>> larry: good point. >> and that defeats the thing that the al qaeda and other extremists are so intent on propagating. >> larry: thank you. a former extremist, extraordinary story. now, anderson cooper and ac "360." >> breaking news, major city under water, heartbreaking, damage and death toll rising. we have the latest from nashville and will speak with the mayor and kenny chesney on the story all the world needs to know. and the bp disaster and what if any oversight did the government have on them. bottom line, are government watchdogs more like lapdog, in some cases literally in bed with the industry, having sex with

employees and doing drugs and you will not believe the report. breaking news tonight on the time square terror suspect. a dry run the day before the bombing attempt and why so many suspects on the no-fly list can still get guns illegally and we'll talk to bill maher. we begin with the breaking news on catastrophic flooding in the south. while a lot of us in the national media have been focused on the oil spill the city of nashville is under water, 19 dead. that's where it's taken its toll. besides the devastating loss of life. people being swept away, homes damaged or gone. look at these images. tonight, the mayor of nashville says the cost of the damages could be more than $1 billion. search and rescue teams today fanned out in neighborhoods

across nashville, searching homes. tomorrow, the grim work continues. the images over the last couple of days have been unbelievable. this one from nashville. look at that huge object, look likes a truck. that structure along interstate 24 is a portable classroom used by students. thankfully no one was inside. that happened saturday. look at these submerged vehicles outside millington. for some, hope is gone as well. power is out. bobbie tried to rescue his 15-year-old daughter, kiley, his wife standing and watching it all in horror. kiley was taken by the water and so was her dad, bobbie and she lost her husband and daughter in a split second. >> he was a hero. he sacrificed himself for his kids. that's what i think. >> a lot of people in tennessee feel the national media and washington haven't paid enough attention. we reported on the situation a little bit but not as much as we should have.

we hope to begin to correct that tonight and tomorrow from nashville. we'll go there tomorrow. with us now is nashville mayor, carl dean. it's a been five days since the storm first occurred, seeing pictures coming over the city. how bad is it tonight? >> anderson, we're really in the recovery stage. the rain stopped sunday and the river crested monday night. we're in a position the river is actually receding. we are coming out of this thing, beginning the cleanup process. we had nine deaths in nashville, a lot of people who lost their homes and businesses no longer operating. this has been devastating. our heart goes out to the victims of this flood. right now, we're going to be focused on getting our city back up working. in essence, the government will report back to work tomorrow completely. we are going forward with the cleanup. the downtown area you'll see tomorrow is rapidly coming back. i think the country music hall of fame will reopen friday.

our honky-tonks and lower broadway are up and running. we will remain music city and go forward with what we've been doing. >> at this point, how much water is there still in the streets? in how many areas? >> the water was in all parts of the city. nashville is a metropolitan county and city government, we have flooding north, south, east and west. the areas outside downtown, areas served by tributaries or creek, those water receded relatively rapidly. there was a lot of flooding of homes there, flooding along the cumberland river where probably the most famous damage was done to the gaylord opryland hotel. that was been closed now and should be closed for several months as they repair it. the grand ole opry itself is closed. the grand ole opry was moved

last night to the state capital and the performance went on and the facilities will continue with the music traditions. >> are you getting the help you need from the federal government? >> yes. the president declared a disaster with them. fema is in the city. we set up five or six local disaster assistance offices where fema will be working with us. so far so good. we are totally committed to getting the city cleaned up and moving forward. obviously, this has been tough on everybody. we have a long twice go. it will take some time but we're going to get it done. >> mayor karl dean, appreciate you being on. thanks. country singer and songwriter kenny chesney lives in nashville, went back to check on his family and friends only to find his own home flooded. we'll show you that video shortly. he joins me on the phone. thank you for being with us.

have you ever seen anything like this in nashville? >> caller: never, anderson. i've been here 14, 15 years now. i've never seen anything like this in my life, much less nashville. there's a lot of people in this city that's really hurting now. i've never seen anything like it. i was out of town when it happened. as i was flying back home, you could see all of it from the air. i couldn't believe what had happened. i couldn't believe that this -- you think -- you watch the news and you see all this stuff happen around the world. you know, this has really had an effect on this town and on this state. it's really been a really tough thing for people to deal with, including me. >> we've been getting a lot of e-mails from viewers in tennessee, saying where are you guys? the national media hasn't focused on this and i have to say, they're right. we haven't focused the way we

should have and been distracted by the oil spill and terror situation in new york but that's no excuse. we will go there tomorrow and this program will be broadcasting tomorrow. you shot video when you went to your house today. how did you get to your house and what did you see? >> caller: i was curious because i wasn't able to go until today because the road leading to my house was under about five feet of water. they finally receded enough where we could get through there. i got to my property on this john boat. i was on there with a small motor. i couldn't believe it because i have 40 acres on the river and, i just -- i didn't know what to think. i was numb to it all really. you know, anderson, i lost a lot, but not near as much as a lot of people. i mean, i -- i -- yes, i've been affected by this tragedy, but there are so many people in

nashville that are really hurting that, you know, the things i lost, i can replace, thank god. there have been people that lost their lives and their livelihood. i'm glad you said that about you guys coming to nashville, to let the world know that people here are hurting because, you know, we need the world's help right now. it's just really sad thing to see, especially people that you know and people that you love and people that -- i do feel like that the people here in this town are a really tight community and it's just sad to see it happen. >> i heard a story today about a woman who watched her husband try to save her daughter from -- her child from racing floodwaters, only to see them both swept away. it's stunning these individual stories we're hearing, you see the big picture, flooding from

the sky but there's thousands of individual stories from people suffering on the ground. i know you've been tweeting, trying to get people to help and donate money. what's the best thing people can do, you think? >> caller: i think a they -- i'm telling everybody at radio stations and on my own radio station i have, to give whatever you can. people have lost everything. i know what -- you know, we all saw what happened in haiti and we all saw what happened all over the world. these people need just bare essentials here in nashville. i know it's crazy to think that. they really do. you know, yeah, you can give money to the american red cross, all that kind of stuff but these people need toothbrushes and toothpaste. >> we saw pictures of the grand ole opry, landmark in nashville and a picture of water well past the doors and entrance flooded. >> the tennessee titans football stadium is flooding. i amazing at the impact this

storm has had on this city. you're right. there's a lot of musical landmarks that mean a lot to a lot of people in this country. it not only touched the music industry, consortiums, toutouri the sports industry, so many places it affected. i really appreciate you talking about it and having me on. people need to know this city is hurting in a way that i don't think i've ever seen it before. >> as you said, property is one thing. that can be fixed and repaired but the lives are -- you know, the death toll, still frankly being accounted for and we don't know writ's going to go. thank you for taking the time to talk to us. >> caller: thanks, anderson. we'll show you the search and rescue operations under way and the survivors and joined by tim mcgraw and faith hill nashville residents.

