to greet him throwing pedals from flowers as he stepped off of the plane. he was convicted of killing 270 people in the lockerbie bombing but served eight years of a 27-year sentence. scotland released him on compassionate grounds because he has cancer and is expected to die. president obama called that decision a mistake and that's some of the milder commentary on his release. now to politics -- the gift that keeps on giving, you could say. the wingnuts of the week built on the premise that the far right and far left can be equally insane at times. john avalon calls someone out from each side who he says has taken political name calling to the extreme. he's the author of "independent nation. he's here with this week's wingnut. who got the honor or the

dishonor on the left today? >> dishonor on the left is a blast from the past. someone you thought might never be heard from again. cindy sheehan, a fixture on the left protesting president bush's summer vacations, now announcing the intention to protest president obama's vacation in martha's vineyard because the wars haven't ended per her instructions. the body bags aren't taking a vacation, and the u.s.-led violence, surges in afghanistan and pakistan, so are the needless deaths on every side. if the right wing could force the government to drop any kind of public option or government-supported health care, then we need to exert the same kind of pressure to force a speedy end to the occupations. a couple of things about that -- the u.s.-led violence in afghanistan? maybe she should spend more time protesting the taliban. get a clue and perspective. never to say president bush was worse than osama bin laden. >> you say it's interesting because it's the one area in

foreign policy that the president has the highest level bipartisan support for trying to root out terror in afghanistan. >> exactly right. he's just a couple of months to depot larize one of the most contentious issues in this decade. it has brought bipartisan support. you're never going to please everyone and you'd be a fool to try. but cindy sheehan is siding herself on the far left. wingnut of the left, cindy sheehan. >> from the right? >> blast from the past. the hammer tom delay. former majority leader now resurfacing on media tour for "dancing with the stars." he stooped to reality show using that as a platform to weigh in on politics. he said he wants to make it clear it's not just about dancing but opposing the obama administration telling the daily beat, i dance five hours a day, i've got another 19 hours to stop obama. that's not all he did.

>> he went on msnbc's "hardball" with chris matthews as well last night. he brought up something that's been talked about before, a very highly contentious point of view. let's look. >> yeah. >> i would like the president to produce his birth certificate. i can. i can -- most illegal aliens here in america can. why can't the president of the united states produce a birth certificate. there's not anybody in america that's been born in america that didn't get a birth certificate at obama's age. >> is delay a birther? >> he seems to be a dancing birther. this is not entirely outside of the purview. he's always been a bit wingnutty, especially on issues like this. but what's one the illegal alien comment as well? it seems to be ripping off a lot of the ugliest and craziest stuff out there. tom delay is a major high bipartisan. a lot of the protests we're

seeing in exacerbation of the hitler nazi rhetoric. so offensive. delay called the epa the gestapo of government. he's taken it to an art form or national disgrace. he's singing the same tune now on "dancing with the stars". >> you think he can dance, though? not going out in the first round. >> i'll take him out the first round. >> we'll have to see if, you know, during the judging or anything he brings politics in to dancing. >> might creep up. >> we'll see. great to see you as always. for more on john avalon's wingnut picks this week, log on to cnn.com/amfix. >> difficult to dance when you have the wingnut crown on your head. >> oh, yeah. the war at home, talking about the stresses of deployment and the stresses when people come back home from war as well. we're going to take a look alt one couple struggling with a new dynamic after one returns home from war. kiran went out and met them.

quite a story. bring that to you coming up next. (announcer) what are you going to miss when you have an allergy attack? achoo! (announcer) benadryl is more effective than claritin at relieving your worst symptoms. and works when you need it most. benadryl. you can't pause life. or sit on her bed and talk about her day. but she's ready. thanks to walmart's unbeatable prices, i was able to get her everything she needed. as well as what she wanted. letting go?@imom! (mom) that's the hard part. set them up for success, for less. save money. live better. walmart.

♪ the power of love ♪ and the power of healing welcome back to the most news in the morning. this week in our special series, "the war at home," we've seen the difficult process of making the transition back to home after years of the battlefield. >> and it's reflected in military divorce rates. i got a chance to meet one couple whose marriage was pushed to the breaking point. >> when son in a and he met, it was love at first sight. they married and began life in his native holland. ralph struggled to find work in the united states, when the iraq war began, he decided to join

the army. >> it was no argument. all right, we're going to go on another adventure. >> reporter: now with two children, the adventure was harder than expected. >> as a family, we never had any downtime. school from field training to school again. you doan have time to think. >> reporter: and on top of all of those changes, i mean, what you're basically dealing with is knowing that your husband is going to go to war. so how did you deal with that? >> i did not do well. emotionally. >> reporter: she grieved the loss of all four of her grandparents. the losses and the long separation became unbearable. >> i used the word numbness. it is. i became someone i was not. i told him i didn't want to be married anymore. >> reporter: how did you handle what she was going through knowing that she's hurting so much and you can't be there to help her? >> i was helpless. i couldn't fix anything. >> reporter: he tried -- through letters. >> babe, i love you.

you are truly beautiful in every way. your ralphy. >> what was it like to receive his letter? >> heart breaking. there's nothing like looking in the mirror and asking yourself -- begging god to bring that feeling back for you -- you know, the love that you have for your husband. it was gone. >> ralph was understanding, but angry. >> i was like, hey, what's going on here. i'm the one getting shot at every day, fear for my life i want to make it back to my family as soon as possible. >> sometimes when the soldier comes back, it's not because the soldier is broken that the family breaks up. it's because the spouse is broken. >> reporter: army chaplain mark sacks is a leader in the program strong bond. it helps military families prepare for and cope with the stress of deployment. >> this program is a great program. there needs to be more of it. >> reporter: they say they did not get enough support from their base in germany.

ultimately they decided to separate, not from each other, but from the army. >> reporter: i had to fight two battles. when i was a soldier, i put the battle of the army in front of my family. i learned to turn that around. i put my family first and the army second. >> reporter: they spent the past two years healing and finding each other again. shonda now has a message for other military families -- >> you can do it. and as far down as we got, you know, you can -- >> don't give up. >> don't give up. >> so, again, it was a difficult situation. ralph ultimately decided to leave the military so he could spend time with his family. he took a deferment, joined the reserves. he is eligible for deferment again. >> can they cope with it if he goes on another deployment? >> so i asked her the phone could ring any day. she said we're not focusing on that. she said if it did happen, she feels she's much better equipped to deal with it this time around. >> got the tools now.

>> not easy. by the way, the divorce rate has gone up 2%. that doesn't seem to be that significant. sheila casey married to chief of staff george casey, she says it will climb as more soldiers come home and hoping some of the programs will help people stay together. >> they're rising to the challenge, which is a good thing to see. >> you can see all of this, by the way, the week's "war at home" series on our blog, cnn.com/amfix. rob's road show. she's at bowling green, ohio at the tractor pull championships. they'll be firing up coming up. stay with us. does your mouthwash work in six different ways?

introducing listerine total care. everything you need... to strengthen teeth, help prevent cavities, and kill germs. introducing 6 in 1 listerine total care. the most complete mouthwash.

i get the question "does it work?" all the time, and you know what, it works. nutrisystem for men: flexible new programs personalized to meet your goals. what's great about nutrisystem is you eat the foods you love and you lose weight. i'm dan marino. i lost 22 pounds on nutrisystem and i've kept it off for three years. for a limited time, get an extra three weeks of meals free! that's right, you can get an extra 21 breakfasts, lunches, dinners, desserts, and snacks. that's 105 meals free! i had awesome results. i mean, i lost 22 pounds, my goal was 20, it came off fast, and the food was great. it's what every guy's been waiting for: it's healthy weight loss and it's flexible. with prices as low as $12 a day, you'll save hundreds over other weight-loss programs. order now and get an extra three weeks of fantastic meals.

that's right, 105 meals absolutely free. call or click now. guys, you can do this. just pick up the phone and call. you will lose weight. ♪ hold on to ♪ we can go to town but if you'd rather i'll take you for a ride ♪ ♪ on my big green tractor >> welcome back to the most news in the morning. time to go on a road trip. every friday, rob marciano hits the road for what we call "rob's road show." the world yo-yo contest in florida, the yard sail in tennessee and today, it's bowling green, ohio in the national tractor pull championships. hey, rod. >> a little slice of americana, john, kiran. we are in the heartland in the buckeye state. able to have some fun on this friday. thankfully hurricane bill looks

like it will miss the u.s. if you're hitting to the beaches, be careful. rip currents and big waves are going to be an issue. if you're heading inland, maybe to a tractor pull. this is what they're pulling. a pretty elaborate setup. they can put several thousand -- 40,000 -- 80,000 pounds of weight on here and some of these tractors will be -- well, pulling it across the dirt good old fashioned style. you can imagine the kind of horsepower these puppies garner. it certainly makes some noise. listen to this. that is just one of five engines, five engines, each of which takes five gallons to run 300 feet. that's not a lot of good mileage to the gallon. here's one of those in the five

engine division. this sucker elaborately run by wayne purser out of norman, oklahoma. i asked him, what's the scariest thing that's happened to you while pulling on a tractor? >> the scariest thing that ever happened to me? i had a blown two-wheel drive. had some loose fuel lines, caught on fire. i was on fire. you can't see nothing all burning. i was rolling around on the ground. i didn't know it was on fire. burnt my legs up. had been to the hospital for a week. it totalled the car out. >> just like that on fire and back -- actually, there's wainright there. a couple of participants from all across the country, texas, pennsylvania, ohio. all right here. going to be, i believe, 300 participants -- 60 -- 300 participants and 50,000 people, john, kiran, come to this thing. it is -- it's quite impressive. we can't fire these things up