special report, nashville tomorrow. up next, the latest on the oil spill. keeping them honest. people of the government agency for years supposed to be regulating the gasoline industry. were they actually doing that? turns out they were doing cocaine and sleeping together, high officials. and the new york square bombing attempt, a dry run the day before. and "360" big interview, bill maher's take on the utterly insane story of people able to buy guns and ammo. surprised a lot of people and talk to him about islam and the oil spill. to stay on top of my game after 50,

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affect wheat output in the u.s., the shipping industry in norway, and the rubber industry in south america?

at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment objectives, risks, fees, expenses, and other information to read and consider carefully before investing. i want to bring you up to date on the gulf oil spill and what we discovered about government oversight over the years and it is frankly stung. regulators, government watchdogs, playing footsy with the industry they were supposed to be regulating, literally having sex with oil company employees. i want to show you what's happening to the oil. 210,000 gallons still pouring out every single day. crews managed to repair what they call controlled burns.

we don't have any pictures of it. it has temporarily stopped pouring dispersements onto the slick and to see how effective they have been. another development. let me take this off. one of the three under sea leaks was patches this morning, the smallest one. however, the coast guard said this is not going to change in any significant way the amount of oil that's still spilling into the gulf. you still have these two spills, this the major one. today, they loaded that huge four-story containment vessel, this one right here, began loading it onto a barge and moving it out to the sea. a giant box open on the bottom and cone-shaped roof on the top. what we're going to do, show you this animation, they will tow this into place and slowly sink it, dropping it 5,000 feet,

nearly a mile onto the seabed, right over the main leak. that's the idea, anyway. they will plug a pipe into the top and run the pipe to the surface here. they're going to take this out. get that pipe going. here's the pipe. then they will let the oil spill into a barge or tanker. the idea is let it go into a tanker or barge and into the sea. they never tried this in such deep water, a gamble. but will know by tomorrow. the story you need to hear is what kind of oversight the government has been maintaining for years, a piece of safety equipment could have been on this well but wasn't and it could have been prevented the disaster but we don't know for sure. why wasn't it in place? was it because how cozy this government watchdog has been with this industry? ed lavandera? >> reporter: it's hard to

imagine how things could be worse for the mns. its 1700 employees are supposed to regulate the oil industry but a growing chorus says it's nothing short of a disaster. >> it's very clear you have a dysfunctional agency. you can't trust them. they showed they're too cozy with industry. >> reporter: too cozy indeed. a year ago, an agency found more than a dozen ethical failure, some having sex and drug use with employees. >> they thought partying and expensive tickets to hotel rooms somehow made it's easier for them to understand the business of how much oil and natural gas was being taken out. >> reporter: cnn has reviewed hundreds of pages of documents and deposit reports dating back almost ten years, documents that paint mms as an agency in the word of its critics rubber stamps the oil industry's action and unable to enforce safety

regulation. in 2000, they issued a safety alert calling for offshore drillers in the u.s. to have an additional backup system called and acoustic switch that could prevent oil blowouts like the one in the gulf. they went so far to call it essential component. just three years later after complaints from the oil industry, mns determined it wasn't so essential after all, saying it was too costly and effective, never mind bp is required to use it on rigs in two other countries. stuart smith is an environmental attorney who has won dozens of cases against the oil industry and representing fishermen out of work because of the oil disaster. we flew over the slick with him. in the years before this disaster, mns and bp down played the possibility of an oil spill. in an major exploration plan, they called it unlikely. when bp sought for the psych,

mns went along with it and gave the company a category call exclusion from more strenuous environmental impact study and one executive says they are common. >> once you dig into it, they are treated with kid gloves in every respect. they are the least regulated industry in the country. >> obviously, they will argue? >> they can't. >> reporter: we asked mns about the oversight over the wells. in a statement, they said speculation over the causes or implications of the deep water tragedy would be premature adding the drilling rig was owned by another company. we wanted to know what mns would say, after repeated requests at the minerals management service, they refused to talk to us. ed lavandera, new orleans. douglas brinkley writes at length about the wildlife in

harm and writes about the crusade. forget about the drug use and drinking they report, and the report last month, makes it sounds like mms, these watchdogs designed to regulate the industry basically is more concerned with the health of energy companies than the environment? >> no question about it. mms is part of the interior department. we think of interior, national park services or yellow stone and yosemite or u.s. fish and wildlife trying to manage birds and game in this country. mms has to work closely with implementing the national environmental policy act of 1969. that happened after the santa barbara spill, and it was meant to enforce things like clean air and water acts, the wilderness act, for example. instead, what happened, incrementally, year by year, but really happened during the bush years of late, mms really

started working way too close with big oil. in fact, as the "washington post" is reporting, as you have seen, they gave category call exclusion, meaning they weren't even checking for some of the environmental measures, mms, on this very rig, the deepwater horizon rig they were supposed to. >> why be so cozy with this industry you're supposed to be regulating? >> because i think we were in a recession, starting with the beginning of the obama administration, april 2009. for a minute, people thought the obama administering might be a little stricter environmentally on offshore drilling but they weren't. they continued bush policy. a couple of months ago, mms has a new head, lisa birnbaum, there's this thought they would clean out the corruption, talking about the denver office, problems of getting perks for the job, there was starting to be enforced, and then this oil

spill happened. so now mms is on the hot seat. you will have to scrap the organization and rebuild it from the ground up. >> we will have more with professor brinkley after the break including his take on the white house slapping down former fema head michael brown's conspiracy claim, brown believing the white house wants this disaster to spread. the question, how many people on the terrorist watch list could walk into gun shops and buy firearms and explosives? 1 in a thousand? 1 in 10? how about 9 out of 10?