right now because there's noise abatement law, you might imagine. i'm working on getting on one. i think by the next hour, we'll have success of me getting on one of these bad boys. >> the least they can do is give you a ride. you could ride shotgun or something, no? >> there's not a whole lot of room in there. we're working on that. i did get to sit in one yesterday and fire it up. >> what time do we -- what time do they lift the noise restriction? >> like -- like 8:00 or so. >> oh. we'll get you on for the last hour. >> all right. we want to see -- >> in the next hour, we'll -- >> the next hour we'll what, rob? >> we'll fire them up. >> looking forward to that. fabulous. we want you to decide where rob goes on fridays for the re of the summer. head to our website at cnn.com/amfix and send us ideas. explosive allegations about mixing politics with terror

alerts. coming from the first homeland security secretary tom ridge. talk about that still ahead. 49 minutes past the hour. to . sir, have you been drinking tonight? if you ride drunk, you will get caught... and you will get arrested. ( whooshing, riders cheering )

a dairy farmer in pennsylvania is learning there's more to his cows than just the milk they produce. and in tough economic times like these, you can't let anything go to waste -- including waste. reynolds wolf has the story in this week's "solutions." >> reporter: milking a profit from a dairy farm is not easy. the price of milk is dropping,

but the cost of running a farm isn't getting any cheaper. >> how about one of these cows like 3095. what is her day going to be like? >> she's going to need to eat about 100 to 110 pounds of food. >> reporter: shawn owns this fourth generation farm in pennsylvania and he's finding creative ways to make ends meet. >> that's one of the scrapers that scrape the barn. >> not scraping dirt, it's scraping something else. >> large manure. >> reporter: all for power. >> reporter: that's right, the 600 milking cows help power the farm. the waste is scraped in to a digester and stored for 16 days to create a gas. it generates enough electricity to power hillcrest sailor dairy farm and neighboring home. converting waste to power saves him $200,000 a year.

>> system, project costs, ever millions of dollars to build a system. but the payback is five years or less. >> reporter: if your grandfather were alive today and you were to say we're power og farm with cow waste? >> probably disbelief. more like science fiction to him. >> reporter: reynolds wolf, cnn, lockwood, pennsylvania. >> there you have it, a use for everything. >> going back to the future, isn't it? >> that's right. >> in primitive times, still cow manure, petat, things like that. a great undiscovered resource lying there all that time. >> bad night for berlino the bear. i don't know if you saw this video. the world champions in berlin. so happy that melanie walker of jamaica won the 400 meter hurdles. he carried her to the victory lap. but he was not as good at avoiding the hurdles or

obstacles. she was okay. she was a good sport about it. but come on, guy. face plant! poor guy. i hope he's okay. probably embarrassed. >> watch out for the trailer. oh, my goodness. what are the aspects of health care that really hasn't been talked about a whole lot is if you bring a whole bunch of people in the system, currently uninsured, you get them health insurance, they have to go and see the doctor, right? >> especially if prevention is going to help us save costs. >> the problem is, they're not enough of them. lisa sanders knows about this. she's a primary care physician. she also happens to be the technical advisor for the television program, "house." so she knows what she's talking about. >> i love that show. >> i love that show too. lisa sanders in a few minutes.

back with the most news in the morning. a deadly week is coming to an end in iraq. the iraqi government says

bombings killed more than 100 people in baghdad alone. on wednesday, six blasts went off in just an hour. now the pentagon's man in charge of training iraqi forces says clearly there was a lapse in security. so is the u.s. rethinking its iraq strategy? our barbara starr is tracking that for us this morning. barbara, there were plenty of people who warned if the u.s. pulled the forces out of the iraqi cities, it may be something of a free for all. and those warnings seem to be coming to fruition here. >> there is a lot of concern to test that problem, john. of course, for the u.s. to rethink its strategy to change the game plan now, that would require under the agreement with both countries for the iraqis to ask for help. as you say, the tough u.s. commander, the top general in charge of training iraqi forces says he believes that wednesday attack was a lapse in security and he is frustrated about how much needs to be done. he spoke about it yesterday.

clearly there was a lapse of security or this would not have happened. providing security in this country is a never-ending commitment. you are never good enough. do we anticipate more attacks in the future? i think there are going to be some bad days ahead. i don't know if, in fact, how many bad days there will be. >> grim words. so what happens now, john? well, the iraqis say they are instituting new security measures, more check points at government buildings, more stringent vehicle searches. shouldn't they already be doing that? that's what you have to wonder about. have the iraqis asked for any help? well, they detained 11 of their own officials for investigation and they asked for help with that investigation from the u.s. military. but so far, no indication that they're going to ask for u.s. combat forces to be put back on iraqi city streets. of course, they were withdrawn from the cities earlier this year. genere odier know said if the

iraqis ask for more help, he'll do everything he can to give it to them. john. >> barbara starr at the pentagon. thanks for that. >> good morning, welcome to "american morning" on friday, august 21. i'm kiran chetry. >> i'm john roberts. did the white house use fear for the 2004 election? there's new explosive allegations that there was political pressure to raise the country's terror threat level. the allegations come from the man hired after 9/11 to stop another 9/11. the first homeland security secretary tom ridge. live from washington next. hurricane bill is a category 3 storm and could become a category 4. with bermuda in bill's way, what will it mean for america's east coast. our rob marciano is tracking the extreme weather for us this morning. from town halls to talk radio, president obama pushes his make or break plan for health care reform. he says there's way too much

misinformation going around. plus, why the president thinks, quote, everyone in washington is getting all weewee'd up. >> what? >> wee-wee'd up. >> my goodness. car lots are bracing for a busy weekend. after $3 billion, the amazing cash for clunkers program ends. how successful has the rebate program been? will some dealers see a dime? what's next for detroit? some answers just ahead. we'll begin with explosive kplainl claims from tom ridge, the first homeland security secretary and pennsylvania governor. ridge accuses top advisors to george w. bush for playing politics for raising the terror level before the 2004 elections. ed henry has details. >> reporter: the friday before the 2004 election. two or three points separated john kerry from president bush. suddenly, a twist.

osama bin laden released a shocking new videotape and it played nonstop on the arab language network, al jazeera. >> translator: your security is not in the hands of kerry or bush or al qaeda. your security is in your own hands. >> reporter: the nest morning, just 72 hours before the polls opened, the president's top security advisors, including donald rumsfeld and john ashcroft huddled for an urgent meeting to decide whether to raise the color-coded threat level from yellow to orange. and then tom ridge released an explosive new book -- a vigorous, some might say a dra matic discussion ensued. ashcroft urged an increase in the threat level and was supported by rumsfeld. he goes on -- there was absolutely no support for that position within our department. none. i wondered, is this about security or politics? postelection analysis demonstrated a significant increase in the president's

approval ratings in the days after the raising of the threat level. the bush campaign was pushing the envelope on frightening voters. listen to then vice president cheney just ten days before the bin laten tapes. >> the ultimate threat is the possibility of their succeeding and getting, say, a biological agent or a nuclear weapon, smuggling it to the united states, in one of our own cities, and raising the spector of being able to kill hundreds of thousands of americans. >> >> reporter: in the summer of 2004, a few days before the democratic national convention, the white house had raised the threat level. john charges the political manipulation sharply denied by bush officials like ridge at the time. >> we don't do politics in the department of homeland security. >> reporter: now with the tense meeting a weekend before the election, ridge writes, it, quote, seemed possible to me and others around the table that something could be afoot other than simple concern about the country's safety. in the end, however, the threat level was not raised. after ridge claims he and others

pulled rumsfeld and ashcroft, quote, back from the brink. but the episode left him disillusioned. he writes -- i knew i had to follow through on my plans to leave the federal government. he tendered his resignation within a month of the election. he concluded -- i consider that episode to be not only a dramatic moment in washington's recent history, but an illustration of the intersection of politics, fears, credibility, and security. but other officials in the meeting including fran townsend insists ridge is wrong. townsend insists politics was never discussed at the meeting and the meeting was solely on intelligence. john, kiran. >> ed henry there at the white house. we'll be talking to fred townsend in this hour. jeanne meserve is coming in on this. she covers homeland security for cnn. are you surprised that tom ridge is coming out with the accusations? jeann snerks.

>> i am. this is a man who never picked an argument. we're a target with the press corp. amiable guy. i was surprised to see the consummate team player come out with a book. there's speculation about his political ambitions. perhaps he's trying to put the distance between himself and the bush administration, but unclear how that might play, john? >> he had things to say about the interaction of the various agencies and the government and the lack of cooperation between the department of defense and the fbi. what did he have to say? >> he said, for instance, he had a hard time talking to donald rumsfe rumsfeld. when he tried to buttonhole him would brush him off. he wasn't included in national security council meetings. the fbi often blind sided him with information that had not been shared. i never knew as a reporter covering ridge about any of those specific things. i can tell you he did talk about problems with information sharing this morning. i went over the transcript of an interview i did with him when he was leaving office and he talked

about the difficulty of being the new kid on the block. how other agencies did not want to share the information and how he felt that was a disadvantage for the agent. >> jeanne meserve in washington this morning. thanks. francis townsend, george w. bush's homeland security advisor at the time ridge says these decisions were being made is going to be with us. we're going to be talking to her in the next half hour in the most news in the morning. hurricane bill could hit the east coast this weekend with dangerous waves and rip tides. right now, the powerful category 3 storm is bearing down on bermuda. the island nation is under a tropical storm warning right now. forecasters say there will be heavy flooding there as well. rob marciano joins us live with the latest. he's in bowling green, ohio this morning. we look at the track of bill. what will the east coast likely feel? >> well, as soon as later on this afternoon, they'll feel the waves. that's for sure. huge swells with this thing. a hurricane with hurricane-force

winds that extend 110 miles from the center. very katrina like, very ike-like. both have the ability to push the water out ahead of them, hundreds of miles out ahead of them. it's not going to make a direct strike, but lit be enough waves to make it very, very dangerous for people going close to the water. bermuda under a tropical storm warning. ike expected to bypass bermuda. several hundred miles offshore of the carolinas. scooting past nantucket, martha's vineyard and the cape. it will be close enough for high surf advisories and dangerous rip currents. be aware of that. we have woken up in a hurry to the start of hurricane season. bowling green, ohio, the national tractor championships right here. the daytona 500 of tractor pulls. it's a big deal.

loud, gets your skin crawling. a lot of horsepower. talk to you about that and maybe ride one of these things in about 30 minutes. >> couldn't be further away from green acres. >> he's saying maybe. some sort of noise ordnance situation going on there. so i can't imagine how loud these are going to be when we get you on one. >> i will -- i will ride one of them at 7:40. you will see me on a tractor at 7:40. >> or he can ride the sled. one of the two, right? rob, thanks. see you soon. seven minutes after the hour. fans of starbucks' fancy drinks will need change for their caffeine fix. the company says it's raising prices on the harder to make beverages. the hike is between 10 and 30 cents went into effect yesterday in some cities and will roll out nationwide. the company lowering prices, though, for simpler drinks like coffees and lattes. won't that be welcome? >> that's right. prices are going down, actually, for plane tickets as well. airlines cut fare this is time

of the year. but rates are exceptionally low right now. some southwest flights, $59 each way. american is flying from new york to california, $109. so you can check out united too, because they have good deals as well. hopefully they won't say, wait, we didn't realize so many people will want this. they're going to have to cancel this like we saw with jet blue. >> $599 all you could fly for a month. the jackpot $207 million. all six numbers in tuesday night's drawing. the next chance to win is tonight. the lottery says it expects to sell 2 million tickets today. >> someone hit the powerball. the winning ticket sold for that one. >> don't know who or where yet. we'll find out. >> south carolina, come forward. still ahead, primary care. a lot of people say this is the key to bringing costs down. people have proper preventive care with the primary care doctors. the problem is, people come out

of med school and don't want to be primary care doctors. (voice 2) how bad is it? (voice 1) traffic's off the chart... (voice 2) they're pinging more targets... (voice 3) isolate... prevent damage... (voice 2) got 'em. (voice 3) great exercise guys. let's run it again.

sfwhen you own a business,g saving sounds good. (voice 3) great exercise guys. so hear this: regions makes it simple to save money and time with lifegreen checking and savings for business, free convenient e-services and regions quick deposit, so you can deposit checks right from your desk. so switch to regions and start saving. plus, get a business financial review through a regions cashcor analysis. it's how business gets into the rhythm of saving. regions - it's time to expect more.

welcome back to to the most news in the morning. in his make or break push on health care, he's stressing the importance of having a good doctor. here he is in new hampshire talking about that. >> primary care physicians, ideally, family physicians, they should be the front lines of the medical profession in encouraging prevention and wellness. but the problem is that primary care physicians, they make a lot less money than specialists. >> so as the president pointed out, medical schools are pushing more students toward lucrative specialties. so if reform gives health insurance to millions of americans who don't have it, will there be enough family doctors to go around?

that's something we want to talk about this morning. lisa sanders -- the author of "every patient tells a story." the technical advisor for the television show, "house" and she's a professor at yale's medical school. a chronic underachiever. she joins us this morning. good of you to be with us this morning. the american association of family prak tictitioners, 2% wa to be internists or primary care physicians. why does no one want to be a primary care physician these days? >> it's not something that we tend to value. value has a specific meaning. emotional value, yes. but there's also money. why would anybody go in to what is clearly the lowest-paid ie least valued of all of the specialties? there's a guy in san francisco, steve schroeder. he says that if health care continues the way it is now, the only people who will go in to primary care are fools or angels.

>> and you're one of those angels, correct? or are you a fool? we're not sure. which would you classify yourself to be? >> depends on the day of the week, i think. >> and as we mentioned coming in to you as well, if public option or however they do it brings millions of people currently in the ranks of uninsured in to health care, they're going to have to go see a primary care physician. how great is the need going to be for the first line practitioners. >> it's going to be huge. if you surveyed people going to residencies, if you mentioned less than 5% want to go to a primary care specialty. that's crazy. if you look at all of the countries who do health care better than we do. we've all seen that list, most of the physicians taking care of patients are primary care doctors. here, only a tiny fraction of the health care is delivered by the people who are trying to deliver primary care medicine.

that's crazy. >> here's another statistic. almost 21% of general internists who are board certified between 1990 and 1999 have left internal medicine whereas only 5% of people in subspecialties depart. with a could be done to keep more people in that primary care role? >> well, first, what we do has to be valued more highly. we're paid -- the way the system is now, we're paid to do, not to think. primary care is all about thinking -- diagnosing or anticipating. we have to value that. right now, that's care that's completely free. we have to pay for that. because it's important. and it's a way -- the costs are going to be contained in the long run. so i think that's the most important thing we have to do. otherwise, we -- >> there's a contradiction here or a contradiction that there is a clash here. you say primary care physicians need to be valued more, which might translate to you need to

pay them more. but everyone is trying to get cost out of the system. so how do you marry those two things together? >> oh, well, that's easy. even though seeing a doctor needs to be -- seeing a primary care doctor needs to be paid more, the cost savings down the line are huge. if you treat people for their chronic diseases, and most people in this country go to the doctor because they have -- or an emergency room because they have chronic medical conditions. if you treat those well, then it will reduce the number of times they have to go to the hospital, reduce the downstream consequences. that's why we do it in the first place. the reason we control diabetes and high blood pressure and cholesterol is because we want to prevent heart disease. >> you make the argument that you could get more people in to primary care physicians if insurance companies were willing to do away with co-pays? >> ah, well, you have to encourage people to -- to take care of their chronic diseases. if you -- if you charge them money every time they go to the

doctor, they're going to go to the doctor less often. that's why people have co-pays is to discourage people from going to the doctor. you don't want to discourage people who need to go to the doctor because they have chronic medical conditions, you want to reduce the number of people who make unnecessary trips to the doctor. that is not the person who has diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, asthma, or any of the chronic diseases that require main nance. if you don't go to the doctor for the basic care, you wind up in the emergency room or the hospital. >> the primary physician works four hours a week doing paperwork filling out the various forms. you can save some of time by standardsizing the forms. the electronic records and the portability of those could take the money out of the system? >> well, i think the electronic medical records could save money. but only if they're regulated so every electronic medical record can seek every other electronic

medical record. every television station could have its own kind of television. we all need to be able to read each others notes and see each others tests. not the way it's set up now. it's every man for themselves, every company for themselves. my hospital and practice, the two medical records, they don't speak to each other. that's crazy. >> right. how about medical schools. are they pushing the students to lucrative specialties? are they bearing responsibility in some of this as well? >> well, i love medical schools. i went to one. but, yes. the fact that most people who go to medical school are trained by sub specialists. it's not a deliberate effort to get people out of primary care. but just the people you're exposed to. they're not exposed to people who are excited about primary care. who are excited about seeing patients and making diagnoses and managing chronic diseases. they're doing cutting edge research. also, extremely important, but you can't have a health care

system with only people who are doing cutting edge medical research. we need people to actually take care of patients. >> dr. lisa sanders, it's great to talk to you this morning. thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. we appreciate it. >> nice to be here. thank you very much. the cash for clunkers program. the program is going to be winding down. >> yeah. >> running out of gas. what about the dealerships, are they happy that they're taking place? are they worked out? and what about the dealers who say they haven't seen millions they're owed from the government for passing on the rebates from their customers. going to talk about it. 18 minutes after the hour. ove♪ what do you think? hey, why don't we use our points from chase sapphire and take a break? we can't. sure, we can. the points don't expire... ♪ there is nothing for me... ♪ there's no travel restrictions... we could leave tomorrow. we can't use them for a vacation. you can use the points for just about anything. i know... ♪ the way you look tonight ♪

chase what matters. get your new chase sapphire card at chase.com/sapphire.

♪ money money money money ♪ ♪ money money money money money ♪ >> i hear donald trump and christine. >> together? as a couple? >> it was -- it was the song they played before his show, you

know, "the apprentice." but -- ♪ money, money, money ♪ money ♪ >> i think of money when i hear this song. i don't know why. >> cash for clunkers coming to a close on monday. a lot of people hitting the showrooms. >> some of the dealers aren't doing this anymore. the dealer association saying concentrate on the deals done. they're saying the dealers shouldn't do anymore of these. you have 24 hours left if you have a junker in you driveway and you want to get it done. monday, 8:00 p.m., the deadline for the paperwork. some of the dealers are complaining they haven't gotten all of the money left. the d.o.t. says more people are on the case. more people processing the paperwork. they can get this done. 457,000 deals so far. $2 billion in claims. are a lahood saying it's been a pleasure to be -- a thrill to be a part of the most positive -- the best economic news story in america. and he said now they're working for an orderly shutdown of this

program. a positive economic news story, yes. but some economists are starting to raise the question -- huh, 400,000 people or so who now have a car payment that they didn't have before -- could that hurt back-to-school sales for the retailers. could that be something we see people pulling back on spending everywhere else. >> there's never two sides to every story. there's nine sides to every story. >> a dealer coming up later and says he's in the hole for $2 million to $3 million. >> gm is now subsidizing. over the next few days, the dealers want to sell a gm car, gm is going to subsidize, float them the cash waiting for the paperwork to get through. you can expect a flurry of activity as people finally get the junker clunkers out. >> smart of gm to do that. >> they ramped up production. the deal -- the clunker deal is closing down. they ramped up production of the ford and gm to meet the demands so --

>> that sounds great. no romans numeral this hour. check on our website. >> we have good ones. there's a story on cnn..com getting a lot of attention. you facebook -- do you still facebook or are you over it? >> the whole facebook and twitter thing. it's kind of like -- it takes too much maintenance. >> i ramped up the twitter. love the twitter. facebook -- this is why -- the most annoying type of facebookers. i had many of these -- >> are you an annoying facebooker. >> going to go through a few of them. see what you think. maybe some of these you'll know out of your buddies. the boars -- these are the ones that post status updates all day long. every single thing -- having breakfast, walking my dog, changing my dog. >> just woke up. >> my water just broke. remember that one? >> happened again? this happened to you last week. the lurkers, the opposite of the boarers but they're logged in. the chronic inviter.