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talking about the proposal story of douglas brinkley who wrote a definitive book on hurricane katrina. yon if you saw michael brown saying he believed the president wanted this to spread because he wanted to secretly shut down the offshore drilling and robert gibbs singled out fox news for giving him the softball treatment. >> for those who weren't let in on the big secret, mr. brown, fema director brown, under katrina, intimated on fox, and

it wasn't -- i will editorially say, didn't appear to be pushed back on real hard, that this spill was leaked on purpose in order for us to walk back our environmental and drilling decision decisions and that the leak that we did on purpose got out of control and now is too big to contain. >> last night, we interviewed mr. brown. he seemed to be trying to say he never said what he had said. take a look. >> what evidence, as a former government official, i would think you would choose your words carefully. what evidence do you have that they would want this, this is basically a plot to shut down oil? >> in january, the president gave an interview to the "san francisco chronicle" in which he said cap and trade legislation should be as strong as possible so anybody that wants to use carbon, coal, oil and gas, whatever, that it would be so expensive, that they would end

up going bankrupt. the president wants to move this country away from a carbon based energy supply to something else. >> my question is what evidence do you have that the president of the united states wants this spill to spread, wants it -- that they want it to go up the east coast, they want this so they can shut down the oil drilling? >> anderson, nobody, including the president, wants the oil to spread into the wetlands or around the coast. i said that it would. they want to use the crisis. if they can use this crisis to shut down oil and gas drilling, that's what they're going to do and, in fact, bill nelson has already come out and said it, arnold schwarzenegger, has already come out and said it. the people opposed to oil and gas offshore drilling are using this crisis to shut down a legitimate industry. >> it's bizarre and kind of stunning that he -- kind of just -- yon if crazy is the right word, what do you make of this? >> michael brown was the worst director in fema's relatively

short history but he did an abysmal job handling the katrina situation, even the bush administration recognized it. i think he's a very wounded person, had psychological damage from being the pinata of the press in 2005 and trying to surface during this particular offshore drilling crisis and offer a conspiratorial theory about president obama. it wasn't helpful and wasn't smart and i think we've probably seen the last of him on the tv for a while. >> i'm really not trying to take sides, conservative, republican or liberal. to me, what we don't know about the obama's response to this, what sort of oversight -- the obama administration saying we relied on bp that they had it under control, it wasn't until a week or eight days later noaa did overflights and saw and figured out, this is five times

worse than we think it is. we don't know, it seems to me, what oversight, if any, they had over bp in those early day, though the coast guard was on the scene, yon at what level the epa was overseeing it? do you know that? >> to a degree i know it. because this is such a politicized atmosphere. people have to understand, president obama has been for offshore drilling, for it in the 2008 campaign, just weeks before the bp oil spill, he was encouraging more oil exploration and possibly offshore drilling in places like virginia, florida, alaska. in addition to that, your earlier report on mms show, they were being lax, turning a bit of blind eye at mms and letting companies like bp not have the rigid environmental standards the national environmental policy act demanded.

a different question is could the obama administration done something? no. this is british petroleum's oil spill. what you will have happen out of this is much tighter -- not stopping of offshore drilling in the gulf, tougher enforcement. you will have a new mms that actually does its job. i think president obama has big political choices. one is shell oil is looking this july to drill off anwar in alaska, it's very controversial. he has the outer continental shelf act on his side to protect the refuge. keep your eye on shell in alaska in the coming weeks? >> i'm still curious who they had on-sight in the early days of the spill, monitoring what bp was telling them. that will be an interesting thing to see. >> it's going to be interesting. people have to realize, the gulf of mexico is an drill zone.

people are drilling all the time and a lot of offshore oil drilling is done safely. where i think the obama administration is facing a problem is going to be on its left. environmentalists saying, why weren't you more strictly enforcing the national environmental policy act? >> always god have you on, sir. appreciate it. breaking news in the time square bomb case. late tonight, the suspect actually made a dry run the day before. also the "360" interview, never shy, bill maher weighs in on the issue of islamic extremists that target the u.s. >> i don't think the problem is people hate america, they like america and feel giddy about it. they come here and like eating at chilies and the water slide and the strip club and then get on their jihadi websites and feel guilty about it. >> and the ability of suspects

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just had the big "360" interview, bill maher, always blunt and sharing his shouts! first, "athletics bulletin." >> three people were killed when demonstrators torched a bank. and reducing pay and pensions, all part of a bailout greece needs to stay afloat.

news weeks looking to sell the news magazine posting losses since 2007. in san diego, a new punchline, why did the sea lion cross the road? to hide under a police car. the wandering animal stayed there for four hours until a rescuer from sea world grabbed it by the tail. it was dehydrated and under weight and sea world says it will take care of it and put it back in the ocean within four months. breaking news, authorities believe the time square bomb suspect rehearsed the crime the day before. and a report how easy it is for expected terrorists to buy guns even if they're on the government's terror watch list. is that a loophole that should be closed or the way it should be? bill maher speaking out about the oil spill and the criticism the obama administration is getting from some. >> katrina was something he was warned about, a natural disaster. they kept saying days before,

the storm is coming. no one kept saying to obama, the rig is going to blow in three day, it's brewing up there in the gulf. i lost 120 pounds on nutrisystem. enjoy four perfectly portioned meals for as low as $8.92 a day, our best price guaranteed. i'm marie osmond, and i lost 50 pounds on nutrisystem. i lost over 100 pounds and lowered my blood sugar on nutrisystem d. based on the proven science of the glycemic index, nutrisystem works, and now it can work for you. that's me 22 pounds ago, and i'm never going back there again. roll back prices no matter who you are or what program is right for you. people say i look 10 years younger. i feel 10 years younger. smart money named nutrisystem the best value of popular weight-loss programs. now our best price just got better. call 888-988-thin and start losing weight today. with nutrisystem, there are no more excuses. the nutrisystem roll back sales event won't last long. call or click now.

tonight, authorities say faisal shahzad, the suspected time square bomber continues to cooperate with investigators and actually waived his right to lawyer. the breaking news, law enforcement officer withable of the questioning of the accused terrorist has confirmed to cnn he made a dry run the bay before he tried to blow up time square. and airlines required to update within two hours instead of every 24 hours. that procedure happened on

monday when emirates air didn't notice shahzad's name had been added to the terror watch list and let him board that plane. in washington, senate held a hearing on a loophole that allows people to buy guns, even if they're on the government's terror watch list. >> reporter: the report says over the past six years, suspects on the government's terror watch list attempted to buy firearms or explosives 1228 times. 9 times out of 10, those potential terrorists bought them. that's right. 91% of the sales went through. fresh from a near catastrophe in times square and armed with a report of potential terrorists buying guns, new york's anti-gun mayor, michael bloomberg, urged congress to close a loophole. >> we have certain regulations, federal regulation, the courts said they're appropriate, you can't sell guns to convicted

felon, can't sell guns to people who have serious psychological problems, you can't sell guns to minors. >> reporter: bloomberg was one of several lawmakers backing the terror gap bill, a bill that would give the attorney general the discretion to deny the transfer of a firearm when a background check reveals the purchaser is a known or expected terrorist and believes the person may use the weapon in connection with terrorism. >> oddly, strangely, in this case, though the department of justice may be informed your name is on a terrorism watch list, they can't stop you from buying a gun, that's a gap we're trying to fill with this legislation. >> reporter: it sounds simple except for one rather major obstacle, the constitutional right for american citizens to own guns. senator lindsay graham also pointed out the problem with the watch lists themselves, so fraught with mistakes, cnn reported two years ago, even 8-year-old boys can be listed as potential terrorists.