they never met a quiz he or she doesn't want you to take. what are the top five animals? the one i call is the paparazzi. you pop up in all of the pictures -- you've been tag in all of your photos that you didn't want your mom to see. >> and the creeper too, goes around looking for high school boy friends and girlfriends and trying to see what they look like. they never share anything. but they're looking around. >> getting a little too much, season it? >> yeah. >> i don't have time for all of that. 24 minutes after the hour. fran townsend coming up next to respond to tom ridge's allegation that politics was behind the decision to raise the dlet level before the 2004 election.

what's in it for me? i'm not looking for a bailout, just a good paying job. that's why i like this clean energy idea. now that works for our whole family. for the kids, a better environment. for my wife, who commutes, no more gettin' jerked around on gas prices... and for me, well, it wouldn't be so bad if this breadwinner brought home a little more bread. repower america. i hope our senators are listening.

there we go. washington, d.c. this morning. a beautiful shot of the white house. we wanted silence for this picture to tell you what the weather is like. 79 and sunny. 92 and sunny a bit later. a hot one in the nation's capit capital. 27 minutes after the hour right now. president obama continues to

make a case for the make or break health care reform. he does not believe the reports that he's somehow off of his game. >> last year just about this time, you will recall that the republicans just nominated their vice presidential candidate and everybody was -- the media was obse obsessed. cable was 24 hours a day. obama lost his mojo. you remember all that? something about august going in to september where everybody in washington gets all wee-wee'd up. >> president obama took his health care message to talk radio. the phone lines were open. kate baldwin live from the white house this morning. what the heck does wee-wee'd up anyway, kate? >> i decided i'm just not going to take that on. >> in other news though, kiran. the president you can see from the town hall to the other

events. the president working hard to regain momentum in the health care debate as the president is preparing to leave for vacation a little later today. yesterday was the perfect example of the fine lines that the president is trying to walk. appealing to supporters in the town hall. but also taking the message and trying to appeal to conservatives on the talk show live from the white house. the host did throw his support behind president obama during the campaign. now, speaking of the campaign -- in most if not all of his appearances of recent, the president looks like he's back on the campaign trail himself. he's trying to correct what he calls the misinformation and the noise that is out there confusing the debate as they say on topics. such as health care for illegal immigrants and the death panels we heard so much about. but really, when it comes down to it, what of the calls we heard so long for a bipartisan

solution? the president seeming to signal that he and the democrats may be forced to go it alone. listen here. >> i would love to have more republicans engaged and involve in this process. early on, a decision was made by the republican leadership that said, look, don't give them a victory. may have a replay of 1983-1984 when health care came in. >> the republican leaders are pushing back on the spokesman for congressman eric can't, the number two in the house, we would love to know when, exactly, time, date, place, the president or his staff reached out to his republican leaders. the president is needing to work to keep the members of his own party together. many liberals upset, angered, fearful that the president is not taking a harder stance to say the public option must be a part of any legislation that comes out.

kiran. >> kate bouldoun not getting all wee-wee'd up. >> it's a friday. what's the point? >> this is a no wee-wee zone. >> okay. brand new poll numbers shows the health care debate may be taking the toll on president obama. the latest numbers show half of the americans, 49% think the president will make the right decisions for the nation. before it gets wee-wee'd up down there. down from 60% of president obama's 100-day mark in april. the president is taking some time off. they're scheduled to leave washington. they're headed for summer vacation. camp david in maryland then up to massachusetts on sunday. if you're looking at the movie times, you may think they're missing a few change. the biggest chains, regal and

amc pulling more ads from newspapers. they're pushing moviegoers from on-line sites and fandangle movie phone, movieflicks.com and flickster. the bush white house is trying to use the politics of fear to get re-elected. the same claim is coming from a former bush insider. america's first secretary of homeland security -- former pennsylvania governor tom ridge. >> that's right. he has a new book coming out. in it, ridge says he was pressured to raise the nation's terror alert ahead of election day. the former homeland security advisor for the bush administration fran townsend says that's not what happened. she's the contributor. she joins us this morning from washington. we're glad to get your perspective this morning. we reached out to former governor tom ridge and he's not doing any media right now. good to have you with us. let's hear, fran, how -- how this quote went down from his book. he said ashcroft -- listen to me -- strongly urged an increase

in the threat level and was supported by rumsfeld. it was absolutely no support for that position within our department. he's speaking of homeland security here. none. i wondered, is this about security or politics? fran, you were in the meetings. what is your recollection of how that whole conversation went down? >> i actually chaired the meeting and called it. tom ridge knew very well that i agreed with him that i didn't believe there was a basis to raise the threat level, but i knew there were others in the homeland security council that did believe that and we agreed we'd have the conversation. by the way, what tom ridge's book doesn't say is the most eloquent case for not raising the threat level was not made by tom, it was made by secretary of state at the time, colin powell, and bob muller at personal risk, john ashcroft was advocating to raise it based on the fact of the intelligence. bob muller himself made a case not to raise it. >> he's saying he felt politics

played in to those decisions and it was the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of getting to decide to get out of federal government. do you think politics came in to the equation at all during the time when it came to deciding whether or not to raise the threat level. >> not only do i not think politics played any part in it at all it was never discussed. the only thing discussed is that summer -- earlier there was a threat against the financial district, the bin laden tapes, and another tape by a u.s. citizen, a member of al qaeda. it was a very threatening tape. so the discussion revolved around what the intelligence was. there was no discussion of politics whatsoever. >> it's john. there's controversy following the 2004 democratic national convention in boston when the threat level was raised and was later found out that a lot of the information, some of the information that play in to that decision to raise the threat level was three years old. so there were a lot of people who were already suspicious. i mean, when you take these two

things in combination, does it suggest that maybe people were looking at this idea -- well, it is the fall of the election campaign. withe ear we're in a tight race here with john kerry. maybe we could work some things to our advantage? >> in fact, not only was there no discussion in those meetings, the discussion on the margins -- one in that meeting was john mclaughlin and john brennan, the head of the national counterterrorism center. the only discussions i recalled was on the margins of that, there was concern if the republicans supported raising the threat level it might be down to the detriment of president bush because people might see it as being political. in the end, people have to remember, you want the cabinet members who disagree to have a healthy debate. this is where it came out in the right place. the threat level was not raised and no reason to suspect that the discussion would have had any impact on the election whatsoever. >> one of the other things that people are asking about is, you

know, when we talk about whether or not politics played in to any of this equation, a lot of people say there were political ambitions on the part of tom ridge and that he wants to perhaps separate himself from the bush administration in some ways moving forward. do you think that what he wrote or what he's alleging here perhaps has a political motivation? >> i've got to believe it does, kiran. i'm sorry to say that. i really enjoyed working with tom ridge. i will tell you not only did he never say this at the time, he thought political influence was involve in the raising or lowering of the threat level, he never said it since when i spoke to him. i'm co-chairing along with bill webster a bipartisan task force to make recommendations to secretary napolitano now. we asked chertoff to come in and talk to the panel, two weeks ago. tom ridge never mentioned that concern, he mentioned the concerns he had. he never mentioned any concern

of politization. you've got to believe this is personally motivated in some way. >> not coming out to talk about this between now and then. if he doesn't have specifics to back this up, he's going to get eaten alive by folks like -- like you, andy card, and other bush administration officials who are going to try to slam him down as hard as they can? >> last night, i got my hands on one of the books and i looked at it. and, in fact, in other parts of the book, tom acknowledges that politics never played a role in any of his decisions about the threat alert system. you have to wonder if this is not just publicity meant to sell more books. >> fran townsend, thanks. >> thank you. still ahead, man or woman? >> oh, yeah. >> the runner? >> yeah. >> there's some questions, actually. and this is not that unusual in the -- in the world of track and field. some questions about whether or

not one of the best runners out there is real who she says she is. laura smith reports. racheting up slowly ) ( whooshing, riders cheering ) there's no way to hide it. sir, have you been drinking tonight? if you ride drunk, you will get caught... and you will get arrested.

welcome back to most news in the morning. coming home from the front lines. needed help from the government they fought to defend. now they're stuck in a sea of red tape. in the series "the war at home," backlogs claims that veterans affairs has left hundreds of thousands of vets in limbo. john, kiran, president obama has made helping veterans a top priority. but tens of thousands of veterans are waiting for that help. >> ft. bening, georgia. >> she serves with the 82nd air born division with afghanistan

in 2003. after getting hurt in a truck accident there and retiring in 2005, she faced a new battle -- she still is trying to get the department of veterans affairs to settle her disability claims. >> i think they're doing the best they can. they can't tell you where they are in the process so you're in limbo. >> when the nomination was made, he told congress it was a priority to reduce the number of backlogged claims. today, some 400,000 cases are still pending. >> if you were to walk in to one of our rooms where adjudication or decisions are being made about disability for veterans, you would see individuals sitting in a desk with stacks of paper that go up halfway to the

ceiling. >> the flood of claims keeps coming and they're growing more complex with issues like traumatic brain injury so many new vets are suffering. from fiscal year 1999 to 2008, the va process 60% more claims, but the number of claims still pending jumped 65%. simply put -- claims are coming in faster than they can be processed. president obama is promising to help. >> cut those backlogs, slash the wait times. deliver your benefits sooner. >> the va turned down our request for an interview. they did tell us they're trying to improve efficiency. with two wars, claims continue to mount. elliott miller, a veteran himself, helps other vets with their paperwork. >> constantly getting more claims in. the va goes out and advertises and does outreach to get more claims in. they don't have the power to handle all of the claims.

>> reporter: former master sergeant emer says the va should communicate better. >> we can't be left in limbo. it adds to the stress. >> reporter: one statistic underscores the challenge. the va says every day it receives more than 4,000 new disability claims. john, kiran? >> barbara starr this morning. thanks. you can watch all of the "war at home" series on-line. you can find all of the stories on our blog at cnn.com/am fix. for not buying in this market. (woman) visit remax.com where you can see all the listings in thousands of cities and towns. where do you want to be? - oh, come on. - enough! you get half and you get half. ( chirp ) team three, boathouse? ( chirp ) oh yeah-- his and hers. - ( crowd gasping ) - ( chirp ) van gogh? ( chirp ) even steven. - ( chirp ) mansion. - ( chirp ) good to go. ( grunts ) timber! ( chirp ) boss? what do we do with the shih-tzu?

- ( crowd gasps ) - ( chirp ) joint custody. - phew! - announcer: get work done now. communicate in less than a second with nextel direct connect. only on the now network. deaf, hard of hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com.

♪ where i come from ♪ where i'll be when it's said and done ♪ ♪ i'm proud of being one

♪ that's where i come from there you go, 45 minute past the hour. a little slice of americana this morning. rob marciano goes some place different every friday. today, it's the tractor. >> one was like a 12-point buck of john deere tractors. >> he's at the fairgrounds in bowling green, ohio. otherwise known as pull town. and rob is not in the cockpit yet. what's going on, rob? >> well, i said i'd get on one, right? here we go. this is one you could handle. look out. i'm riding in a tractor. woohoo! not bad for a city boy.

what do you think? they wouldn't let me drive -- you think my tractor is sexy? that's all i got for you. >> it's a little tractor. >> exactly. this is the daytona 500 nascar equivalent of the tractor pull. they're not pulling things like this. they started decades ago. they started using horses where guys would jump on the back of the sled to see how much their horse could pull. we ran into a fan yesterday, an old timer. he's been coming to the things when he was a kid. this is what he had to say about it. >> sit along the track. as it came to you, you stepped on the track. look at it now. you try to step on that thing, you're going for a ride. >> you're going for a ride.

the reason i can't get on one of the bad boys, they do wheelies. you're looking at five engines and each one has the equivalent of three times the power of a nascar engine. so on top of this is like 15 nascar engines. i can't happenedle that, are you kidding me? the sound alone of these things. noise abatement laws started to go off at 8:00. i hope i can expense the fine. but because you asked for it, we're going to give it to you. crank it up, guys. get it here. start one -- start five.

whole lot of tractor. >> those things scare me. >> rob can handle that. five engines. 15 times it power of nascar -- i think you could do it. >> now we know why they were talking about the noise ordnance. a little loud. >> nothing sounds as good as an open header on a v-8. where should rob go? up to you. where to send mr. marciano.

leave your ideas at cnn..com/amfix. (announcer) what are you going to miss when you have an allergy attack? achoo! (announcer) benadryl is more effective than claritin at relieving your worst symptoms. and works when you need it most. benadryl. you can't pause life.

wouldn't it be great if it were easy to spot the good guys ? you know, the guys who do a super job. introducing the superguarantee. go to superpages.com to find a business with the superguarantee. we're so confident in these super businesses we stand behind their services. you'll get the job done right or we'll step in and help to make it right. sign up for free at superpages.com the new superguarantee making the good guys easy to find.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. 51 minutes past the hour. there are rumors swirling around one record-breaking athlete this morning. this time it's nothing to do with doping. >> so what does it have to do with? well, the south african runner came out of nowhere to win on wednesday. but some are asking, is she really a woman? our larry smith is looking into the controversy today. >> reporter: after she posted a world best time at the african junior championships three weeks ago, the iwas asked the south african federation to administer a gender test. then on wednesday the 18-year-old unheard of until this summer pulled off a stunning win in the women's 800

meters in the world championships. further fuelling speculation. the iwaas confirm there are currently two investigations underway. one in south africa, and one in berlin, where the world championships are taking place. >> i am the doctor. but all the doctors who were contacted who were consulted told us very clearly, this kind of investigation is days and even weeks before we can come to a conclusion. there's one question, which is clear. if at the end of this investigation it is proven that the athlete is not a female, we will withdraw her name from the results of the competition today. >> reporter: semenya is reportedly unaffected. she was teased as a child about her appearance. her father is outraged. he said quote, she is my little

girl, i raised her, she is a woman and i can repeat that a million times. semenya isn't the first to have her gender questioned. the silver medal in the 2006 asian games was stripped after failing a gender test. her genetic make-up showed a male chromosome. polish american walsh won gold in is the 1932, but a postmortem examine found she had male organs. the african national congress are rushing to her defense and she seems to have the support of her country men and women, as well. >> they shouldn't do this her, encourage -- they shouldn't be doing investigations like this. >> i believe she is a woman.

i don't think that we would've allowed her to go there if she wasn't a woman. i think that who iaaf thing is a violation of human rights. >> she does look very manly, but i don't think they'd be that dumb to let a man run in a woman's race. i think she'll get to keep her gold medal. >> reporter: until the investigation is complete, semenya will continue to compete and questions will continue to swirl. larry smith, cnn, atlanta. >> wow. difficult to know. >> yeah. i guess so. >> you wonder why it takes so long, though, to do the test. they've got to get the ducks in a row. because legally they could be in a lot of trouble if they muck it up, i guess. we talk act the effect of the drug cartels along the border of united states and mexico. but the pervasiveness of the cartel's influence is expanding. we'll tell you one place where you might not expect the cartel

to have a big influence, but it does coming up 55 minutes after the hour.

90s slacker hip-hop. ♪ that can strain your relationships and hurt yourody 'cause pu'pride ♪ng a ride ♪ ♪ it's the credit roller coaster ♪ ♪ and as you can see it kinda bites! ♪ ♪ so sing the lyrics with me: ♪ when your debt goes up your score goes down ♪ ♪ when you pay a little off it goes the other way 'round ♪ ♪ it's just the same for everybody, every boy and girl ♪ ♪ the credit roller coaster makes you wanna hurl ♪ ♪ so throw your hands in the air, and wave 'em around ♪ ♪ like a wanna-be frat boy trying to get down ♪ ♪ then bring 'em right back to where your laptop's at... ♪ ♪ log on to free credit report dot com - stat! ♪ vo: free credit score and report with enrollment in triple advantage. ♪ 56 1/2 minutes past the hour right now. a look at atlanta, georgia this morning, looks a little hazy out there, cloudy, 70 degrees, scattered thunderstorms in the forecast with a high of 83.

atlanta, as we know is home to coca-cola, cnn's mother ship. federal agents know it for something else. the city has become a major distribution hub for mexican drug cartels. cnn's brooke bolduan reports. >> drugs, weapons, cold hard cash, a lethal combination fuelling the cartels and according to the drug enforcement administration, a new city has emerged as the staging ground for this deadly trade. >> metro atlanta is a hub for businesses in the southeast, also a hub of operations for mexican organized crimes. >> reporter: atlanta, prime real estate for drug distribution according to the dea's top atlanta agent. he agreed to take cnn on a special aerial tour to illustrate how these deals go down. starting with the southern city's web of freeway. >> you can go east, west, north, south for metro atlanta, moving shipments and drugs from the

southwest border up the eastern sea board. >> reporter: before that can happen, the driver must wait here at truck stops often in broad daylight. >> truck driver arriving in a place like this will wait. it could be as soon as an hour, could be two or three days. then they'll receive instructions. >> reporter: next, the driver heads to a warehouse, vincent says there's plenty to pick from in atlanta. there they're parcelled out and sent to dealers throughout the u.s., but the drivers aren't done. they use the same truck to smuggle money and guns back into mexico. in 2008, atlanta led the nation with $70 million in confiscated cash according to the dea. and last september, federal agents along with local law enforcement rounded up 34 members of mexico's gulf cartel in the atlanta area alone. part of a nationwide effort called project reckoning. if you think drug cartels are keeping their high-dollar drug operations in the gritty inner city, think again.

the dea says they prefer the suburbs. they move into quiet, middle-classed neighborhoods just like this one where they set up shop stockpiling drugs and cash before distributing them. >> reporter: last july, a group of men with cartel connections lured a rhode island drug dealer to this guinnett county home. chained him, beat him, and held him hostage demanding he pay $3,000 they say he owed. the dea raided the home before it was too late. >> there's no doubt in my mind if we didn't act when we did, he would have been dead. >> three men got caught and pleaded guilty, but the rest escape. vincent says the explosive growth of immigrants in atlanta is yet another reason why mexican cartels come here. allowing them to blend in and disappear, enabling this deadly drug trade to rage on, spreading roots in this southern city. cnn, atlanta. >> and shirley franklin says she's aware of the drug

trafficking in her city, though her office is quick to point out the majority of the crime isn't happening downtown, but in metro atlanta. and good morning, once again, it is friday, august 21st, welcome to american morning. >> thanks for being with us. here's what's on the agenda. the stories we'll be breaking down for you. a new bomb shell from america's first homeland security secretary, suggesting the bush administration may have encouraged him to raise the terror alert level for political reasons. in just a moment, we'll take you live to washington. plus, more than 100 people killed by bomb blasts in baghdad this week. and that has one rank in general at the pentagon saying clearly there was a lapse of security. so will the u.s. step back in to keep the peace in iraq? we're live from the pentagon just ahead. you can expect a flurry of activity at car dealerships this weekend with the government putting the brakes on cash for clunkers. the popular program will end monday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, more than 1/2 million vehicles

have been sold, generating about $2 billion in rebates. it's a big hit with customers, but dealers are mixed on it. >> it's worked. it has been a shot in the arm. business has increased significantly. >> as of right now, august 20th, we have not been funded yet on one deal. about $250,000. and it's scary. >> so when will the dealers see their money? at 8:30 eastern, we'll talk to george who runs a dealership group in the washington area. but first, explosive claims this morning, straight from one of the most senior officials who worked at the bush white house. we're talking about former homeland security secretary tom ridge. he's out with a new book and in it he claims the white house pressured him to raise the terror alert level days before the 2004 presidential election. our senior white house correspondent ed henry has got the details from the book. >> reporter: the friday before the 2004 elections, only two or three points separated democrat

john kerry from president bush. suddenly, a twist, osama bin laden released a shocking new videotape, and it played nonstop on the arab language network. >> translator: your security is not in the hands of kerry or bush or al qaeda, your security is in your own hands. >> reporter: the next morning, just 72 hours before the polls opened, the president's top security advisers, including donald rumsfeld and john ashcroft huddled for an urgent meeting to decide whether to raise the color-coated threat level from yellow to orange, and then tom ridge reveals an explosive new book, a vigorous some might say dramatic discussion ensued. ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level and was supported by rumsfeld. he goes on. there was absolutely no support for that position within our department. none. i wondered is this about security or politics?