>> are you a terrorist? >> yon. >> there's a disconnect here between what we're saying in reality, the watch list, when you look at the numbers, has so many problems with it that i think is not appropriate to go down the road that we're going, because a constitutional right is involved. >> everyone can agree, i think, we don't want terrorists to be able to purchase guns. the real issue is how does one get on the watch list, because we know now the government has released several reports, about 35% of people on the watch list are americans that are placed on there, based on, you know, faulty information. >> reporter: bloomberg and others are trying to use faisal shahzad's attempted bombing in new york as momentum to push the bill through. the time square terror suspect

bought a rifle this march. he did so legally. faisal shahzad had no criminal history and cnn has now confirmed he wasn't on anybody's watch list. backers of the bill say, even if he was on a watch list, the government report shows he would have a 90% chance he'd still be able to buy a gun. drew griffin, cnn, atlanta. tonight's big "360" interview, bill maher, in a recent "vanity fair" article, when asked to describe his current state of mind, he said cautiously pessimistic. should people on the terror watch list be able to buy guns? >> you know, this is america, anderson, everyone should be able to buy guns, as many as they want, as often as they want wherever they want, the american way. you know the most important amendment is the second amendment, everything comes after that. i'm kidding of course. i'm for gun control, controlling

guns to a degree. an interesting question that sort of catches right wing. they're against terrorism but for guns. >> it's is in interesting, the gao said 91% of those on the no-fly list could pass background checks and get guns. i think it surprises a lot of folks. >> right. i also think we should change the no-fly list to the no getting on the damn plane list, i think they need to make that a little more clear to people. >> be more specific? the initial reaction the new york's mayor and other politicians had, this was a lone wolf. do you think they were being too politically correct? >> i don't think it matters. what matters is there are a lot of young muslim men in this country and overseas who are on the edge here. this guy, like a lot of the terrorists we find out about, wasn't poor, he was living this middle class life. then, you know, the backup plan,

terrorism, his wife left him or the house was underwater or something, you know, i know i'm a broken record about religion, when that stuff is in your head, it just gives you this neurological disorder, anything is possible. i don't think the problem is guys like this hate america, i think the problem is they like america and they feel guilty about it. they come here and they like eating at chili's and they like the water slide and they like going to the strip club and then they get on their jihadi websites and feel terribly guilty about it, and decide if things go bad, maybe they don't decide, this guy didn't look like he had much of a plan, it just hits them visiting a painful chastizement on the infidel. that's appealing, too, or i might go home and watch "nip/tuck." >> between those two? >> yeah, it seems like that.

>> we want to hear from you. join the live chat on cnn.com and we'll talk about the oil spill and islam. later tonight, a facebook glitch, instant messages you thought were private might not have been. when i grow up, i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to work with kids. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. thanks, mom. i just want to get my car back. [ female announcer ] together we can discover the best of what's next at aarp.org.

let's continue with more of the "360" interview. last week, you made fun of south park. >> when south park got

threatened last week and in sensed with the depiction of mohammad. it served and should serve our culture isn't one just different than one that makes death threats to cartoonists, it's better. because when i make a joke about the pope, he doesn't send one of his swiss guards in their striped pantilooms to stick a pipe in my ass. when i make a jewish joke, rabbis talk about it but don't pull out something and make an adult circumcision. when i insult scientology, the worst that happens is -- >> wise islam the one religion so many in america and the west sensor themselves about when it comes to making fun of? is it just fear? >> absolutely. because they're violent.

they threaten us and they are threatening. they bring that desert stuff to our world. i said the same thing friday night. we don't threaten each other, we sue each other. that's the sign of civilized people. they don't. yes, we do have religious nuts in this country. there was a cleric in iran who recently said earthquakes were caused by slutty women. pat robertson once said abortions caused hurricanes, i think. the difference is pat robertson doesn't have the power to cut your arms off. you know, people who want to gloss over the difference between western culture and islamic culture and forget about the fact the islamic culture is 600 years younger and they are going through the equivalent of what the west went through with our middle ages, our dark ages when religion had way too much power and we had inquisitions and things like that, do so at their peril. when they caught this guy -- go ahead. >> when you hear the refraining

from american muslims and the vast majority of american muslims abhor this stuff, they say islam is a religion of peace, do you buy that? >> yeah, they blow you up. there's a piece of you over there and there. is it a religion of peace? yon. i have not read the koran in its original. when you read the translation, there are many, many passages that are not peaceful at all, that are about killing the infidel and so forth. there are many passages like that in the bible, too. not as many. we downtown take it seriously. that's the difference. we blow off our religions. if we took the bible seriously, we'd look over our fence on sunday morning, see our neighbor mowing his lawn and think, hmm, working on sunday, i really should kill him. we don't do that. there are entire schools, you know this, anderson, you're a globetrotter. you've been to pakistan and so

forth, entire schools where the kids read just one book, they're memorizing the koran. that's all they do. that's not what we too in this country. >> i want to talk about the response to the oil spill. how do you think the response has been? do you think bp will pay for it? >> they may pay for the spill itself but never pay for all the answer-- ancillary damage. i have no idea, it's too early. the bigger question is why aren't we moving forward to get off the oil, something we should have been doing in the '70s. in 1984, the average fuel economy for a car was 20 miles per gallon. 20 years later, in 2004, think about all the technological advances that took place between '84 and 2004, cds and the

internet, whatever's going on with bruce jenner, a lot of advances. >> what is going on with bruce jenner? this is a question i have been wondering. >> yon. i should not have opened that can of worms. >> think everybody has that question but people are afraid to ask. >> 1984, average car fuel mileage efficiency, 20 miles per gallon. 2004, 20.7. we rocketed up .7 in 20 years. this country has not been serious about reducing our dependence on oil. >> i have to say, i had mike brown from, you know, brownie, heck of a job, from fema on the program last night. >> sure. >> he has this theory that the obama administration wanted this spill to spread up the east coast because their secret plot is to halt all offshore drilling even though the obama administration has now politically supported it, going back to 2008 in the debates, obama was supporting some forms

of offshore drilling. >> they're so desperate to make this obama's fault. as soon as it happened, we heart, this is his katrina, in the minds of those who don't think too far or too deeply, disaster, louisiana, okay, that's enough. i don't have to think any further. bush had his katrina, obama had -- except katrina was something that he was warned about. it was a natural disaster and they kept saying, days before, the storm is coming. no one kept saying to obama, the rig is going to blow in three days, it's brewing up there in the gulf. >> bill maher, always good to have you on, thanks. >> pleasure, anderson. next, facebook users, beware a glitch that may have exposed your private chats. and elephants and what terrorizes them. and i trust the crest 3d white collection. [ female announcer ] introducing crest 3d white.

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let's get a quick update on other stories. tom foreman. >> hi, anderson, a new ash cloud from iceland grounded air flights in scotland and other airports could reopen tonight or tomorrow. a technical glitch for

facebook, private checks could be seen by other users today, and so could pending friend requests. to fix the bug, facebook temporarily shut down the service. the immigration law is said to be deeply flawed and the phoenix suns -suns-that's not t. they're wearing jerseys that say los suns. who news, oxford researchers say they discovered the elephants achilles heel. pachydermmys are afraid of bees and are terrified and even warn others to stay away and they use b bees by farmers to scare the elephants off. >> oh. >> they don't like their plants being stomped. >> it's a trade-off.

the flooding, devastation and recovery and we'll be there live tomorrow night. oh, buck chooses the blue one! [ male announcer ] go national. go like a pro. choosing your own car? now, that's a good call. choosing your own car? band now we're insuring overts do18 million drivers. gecko: quite impressive, yeah. boss: come a long way, that's for sure. and so have you since you started working here way back when.

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breaking news, major city under water, heartbreaking, damage and death toll rising. work crews working to save lives and recover from the loss. we have the latest from nashville and will speak with the mayor and kenny chesney on the story all the world needs to know. also the latest on the bp disaster and what, if any oversight, did the government have on them for years? bottom line, are government watchdogs more like lapdog, in some cases literally in bed with

the industry, having sex with employees they were supposed to be watching over, even doing drugs with them in some cases. you will not believe the report. breaking news tonight on the new information of a dry run the day before the bombing attempt of the time square terror suspect. also why so many on the no-fly list can still get guns illegally and we'll talk to bill maher. we begin with the breaking news on catastrophic flooding in the south. while a lot of us in the national media have been focused on the oil spill the city of nashville has been under water, at least 28 people dead, 19 in tennessee alone, where it's taken the heaviest toll. besides the devastating loss of life. people being swept away, homes damaged or gone. roads, bridges, washed away. look at these images. tonight, the mayor of nashville says the cost of the damages

could be more than $1 billion. search and rescue teams today fanned out in neighborhoods across nashville, searching homes. tomorrow, the grim work continues. the images over the last couple of days have been unbelievable. this one from nashville. look at that huge object, look like a truck or something, right? that structure being swept along interstate 24 is a portable classroom, used by students. thankfully no one was inside. that happened saturday. look at these submerged vehicles outside millington. for some, hope is gone as well. power is out. bobbie tried to rescue his 15-year-old daughter, kiley, his wife standing and watching it all in horror. kiley was taken by the water and so too was her dad, bobby. sherry lost her husband and daughter in a split second. >> he was a hero. he sacrificed himself for his kids. that's what i think. >> a lot of people in tennessee feel the national media and washington haven't paid enough attention. we reported on the situation a

little bit but not as much as we should have. we hope to begin to correct that tonight and tomorrow from nashville. we'll go there tomorrow. with us now is nashville mayor, karl dean. it's been five days since the storm first occurred, seeing pictures coming over the city. how bad is it tonight? >> anderson, we're really in the recovery stage. the rain stopped sunday and the river crested monday night. we're in a position now where the river is actually receding. we are coming out of this thing, beginning the cleanup process. we had nine deaths in nashville, a lot of people who lost their homes and businesses no longer operating. this has been devastating. our heart goes out to the victims of this flood. right now, we're going to be focused on getting our city back up working. in essence, the government will report back to work tomorrow completely. we are going forward with the cleanup. the downtown area you'll see tomorrow is rapidly coming back.

i think the country music hall of fame will reopen friday. our honky-tonks and lower broadway are already up and running. we will remain music city and go forward with what we've been doing. >> at this point, how much water is there still in the streets? in how many areas? >> the water actually -- the flooding occurred in all different parts of the city. nashville is a metropolitan county and city government, we have flooding north, south, east and west. the areas outside downtown, which are largely areas served by tributaries or creek, those waters receded relatively rapidly. there was a lot of flooding of homes there. there's flooding along the cumberland river where probably the most famous damage was done to the gaylord opryland hotel. that was been closed now and should be closed for several months as they repair it. the grand ole opry itself is closed.

the grand ole opry was performed last night. they moved those po performances downtown, near the war memorial and the performance went on and the facilities will continue with the music traditions. >> are you getting the help you need from the federal government? >> yes. the president declared a disaster yesterday. senator corker and senator alexander both came to nashville. i visited with them. fema is in the city. we set up five or six local disaster assistance offices where fema will be working with us. so far so good. we are totally committed to getting the city cleaned up and moving forward. obviously, this has been tough on everybody. we have a long ways to go, it will take some time but we're going to get it done. >> mayor karl dean, appreciate you being on. thanks. country singer and songwriter kenny chesney lives in nashville. he rushed back to the city to check on his family and friends only to find his own home flooded.

he took video of that destruction. we'll show you that video shortly. he joins me on the phone. thank you for being with us. have you ever seen anything like this in nashville? >> caller: never, anderson. i've been here 14, 15 years now. i've never seen anything like this in my life, much less nashville. there's a lot of people in this city that's really hurting now. i've never seen anything like it. i was out of town when it happened. as i was flying back home, you could see all of it from the air. i couldn't believe what had happened. i couldn't believe that this -- you think -- you watch the news and you see all this stuff happen around the world. you know, this has really had an effect on this town and on this state. it's really been a really tough thing for people to deal with, including me. >> we've been getting a lot of e-mails from viewers in tennessee, saying where are you guys? the national media hasn't

focused on that. and got it to say, i think they're right. we haven't focused the way we should have and been distracted by the oil spill and terror situation in new york but that's no excuse. we will go to nashville tomorrow and this program will be broadcasting from there tomorrow. you shot video when you went to your house today. how did you get to your house and what did you see? >> caller: i was curious because i wasn't able to go until today because the road leading to my house was under about five feet of water. they finally receded enough where we could get through there. i got to my property on this john boat. i was on there with a small motor. i couldn't believe it because i have 40 acres on the river and, i just -- i didn't know what to think. i was numb to it all really. you know, anderson, i lost a lot, but not near as much as a lot of people. i mean, i -- i -- yes, i've been

affected by this tragedy, but there are so many people in nashville that are really hurting that, you know, the things i lost, i can replace, thank god. there have been people that lost their lives and their livelihood. i'm glad you said that about you guys coming to nashville, to let the world know that people here are hurting because, you know, we need the world's help right now. it's just really sad thing to see, especially people that you know and people that you love and people that -- i do feel like that the people here in this town are a really tight community and it's just sad to see it happen. >> i heard a story today about a woman who watched her husband try to save her daughter from -- her child from racing floodwaters, only to see them both swept away.