post election analysis demonstrated a significant increase in the president's approval ratings in the days after the raising of the threat level. the bush campaign was already pushing the envelope on frightening voters. listen to then vice president cheney. >> the ultimate threat is the possibility of their succeeding and getting, say a biological agent or nuclear weapon, smuggling it into the united states, into one of our own cities and raising the specter of being able to kill hundreds of thousands of americans. >> reporter: in the summer of 2004, days after the democratic national convention, they had raised the threat level. it was strongly denied by bush officials like ridge at the time. >> we don't do politics in the department of homeland security. >> reporter: now the weekend before the election, ridge writes that it "seemed possible to me and to others around the table that something could be

afoot other than simple concern about the country's safety." in the end, however, there threat level was not changed after he and others pulled ashcroft and others back from the brink. but ridge says the episode left him disillusioned. he said i knew had to follow through my plans to leave the federal government. he tendered his resignation within a month. he concluded, i considered that episode not only to be a dramatic moment in washington's recent history, but another illustration of politics, fear, credibility, and security. but other bush officials in the meeting, including cnn contributor fran townsend says ridge is wrong and the discussion was based solely on intelligence. john, kiran? >> ed, thanks so much. and stick with us, we're going to talk more about this and whether the bush administration did try to use the fear of terrorism to win the 2004 presidential election. james carville and susan

mulinary will be joining us. officials in baghdad are saying bombings killed more than 100 people across the country. on wednesday, six blasts went off in the capital alone in one hour. now a pentagon man in charge of training forces is saying clearly there was a lapse in security. is the u.s. rethinking the iraq strategy? our barbara star is tracking this for us this morning. and what are your sources saying about the situation? >> well, kiran, if they want to change strategy, it is going to be very difficult. under the long standing agreement reached between the u.s. and iraq, the iraqis would have to ask the u.s. to step back in and it's not likely that the u.s. is going to reverse course on its strategy despite this terrible violent week. but the top commander, as you say in charge of training iraqi forces says he's frustrated and he's very concerned about what is going on. have lane to what he had to say.

>> clearly there was a lapse of security or this would not have happened. providing security in this country is a never ending commitment. you are never good enough. do we anticipate more tax in the future? i think there are going to be some bad days ahead. i don't know if, in fact, how many bad days there will be. >> so in light of these bombings this week, which as you pointed out, killed about 100 people and wounded some 500 people, the iraqis on their own say they are stepping up their security measures, more check points, more searches of vehicles, you would think they would already be doing that, but this security lapse apparently has now led to the detention of 11 iraqi government officials to question them about what has happened. general ray odierno is already responding to an iraqi request to help with the investigation about the bombings this week. but any further help putting u.s. troops back on the streets of iraqi cities, that still

hasn't happened. kiran. >> and it's a tough situation, they couldn't wait for us to get out, for u.s. troops to not have that presence on the streets and now we're seeing some of the difficulties that are arising because of that. >> well, absolutely. and the problem, perhaps, for prime minister maliki, even if he wants to ask for u.s. troops back on the streets, that's going to be a tough thing to sell to his own people. the message he has to put out is his government can control security in the country. >> barbara starr, thank you. right now votes are being counted in afghanistan, the presidential election could have huge ramifications for america's mission there. breaking things down for us from kabul this morning. >> reporter: john, kiran, polling stations throughout afghanistan are still in the process of counting ballots and it will take sometime until we get the final results.

september 17th, actually, and the reason for that is not just the security reasons, but also the logistical reasons. let's remember that they had to deploy 3,000 donkeys to get ballots out to some of the most remote areas in afghanistan. in the meantime, back in kabul, two campaigns already very confident they might be winning the campaign, although they have not claimed victory just yet. both dr. abdullah and hamid karzai both believe they have the lead. >> so they send the donkeys out and then they have to come back, which is why it's taking so long to get all of the ballots. >> there you go, the democratic process is different in every country. >> certainly is. hurricane bill bearing downright now on bermuda. forecasters are saying the category three storm will cause heavy flooding on the island over the next two days and the u.s. coast could feel the wrath of bill this weekend, as well. dangerous waves and rip currents going to be in the forecast from

florida up the new england coastline. also churning this morning, sarah palin rumor mill. the latest rumor has the former alaskan governor moving to rhode island. a report in the anchorage daily news says palin's plan is to settle in rhode island with $7 million from her book and a contract with fox. why the republican palin would choose rhode island is a bit of a mystery. politically the state is bluer than blue. you may also recall calling her a quote cocky wacko. bolt shave ed time off his record, finished it in 19 seconds. he makes it look so easy. earlier this week, bolt broke another one of his old world records, that was in the 100-meter race. this is it, the new book

from former homeland security secretary tom ridge in which he makes the claim politics may have motivated a desire to raise the security threat level just before the 2004 election. did it? >> did it? different stories coming out of that meeting. >> yes, some people say yes, some people say no. >> james and susan will kick that around for us right after the break. 10 minutes after the hour. some people buy a car based on the deal they get. others by the car of their dreams. during the lexus golden opportunity sales event, you can do both. special lease offers now available

on the 2009 es 350. there's no way to hide it. sir, have you been drinking tonight? if you ride drunk, you will get caught... and you will get arrested.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. blockbuster allegations from the former homeland security secretary. tom ridge suggests the bush white house tried to play politics with the terror alert level right before the 2004 election. here to talk about that and health care reform this morning, cnn political contributor and democratic strategist james carville and susan mullinary from new york state. she doesn't personally have any health care clients.

these disclaimers are getting longer and longer. let me read the quote from the ridge book. of course, we all know that there was a bin laden tape that came out four days before the election in 2004 and some talk about raising the terror alert level. ridge says a vigorous and some might say vigorous discussion ensued and was supported by rumsfeld, no support for that position within our department, none. i wondered is this about security or politics? susan, possible that politics was at play? >> you know what, i honestly don't think so. look, we know this president, we know that the president prior president bush took national security very seriously. he made it, you know, the corner stone of his presidency. i know as a former new yorker and i'm sure you do too, john, we all woke up on september 12th, convinced there was going to be another attempt for an

attack. i'm going to be grateful for the rest of my life that we've been able to put in place a homeland security division and white houses with procedures that have kept us safe. osama bin laden, it was a political issue in the 2004 campaign. >> no question about that. >> i think it had more to do with osama bin laden sending out this videotape right before the presidential than anything else. >> james, do you agree with susan? particularly in light, too, the fact it was raised after the democratic convention and we later found that was based in part, at least, on information that was three years old? >> right, what we do know is this is not a shoe clerk making this allegation, a twice governor of a large state, a decorated veteran and the first secretary of homeland security. i think the real thing to do is get some testimony, ought to find out, this is the most serious allegation you can have in any democracy in any country that politics is being used in terrorism. and i have no idea what the truth is, but this is a very serious thing that secretary ridge has stated and wing need

to get to the bottom of it. this is an administration that played politics with the united states attorney office, so i don't know if people would be shocked if they'd play politics with terrorism. i don't know that to be the case, but we need to find it out. >> we had fran townsend on this morning. scott mcclellan, the former press secretary who wrote his own tell-all book was quoted as basically saying that he better have some information, some evidence to back this up or he's going to get crushed by the former administration officials. >> well, look, i do think, you know, it's hard for anybody to know what the truth is at this point. it does not seem based on the people i knew in the white house this would be something that they would do. fran townsend was clearly in the room and her recollection is totally different. so i think, you know, these are serious charges. tom ridge is a friend, a great homeland security, james wright, homeland security secretary, great governor, and a great republican. i think we all wake up today with a loft questions on our mind.

>> james, this was reported on back in 2004, the "new york times" covered it, talked about the deliberations, should they raise it? no, they shouldn't. nobody interjected politics in it back then until now. >> he does, and i think so there's also a question of some phone calls that were outside of that meeting. but these are the kinds of things that we don't know. but we do know that this is about as serious as it can get. and i think the public is entitled to some answers and some answers pretty quickly and susan's absolutely right. if secretary ridge put this in the book just to sell books, then he will be severely embarrassed by this. and i don't know what the real case is. i do know secretary ridge, he's a good republican, very accomplished guy, very honorable guy, and something tells me he would've thought about this long and hard before he put it in there. >> let's turn to health care for a moment. we only have about a minute left. president obama came out for the first time in the last 24 hours,

susan, saying that he'd like to get republicans on board, but he may have to go it alone. do you blame him for potentially going it alone here? >> i don't understand why the conversation has anything to do with republicans at this point. president obama's got a much bigger issue and problem in the democratic party. today we pick up the papers and read that speaker pelosi says it's mandatory that government-run option is going to be in the health care bill. and senator baucus is saying we think we now we're going to take the pieces, the democrat senator we're going to take this and break it apart in smaller pieces and they can't pass it without it. howard dean saying it's a sellout if it's not a government-run option. before we start saying the republicans, the democrats with the 78-seat majority better figure out how they're going to come to an agreement. >> what about that argument, james, the president may have enough trouble with his own party. >> well, of course. i think if you can accuse this administration of anything until now it's been extremely naive to

believe they could reach across the partisan divide. while they were doing that, the republicans were saying obama was out trying to kill your grandmother. well, people that accuse you of trying to kill their grandmother are not likely to reach out and try to work hard on something. the truth of the matter is, the republican party has never wanted health care reform, it's not on their agenda. their health insurance companies and everybody's making money now. if you're a republican, why do you want to change that system? and families, premiums have gone for $6,000 to $12,000. >> people throughout this country are showing they're very concerned about the length and cost of this policy. that's what is putting the problems with the health care bill back on president obama's desk. it's the polling numbers that are going down, the american people, not the republican party. >> you know, there are some legitimate concerns with, you know, the health care reform, but i think james is correct to say that there has been a lot of disinformation and misinformation out there. >> you know, and john, let me say this, when we -- when

republicans were in charge and we passed welfare reform, tax cuts, balanced budget, we did that with a 25-feet majority, if they wanted to, if the american public were behind them, we wouldn't be having this conversation. the president would wrap up a bill. >> susan in washington and james, one of my favorite cities, new orleans this morning. thanks so much. appreciate it. >> thank you. all right. still ahead, we're going to be talking about stimulus dollars. where are they going to help out small towns? christine romans digging into places where they are. it's what doctors recommend most for headaches. for arthritis pain... in your hands... knees... and back. for little bodies with fevers..