it's stunning these individual stories we're hearing, you see the big picture, flooding from the sky but there's thousands of individual stories from people suffering on the ground. i know you've been tweeting, trying to get people to help and donate money. what's the best thing people can do, you think? >> caller: i think that they -- i'm telling everybody at radio stations and on my own radio station i have, to give whatever you can. people have lost everything. i know what -- you know, we all saw what happened in haiti and we all saw what happened all over the world. these people need just bare essentials here in nashville. i know it's crazy to think that. they really do. you know, yeah, you can give money to the american red cross, all that kind of stuff but these people need toothbrushes and toothpaste. >> we saw pictures of the grand ole opry, landmark in nashville and a picture of water well past the doors and the entrance

absolutely flooded. >> the tennessee titans football stadium is flooding. >> that is right? >> caller: amazing impact this storm has had on this city. you're right. there's a lot of musical landmarks that mean a lot to a lot of people in this country. it not only touched the music industry, it's touched tourism, it touched the sports industry, so many things it affected. i really appreciate you talking about it and having me on. people need to know this city is hurting in a way that i don't think i've ever seen it before. >> as you said, property is one thing. that can be fixed and repaired but the lives are -- you know, the death toll, still frankly being accounted for and we don't know where it's going to go. thank you for taking the time to talk to us. >> caller: thanks, anderson. we'll show you the search and rescue operations under way and talk to survivors and those

trying to rebuild their lives and also be joined by tim mcgraw and faith hill nashville residents. special report, nashville tomorrow. up next, the latest on the oil spill. "keeping them honest" report. people of the government agency for years supposed to be regulating the gasoline industry. were they actually doing that? turns out a handful of them were doing cocaine and sleeping together, high officials. and the new york square bombing attempt, a dry run the day before. also the big "360" interview. bill maher's take on the utterly insane story of people able to buy guns and ammo. surprised a lot of people and talk to him about islam and the oil spill. [ beeping ]

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is now standard on every vehicle we make. ♪ don't get us wrong, we know actions speak louder than commercials. but just know, your safety will continue to be a top priority in any, and all of our decisions. ♪ i want to bring you up to date on the gulf oil spill and what we discovered about the facilitate -- failure of government oversight over the years and it is frankly stung. regulators, government watchdogs, playing footsy with the industry they were supposed to be regulating, literally having sex and sharing drugs with oil company employees. i want to show you what's happening to the oil. 210,000 gallons still pouring out every single day.

crews today managed to repair what they call controlled burns. we don't have any pictures of it. they're skimming as well but they have temporarily stopped pouring dispersements onto the slick and to see how effective they have been. another development. let me take this off. one of the three under sea leaks was patched this morning, the smallest one. let's move this. however, the coast guard said this is not going to change in any significant way the amount of oil that's still spilling into the gulf. you still have these two spills, this one obviously the major one. today, they loaded that huge four-story containment vessel, this thing right here, they loaded it onto a barge and began moving it out to the sea. a giant box open on the bottom and cone-shaped roof on the top. what we're going to do, show you this animation. here, we have the oil coming out

and they will tow this into place and slowly sink it, dropping it 5,000 feet, nearly a mile onto the seabed, right over the main leak. that's the idea, anyway. they will plug a pipe into the top and run the pipe to the surface here. they're going to take this out. get that pipe going. here's the pipe. then they will let the oil spill into a barge or tanker. the idea is let it go into a tanker or barge and not into the sea. they never tried this in such deep water, a gamble. but will know by tomorrow. if it will pay off. >> the story you need to hear is what kind of oversight the government has been maintaining for years, a piece of safety equipment could have been on this well but wasn't and it could have prevented the disaster but we don't know for sure. why wasn't it in place? was it because how cozy this government watchdog has been with this industry? ed lavandera tonight "keeping

them honest." >> reporter: it's hard to imagine how things could be worse for the mms. its 1700 employees are supposed to regulate the oil industry but a growing chorus says it's nothing short of a disaster. >> it's very clear you have a dysfunctional agency. you can't trust them. they showed they're too cozy with industry. >> reporter: too cozy indeed. two years ago, an agency found more than a dozen ethical failures, some having sex and drug use with company employees. >> they thought partying and accepting expensive tickets to hotel rooms somehow made it's easier for them to understand how much oil and natural gas was being taken out. >> reporter: cnn has reviewed hundreds of pages of documents and deposit reports dating back almost ten years, documents that paint mms as an agency in the

words of its critics, rubber stamps the oil industry's action and unable to enforce safety regulation. in 2000, they issued a safety alert calling for offshore drillers in the u.s. to have an additional backup system called and acoustic switch that could prevent oil blowouts like the one in the gulf. they went so far to call it a quote essential component. just three years later after complaints from the oil industry, mms determined it wasn't so essential after all, saying it was too costly and effective, never mind bp is required to use it on rigs in two other countries. stuart smith is an environmental attorney who has won dozens of cases against the oil industry and representing fishermen out of work because of the deep water horizon disaster. we flew over the slick with him. in the years before this disaster, mms and bp downplayed the possibility of an oil spill. in a major exploration plan, bp

called it unlikely. when bp sought for the psych, mms went along with it and gave the company a categoriry call exclusion from more strenuous environmental impact study and one executive says they are common. >> once you dig into it, they are treated with kid gloves in every respect. they are the least regulated industry from an environmental point of view, in the country. >> obviously, they will argue. >> they can't. >> reporter: we asked mms about the oversight over the wells. in a statement, they said speculation over the causes or implications of the deep water tragedy would be premature adding the drilling rig was owned by another company. we wanted to know what mns would say, after repeated requests at the minerals management service, they refused to talk to us. ed lavandera, new orleans. cnn. more now with rice

university historian, douglas brinkley, he writes at length about the wildlife in harm and writes about the crusade. when you look at the investigation two years ago, forget about the drug use and drinking they report, and the report last month, makes it sounds like mms, these watchdogs designed to regulate the industry basically is more concerned with the health of energy companies than the health of the environment. >> no question about it. mms is part of the interior department. we think of interior, national park services or yellow stone and yosemite or u.s. fish and wildlife trying to manage birds and game in this country. mms has to work closely with implementing the national environmental policy act of 1969. that happened after the santa barbara spill, and it was meant to enforce things like clean air and water acts, the wilderness act, for example. instead, what happened, incrementally, year by year, but

it really happened during the bush years of late, mms really started working way too close with big oil. in fact, as the "washington post" is reporting, as you have seen, they gave categorical exclusion, meaning they weren't even checking for some of the environmental measures, mms, on this very rig, the deepwater horizon rig they were supposed to. >> why be so cozy with this industry you're supposed to be regulating? >> because i think we were in a recession, starting with the beginning of the obama administration, april 2009. for a minute, people thought the obama administration might be a little stricter environmentally on offshore drilling but they weren't. they continued bush policy. a couple of months ago, mms has a new head, lisa birnbaum, there's this thought they would clean out the corruption, what you're talking about, the

denver office problems of getting perks for the job, there was starting to be enforced, and then this oil spill happened. so now mms is on the hot seat. you will have to scrap the organization and rebuild it from the ground up. >> we will have more with professor brinkley after the break including his take on the white house slapping down former fema head michael brown's conspiracy claim, may have heard it on the program last night, brown believing the white house wants this disaster to spread. the question, how many people on the terrorist watch list could walk into gun shops and buy firearms and explosives? 1 in a thousand? 1 in 10? how about 9 out of 10? 91%. we'll show you what's being done about it, if anything. .

talking with proposal historian, douglas brinkley, who wrote a definitive book on hurricane katrina. i don't know if you saw michael brown saying he believed the president wanted this to spread because he wanted to secretly shut down the offshore drilling and robert gibbs singled out fox news for giving him the softball treatment. >> for those who weren't let in on the big secret, mr. brown, fema director brown, under katrina, intimated on fox, and it wasn't -- i will editorially say, didn't appear to be pushed back on real hard, that this spill was leaked on purpose in order for us to walk back our

environmental and drilling decisions, and that the leak that we did on purpose got out of control, and now is too big to contain. >> last night, we interviewed mr. brown. he seemed to be trying to say he never said what he had said. take a look. >> what evidence -- as a former government official, i would think you would choose your words carefully. what evidence do you have that they would want this, this is basically a plot to shut down oil? >> in january, the president gave an interview to the "san francisco chronicle" in which he said cap and trade legislation should be as strong as possible so anybody that wants to use carbon, coal, oil and gas, whatever, that it would be so expensive, that they would end up going bankrupt. the president wants to move this country away from a carbon based energy supply to something else. >> my question is what evidence do you have that the president of the united states wants this spill to spread, wants it -- that they want it to go up the east coast, they want this

so they can shut down the oil drilling? >> anderson, nobody, including the president, wants the oil to spread into the wetlands or around the coast. i said that it would. they want to use the crisis. if they can use this crisis to shut down oil and gas drilling, that's what they're going to do and, in fact, bill nelson has already come out and said it, arnold schwarzenegger, has already come out and said it. the people opposed to oil and gas offshore drilling are using this crisis to shut down a legitimate industry. >> it's bizarre and kind of stunning that he -- kind of just-i don't know if crazy is the right word, what do you make of this? >> michael brown was the worst director in fema's relatively short history but he did an abysmal job handling the katrina situation, even the bush administration later recognized it. michael chernoff, head of

homeland security canned him. i think he's a very wounded person, had psychological damage from being the pinata of the press in 2005 and trying to resurface during this particular offshore drilling crisis and offer a conspiratorial theory about president obama. it wasn't helpful and wasn't smart and i think we've probably seen the last of him on the tv for a while. >> i'm really not trying to take sides, republican or democrat, conservative or liberal, trying to get facts out there. to me, what we don't know about the obama's response to this, what sort of oversight -- the obama administration saying we relied on bp that they had it under control, it wasn't until a week or eight days later noaa did overflights and saw and figured out, this is five times worse than we think it is. we don't know, it seems to me, at this point, what oversight, if any, they had over bp in those early days, though the coast guard was on

the scene, i don't know at what level the epa was overseeing it? do you know that? >> to a degree i know it. what has occurred, really, because this is such a politicized atmosphere. people have to understand, president obama has been for offshore drilling, for it in the 2008 campaign, just a month or weeks before the bp oil spill, he was encouraging more oil exploration and possibly offshore drilling in places like virginia, florida, alaska. in addition to that, your earlier report on mms showed, they were being lax, turning a bit of blind eye at mms and letting companies like bp not have the rigid environmental standards the national environmental policy act demanded. a different question is could the obama administration done something? no. this is british petroleum's oil spill. what you will have happen out of this is much tighter -- not stopping of offshore drilling in

the gulf, tougher enforcement. you will have a new mms that actually does its job. i think president obama has big political choices. one is shell oil is looking this july to drill off anwar in alaska, it's very controversial. he has the outer continental shelf act on his side to protect -- stop shell from doing that and once and for all, save the arctic refuge. condition keep your eye on shell in alaska in the coming weeks. >> i'm still curious who they had on site in the early days of the spill, monitoring what bp was telling them. that will be an interesting thing to see. >> it's going to be interesting. people have to realize, the gulf of mexico is an industrial zone and people are drilling all the time and a lot of offshore oil drilling is done safely. where i think the obama administration is facing a problem is going to be on its left. environmentalists saying, why weren't you more strictly

enforcing the national environmental policy act? >> doug brinkley, always good to have you on, sir. appreciate it. good evening, i'm tom foreman in washington d.c., where we are following some breaking news at this hour out of new york city. a situation has developed there on the triborough bridge, known as the rfk bridge now where a vehicle suddenly stopped and abandoned by the driver, a u-haul truck and traffic stopped in all situations, quite nerve-wracking considering the past few events. there you see it on the map, a major thoroughfare in new york city. susan candiotti will join us with more details what happened. are you there? >> reporter: i am. an official was telling us this was an manhattan bound u-haul

truck with arizona plates driving to the blongs. its driver, according to witnesses jumped from the truck and ran. when the operator approached the truck, he backed off after he smelled strong smoke. officials have closed the truck in all directions and an nyu bomb squad is responding. you can imagine what traffic backup this would be, a very highly traveled bridge serving a number of boroughs there and popular road for people coming back from the airport as well. >> as i understand, the point of view we're tending to see on this traffic camera is pointing toward manhattan from the bronx. you said this happened just a short distance away from the toll booths on the manhattan side, is that correct? >> that's right. the driver appeared to have been approaching manhattan from the