and big bodies on high blood pressure medicine. tylenol works with your body... in a way other pain relievers don't... so you feel better... knowing doctors recommend tylenol... more than any other brand of pain reliever. ( sheets buffeting ) ( man ) whoa ! ♪

does this look pink? >> sort of. what is it? >> coral. coral. >> i'm a guy, it's pink. >> well, we made it a top priority here at cnn to show you where the stimulus money is going, and we found one struggling police department has actually seen it and used the money to save half of their force. >> it really was a force that couldn't stand to lose anybody. here's cnn's kate bolduan. >> reporter: $1 billion is going to help law enforcement officers across the country stay on the job. that means saving half the police force in this town. officer rick burros making the rounds in west virginia, population 275. >> it's one mile from the west -- or the east end to the west end, and we have a variety

of everything here. from like i said from petty theft to drugs. >> reporter: after 14 years in law enforcement, he faced certain unemployment because of the economy and a budget shortfall. scottie miller is the town's mayor. >> if you don't have the money, you don't have the money. >> you were supposed to be laid off in july. >> right. >> that must have been rough. >> it was scary, yes, ma'am. >> reporter: the thing is, he represents half the department. jeff dris koe is the police chief. >> we're you're talking about 50% of your department, that's a lot. >> reporter: but then, they say the stimulus came to the rescue. a $156,000 rescue for this rural community. one of more than 1,000 agencies, a fraction of the total grant requests picked for a stimulus boost through the justice department program community-oriented policing services, known as cops.

that small town assistance has big city police departments complaining they were passed over. last month, attorney general eric holder explained how agencies were selected. >> we received applications from more than 7,000 cities and towns. and made funding decisions based on crime rate, financial need, and community policing activities. >> you want a sucker? >> two for the price of one today. >> reporter: and for a soft spoken officer who admits he tries to fight more crime with sweets than with fire power, he says he's just glad this time around washington didn't forget towns like wardenville. >> i don't have words. i just thank god the money came through. >> reporter: these grants pay for both salary and benefits for the next three years and require the local agencies to cover those costs for at least one additional year. towns like this one across the country are counting on the

economy to turn around by then. john, kiran? >> kate, thanks so much. and we played some aerosmith going into it and stephen tyler, of course, fell off the stage at sturgis and hurt himself. and the band is going on strike. he fell off the wagon and the stage all at the same time. >> they're a talented group. >> i love aerosmith. they're getting up there, all of us are, but come on, steve, get it back together. >> good luck with that one. still, cash for clunkers, you have about 84 hours. about 84 hours left to try to cash in on this program. the problem is, are these dealers that are fronting this money to give the rebates to people buying the cars, are they getting paid back by the government? or is it happening too slowly? we'll check in one with of those dealers coming up.

we're back with the most news in the morning. and this week, the war at home, we've seen how difficult it can be to make the transition back home after months and in some cases years in the battlefield. >> we're starting to see the stress of long and repeated deployment reflected in families, military families, and divorce rates. i had a chance to meet one couple whose marriage was pushed to the breaking point. >> reporter: when they first met, she says it was love at first sight. >> i saw him there and that was it. >> reporter: they married and began their life together in his native holland. after moving back to the united states, he struggled to find work, and when the iraq war

began, he decided to join the army. >> there was no argument. i was like, all right. we're going to go on another adventure. >> reporter: now with two children, it was harder than expected. >> we hadly had any down time. it went from school to field training to school again. you don't have time to think. >> and then, on top of all of those changes, i mean, what you're basically dealing with is knowing that your husband's going to go to war. so how did you deal with that? >> i did not do well emotionally. >> reporter: during her husband's training and deployment, she grieved the loss of all four of her grandparents, the losses and the long separation became unbearable. >> i used the word numbness. i became someone i was not. i told him that i didn't want to be married anymore. >> and how did you handle what she was going through knowing that she was hurting so much and you can't be there to help her? >> i was helpless because i couldn't fix anything. >> reporter: but he tried through letters.

>> baby, i love you, you're truly beautiful in every way. >> what was that like to receive his letters? >> heart breaking. there's nothing like looking in the mirror and asking yourself, begging god to bring that feeling back for you, that love that you have for your husband. it was gone. >> reporter: ralph was understanding, but angry. >> i was like, hey, what's going on? i'm the one getting shot at every day, fearing for hi life, wants to make it back to his family as soon as possible. >> sometimes when the soldier comes back, it's not because the soldier's broken that their family breaks up, it's because the spouse is broken. >> reporter: mark stax is a leader in the program strong bonds, which helps military families prepare for and cope with the stress of deployment. >> this program, you know, is a great program, we just need to do more of it. >> reporter: they say they did not get enough support from

their base in germany, ultimately they decided to separate, not from each other, but from the army. >> i had to fight two battles, and when i was a soldier, i put the battle of the army in front of my family, and i really learned to turn that around. but my family first and the army second. >> reporter: they spent the past two years healing and finding each other again. she now has a message for other military families. >> you can do it and as far down as we got, you know, you can -- >> don't give up. >> don't give up. >> there you go, they managed to find a way together and working together to make it happen. two little girls as we saw there. and ralph now is in the reserves, he decided he had to leave the army to try to heal his situation at home. and so -- >> but he could go back out again, right? >> right, two-year deferment and now as july 30th, the phone could ring again.

>> does she have the skills to deal with another deployment? >> well, she said feels she's in a much better place now and could handle it. she went through a tough time of losing all four of her grandparents, including her gram who raised her. anyway, it's a difficult situation, families are going through it and they're not alone. there are a lot of military families going through the similar thing. that program strong bonds is one way that the military's trying to help, but everybody admits they could do more and they could, people say you prepare for so much in the actual training to go to war, but you're not necessarily prepared in what it's going to do to your family. >> there were so many different effects. suicide rate is very high in the organizes like t.a.p.s. for survivors trying to help out there too and the people are trying to help out folks. >> all right. people can find out more, by the way, about this series. go to our website, we've been covering this all week and continue to follow it on cnn.com/amfix. and we are now, about 32

minutes past the bottom of the hour. checking our top stories now. hurricane bill bearing down on the island of bermuda. forecasters say the category three storm will cause heavy flooding on the island over the next two days. the u.s. east coast could feel the wrath of bill this weekend with dangerous waves and rip currents all the way up into new england. college students getting ready to head back to campus for fall. and the government is warning that the schools need to be prepared for swine flu. six teachers and students need to be isolated until a few day after any fever subsides. one of those recommendations coming out. the cdc says colleges should consider canceling classes if a significant number of students come down with the flu. brand new poll numbers show the health care debate may be taking a toll on president obama. the latest numbers from a washington post abc news survey show less than half of americans, 49% think the president will make the right decisions for the nation. that's down from 60% that

president obama's 100-day mark. and as president obama struggles to regain the grip, he took his fight yesterday to the air waves. >> i'm confident we're going to get it done, and as far as negotiations with republicans, my attitude has always been let's see if we can get this done with some consensus. i would love to have more republicans engaged and involved in this process. i think early on, a decision was made by the republican leadership that said, look, let's not give them a victory. >> congress is way too -- >> and the president is taking a break from health care reform. the first family is scheduled to leave washington this afternoon for their summer vacation. first of all, they're headed to camp david in maryland before jetting up to martha's vineyard on sunday. and four shopping days left to take advantage of the popular cash for clunkers rebate program actually ends 8:00 p.m. eastern time on monday. the feds say nearly half a million clunkers have been

traded in for new fuel-efficient models, totaling nearly $2 billion in rebates. uncle sam has been way too slow in reimbursing some dealers. and the president of the automotive group joins us from maryland this morning. jeff, thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> as we know you run a bunch of dealerships there in different parts outside of d.c. and maryland. how many cars did you guys sell because of cash for clunkers? >> well, by 8:00 monday, we'll have sold more than 800 cars under the program. this has been a wildly successful program with a consumer. and it'll result in about 750,000 car sales nationally in the four-week period. and this program has been used in europe, south america, asia, with tremendous success. >> how many cars have you been reimbursed for? what about the dealers? >> yes. it's been a bureaucratic

nightmare from the beginning. they've made what should be an easy process of trading an old car and new car, very complex, 18 pages of law, 160 pages of regulations. of the 800 cars we expect to do and we have hundreds of applications in right now, we're selling cars literally as we speak, we've only had 10 claims paid. i think i understand stimulus program better now. a lot of promises and very little follow through. >> you're not happy with the situation, although you think it did help boost auto sales for you guys, right? >> this is wildly successful for selling cars, but the success is going to hurt dealers tremendously. our whole industry on its knees with sales down 35% to 40%. dealers are struggling financially and to put out hundreds of thousands of dollars in our case with the hope of being paid promptly. we were promised to be paid in ten days with this program. and so far most of our claims have not even been looked at. >> here's what transportation

secretary ray lahood said about it. he understands that dealers are frustrated. there will be no car dealers that won't be reimbursed. do you trust his word? >> i always believe action and not words. and i'm very -- america's automobile dealers are very skeptical. we like the program. i think they recollected fix the bureaucratic inefficiencies and continue with the program. now, they funded $3 billion of what should be a $5 billion program. this is a wonderful program. don't stop the program because of bureaucratic inefficiency. fix that and continue the program. you're going to see some huge sales numbers nationally this month. and this is stimulus that works. >> yeah, now actually we are also getting word from the department that they have brought more people on the case to review and pay out these claims. hopefully that will change. you say you haven't destroyed some of your clunkers yet, why is that? >> we're scared. most of our cars we have

retained of other dealers. we're scared we're not going to get paid and we have to destroy them otherwise. we destroy that engine, that car's value is tremendously diminished. all of our lots are full of cars as are dealers across the country. we have to dispose of a couple now because we don't have room. but this has been really ineptly handled by the government. but it's a great program. fix the problems and continue it. >> big picture, there's been a jump in car sales as we said. gm and ford saying they're ramping up production, rehiring workers as a result of this program. what's next when the program's done? is this a turning point for dealerships and manufacturing and the car industry in general? >> well, that's a good question. i've talked to a lot of customers. the nay sayers and i understand why they have questions about the program. we've never done it here before, but i've been looking at other countries in anticipation that we would do it and i'm on the showroom floor, were you in the market, ready to buy a car, trade a car in? and by and large, the people

were not. they're driving old cars, maintained them, they're going to drive them until they died. we really weren't pulling ahead. what's going to happen is the sales uptick is going to wipe out inventories and it's going to take a while to replace those inventories. this is putting workers back on the jobs. honda's adding days, hyundai's got their plant going, again. you'll be surprised at the sales numbers at the end of the month. it'll be a big uptick because of this program. >> well, hopefully you guys will get your checks paid to you quickly, as well, and hopefully be able to take care of that soon. jeff, thanks. >> thank you. >> it really is a good news-bad news situation. the good news is it works, but like most government programs, it also doesn't work. >> tough thing. gm, in fact, is saying, don't stop it to the dealerships, we'll front the money until you get reimbursed by the

government. >> i'm sure they'd love this continue as long as they get their cash back. well, speaking of cash, some school systems are so strapped they're asking parents to foot the bill for a whole lot of things. we heard about, can you bring us office supplies? well, the tab for sports is going up too. coming up next, 20 minutes to the top of the hour. (mom) he needed everything for college: towels, sheets and then there was the stuff he wanted... like a new microwave. and because of walmart's unbeatable prices,

we were able to get it all. ...and then some. set them up for success-- for less. save money. live better. walmart.

good morning, new york city, where it's partly cloudy now and 81 degrees later on today. scattered thunderstorms and a high of 88, but those storms should hold off probably until this evening. back to school time and the recession is making its way into lesson plans. schools across the country certainly are strapped for cash in this bad economy. >> and so they're faced with the problem, how do you pay for these activities? and some schools are now saying it's up to the parents to pay the tab. increasingly, we're seeing pay to play at america's high schools and christine romans is watching it for us. so the extracurriculars used to be part of it. you could play soccer if you wanted to. you didn't have to pay anything extra. >> you've got two choices, cut the programs or you can try to find the money, where you find the money, mom and dad get out the checkbook.

$50 for junior to sing in the choir, another $150 to play in the band, each sport, each sport, depending on where you live. cut the sports clubs and extracurriculars, you are footing the bill. >> reporter: head to head competition for a spot on the team. no guts, no glory, sure, but no cash, no football? each of these kids pays $100 to play. budget cuts left this new jersey school district no choice. jobs were cut, some class sizes got bigger, now they've turned to new fees to keep sports and extracurricular activities alive, $100 per student in the high school, $75 in the middle school, $200 cap for families. >> we looked at a variety of possibilities, including the cutting of a middle school program, the cutting of some coaches, and ultimately after

listening to so many parents, they were in favor of instituting the activity fee. >> reporter: a growing number of schools are doing the same after cutting to the bone. >> they're trying to find ways to eliminate costs where they can. but with the difficulty with the economy, we're seeing the amount of dollars that parents are being asked to pay to support programs increasing. >> reporter: parents have mixed feelings. >> at first i felt a little funny about it. but then i thought about it. if it's going to die, i'd rather pay to keep the sport alive. >> reporter: the superintendent says many parents feel the same way and participation hasn't been hurt. but she sees the strain on families. essex county has the second highest property taxes in the county. >> one of the things the parents raised there's a lot of fund raising that also goes on with respect to musical programs or athletic programs. so, you know, the activity fee was on top of all of the other

contributions that parents make all the time. but they wanted to see all the programs stay. >> what about the kids whose parents can't afford to play? are they excluded then? well, most schools have special provisions for people who can't afford the fees. at this school, the new jersey students on the free or reduced lunch program, they have the fee waived overall. and they'll consider doing the same with students with special circumstances. the point is not to shut out families that can't afford it. parents are being shaken down for all of these different things. so you can see how parents are concerned. >> as the economy gets better, will they eliminate these fees or say, wow, an extra source of revenue. >> that's a good question. maybe they use the new money to get another coach or start a new program and they keep picking your pocket. >> don't they say they never really repeal a new tax. after a tax's taken, they're not

going to repeal it. >> these schools are trying to keep the programs alive. they would like to have that problem -- >> we're just optimistics, christine. >> what's the first thing you ever drove? >> it was a tractor. >> oh, no, first vehicle. the first vehicle was a tractor. i thought you meant the first car you ever owned. >> no, first vehicle. >> tractor, are you kidding me? i'm from iowa. that's not a tractor, that's a little scooter. >> that thing's a big -- >> pull back. oh. i thought he was still on a little gator. >> no, rob has talked himself into one of these hyper horsepower tractor machines. >> does our insurance cover that? >> there you go. it's not your average little green tractor. rob's coming up. stay with us, 48 minutes past the hour.

♪ >> i knew it was a matter of time before rob was able to sweet talk himself into a big juiced up version of the tractor. >> scam his way on to a tractor. >> he's on a road trip today and

he's got a lot of horsepower on this one, a lot of noise. >> it's kind of like the nascar for tractors. every friday our rob marciano hits the road for "rob's road show," today we're in bowling green, ohio for the tractor pull championships. what do they call it? pull city or something? oh, look at rob. look at rob, he's got a ride. >> i'm cruising, i'm moving. all right, this is the mini modified division here. when it's cranked up -- >> is that thing going, rob, or is somebody pushing you? >> all right, show them, larry. all right. i'm -- i've got to put the brakes on here at some point. >> the tractor pull. thank you, larry, nice work there. that's larry, he's -- he and his son have been trading off championships here for several years in the mini modified division. we spent time with him yesterday, he has a unique

story, lost his legs in a farming accident, but manages to be the forefront and the ever present leader in this particular division. listen to what he had to say about his experience with tractor pull. >> without my legs, you know, i strap myself in, i use my stumps to pull up on the brakes. so it's a whole different feeling. i actually drive better now than i did before i got hurt. so it's really cool because, you know, they say you drive by the seat of your pants and for me that's where i'm at all the time. >> there's my man. there's larry, he's obviously a special breed here. one of 60 competitors, or 300 competitors, i believe, there's a handful of women here, they come in all shapes and sizes, all ages down to the teenage level, as well. that's the track. and that's the reason we weren't able to pull. because they're still grating the track.

it's 100 yards and they're still working on that thing. it's going to start tonight, they're going to have the mini modified division, the version, we cranked those up, 12,000 to 13,000 horsepower, crazy, crazy stuff and one of those things like nascar, until you go, you haven't experienced it. oh, by the way, guys, the road show has a new sponsor. we're running out of money, so i'm hoping that pensoil takes care of us for the next go. send us your suggestions. >> look, something arrived in my e-mail box. >> rob, you look great in that thing. i'm sorry you didn't -- they didn't trust him to thit thit t. >> it would be dangerous and right now, quite frankly, i'm stuck. >> all right, rob. take care, we'll see you back there next week. >> 54 minutes past the hour. naing onon ud r.

weotototatatininci on us cars for everybody

anont cfidedence ininin o. caususususlendnds s ve a a a t tcks. ququq n . ♪ welcome back to the most news in the morning. during this make or break month for health care reform, one cancer survivor is making a life-saving comeback, literally. meet our cnn hero of the week. >> this is cnn heroes.

>> i've been completely denied all insurances. i've been unemployed and basically have no income. >> and they told me i had breast cancer and i did not have any insurance, so i came here. >> if they have no insurance, and they have no money, what's going to happen to them? in 2003, i discovered that i had kidney cancer. i am a nurse practitioner, if it could happen to me, it could happen to anybody. i co-founded a free clinic for americans who don't have health insurance. good morning, everybody. we welcome every patient here who is uninsured and who meets the federal poverty guidelines. we usually see 80 patients every other weekend. we have what i call controlled chaos. and it is busy, busy, busy, go,

go, go. having kidney cancer was one of the best things that ever happened to me. for one reason is i can truly empathize with patients. >> any questions at all? nothing you can think of? i'm going to see you back in here in two weeks. awesome. good. >> i'm so proud of you. >> we all have the same rights, i'm sorry the right to have care is just right up there with the rest of them. ♪ who's born to care this life was protected... ♪ seems you've always been right there ♪ this life was saved... ♪ soothing sadness ♪ healing pain and this life was made easier... ♪ making smiles appear again because of this life. nursing.

at johnson & johnson, we salute all those who choose the life... that makes a difference. ♪ you're a nurse ♪ you make a difference well, that's going to do it for us on this friday. hope you have a wonderful weekend. thanks for being with us and we'll see you back here on monday. >> continue the conversation, go our blog at cnn.com/amfix.