bronx, when he stopped his truck and abandoned it and ran away from it. this caught the eyes of the witnesses and the tollbooth operator left where he was wanting to know what this was all about wanting to inspect the truck and he quickly turned around, police say, after he smelled a strong odor, clearly to him was gasoline. he immediately contacted authorities and they got out there right away and naturally closed the bridge down. that's where we stand now, as traffic is backed up, and authorities try to figure out exactly what they have on their hand hands. >> give me a point of reference, if you would. roughly how far was this location from time square where we had this zichbtincident a fe ago? >> reporter: this was the north end of the city where you could take the expressway to the east river to time square. maybe about a 15 minute drive from the northern part of the city. >> i imagine -- i'll mention to our viewer, if you're looking at

that map right now, we just changed off, just above the "e" in new york is roughly where time square would be, gives you a sense, right above the "e" in new york there. it was known as the triborough bridge for a long time. if you're confused, because of the name change, the robert f. kennedy bridge. what we do know at this point, it had an arizona plate and a u-haul truck but not surprising. >> reporter: exactly. too early to know about this truck but the first thing authorities will be doing is look up the license plate, run that tag and try to trace it through the company, who rented the truck, as part of what they're doing. immediately, they have to figure out whether they can safely approach the bridge. one way the bomb squad is used to doing this when they handle

situations like this, remember they have that robot they can send a little closer. a lots of these are very sophisticated and have scent devices on them as well. that would be one technique they might use in this particular case. it's very early on. we do understand they are now on the scene. again, as a precaution, to approach this truck and see what happened. again, a witness reported, as it approached the toll booth, leading into manhattan, the driver got out of the truck, and according to police, ran away from it. someone came over to inspect what was going on and that's when they smelled the gasoline and immediately contacted authorities. >> if i'm not mistaken, susan, when the incident happened in time square, i believe the vehicle was left around 6:30 in the evening, i don't think they had that robot punching into that vehicle until around 3:00 in the morning, if i'm not mistaken, out of abundance of

caution. >> reporter: it arrived early on, actually. the bomb squad arrived not long after that incident and started working on it right away and started removing in the early evening the propane tanks and gas cans from it. breaking and smashing windows. that happened around 9:30, 10:00 or so. >> earlier than i had been led to believe. with before they eventually got all the components out, that was around 3:00 in the morning. >> okay. when they moved the last box i heard about and removed the vehicle 6:00, almost 12 hours late when they moved that vehicle. >> reporter: that's right. we were there when it happened. the sun had come up and it was a long long night. >> what else can you tell us about the scene? what else do you know about what's going on or have we pretty much exhausted it? >> reporter: we will go out and see what's happening. a lot of times like this, we

check with social networking sites. people are tweeting as a matter of fact saying traffic is obviously at a standstill as people are trying to find out themselves what is going on, all those cars and vehicles, you can imagine, perhaps listening to radios to find out the situation. >> susan candiotti, thanks for bringing us up to date. that's the story as we know it at this moment. a u-haul truck, apparently, according to witnesses, stopped and abandoned on the rfk bridge from new york to the bronx heading into manhattan, the driver ran away, one of the toll booth workers said he smelled gas from the truck and the bomb squad is responding and in the wake of the fast few days, a lot of concern. susan candiotti brought us up to date and we will keep you up to date on this story right here on cnn. stay with us.

tonight, authorities say faisal shahzad, the expected bomber continues to cooperate with investigators and waived his right to a lawyer. a law enforcement officer with knowledge of the questioning has confirmed to cnn shahzad made a dry run before he tried to blow up time square. and airlines are told check updates of no-fly lists within two hours instead of 24 hours. that change in procedure is meant to prevent what happened monday when emirates air didn't notice his name had been added to the terror watch list and let him board that plane. in washington, senate had a hearing on a loophole that allows terrorists to buy guns even if they're on the terror watch list. >> reporter: the report says over the past six years, suspects on the government's terror watch list attempted to

buy firearms or explosives 1228 times. 9 times out of 10, those potential terrorists bought them. that's right. 91% of the sales went through. fresh from a near catastrophe in times square and armed with a report of potential terrorists buying guns, new york's anti-gun mayor, michael bloomberg, urged congress to close a loophole. >> we have certain regulations, federal regulation, the courts said they're appropriate, you can't sell guns to convicted felons, you can't sell guns to people who have serious psychological problems, you can't sell guns to minors. >> reporter: bloomberg was one of several lawmakers backing the terror gap bill, a bill that would give the attorney general the discretion to deny the transfer of a firearm when a background check reveals the purchaser is a known or expected terrorist and believes the person may use the weapon in connection with terrorism. >> oddly, strangely, in this case, though the department of

justice may be informed your name is on a terrorism watch list, they can't stop you from buying a gun, that's a gap we're trying to fill with this legislation. >> reporter: it sounds simple except for one rather major obstacle, the constitutional right for american citizens to own guns. senator lindsay graham also pointed out the problem with the watch lists themselves, so fraught with mistakes, cnn reported two years ago, even 8-year-old boys can be listed as potential terrorists. >> are you a terrorist? >> i don't know. >> there's a disconnect here between what we're saying in reality, the watch list, when you look at the numbers, has so many problems with it that i think is not appropriate to go down the road that we're going, because a constitutional right is involved. >> everyone can agree, i think,

we don't want terrorists to be able to purchase guns. the real issue is how does one get on the watch list, because we know now the government has released several reports, about 35% of people on the watch list are americans that are placed on there, based on, you know, faulty information. >> reporter: bloomberg and others are trying to use faisal shahzad's attempted bombing in new york as momentum to push the bill through. the time square terror suspect bought a rifle this march. he did so legally. faisal shahzad had no criminal history and cnn has now confirmed he wasn't on anybody's watch list. backers of the bill say, even if he was on a watch list, the government report shows he would have a 90% chance he'd still be able to buy a gun. drew griffin, cnn, atlanta. tonight's big "360" interview, bill maher, in a

recent "vanity fair" article, when asked to describe his current state of mind, he said cautiously pessimistic. bill maher joins me now. should people on the terror watch list be able to buy guns? >> you know, this is america, anderson, everyone should be able to buy guns, as many as they want, as often as they want to use wherever they want. that's the american way. you know the most important amendment is the second amendment, everything comes after that. i'm kidding of course. no. i'm for gun control. that would be controlling guns to a degree. an interesting question that sort of catches the right wing. they're against terrorism but for guns. >> it is interesting, the gao said 91% of those on the no-fly list could pass background checks and get guns. i think it surprises a lot of folks. >> right. i also think we should change the no-fly list to the no getting on the damn plane list, i think they need to make that a little more clear to people. >> be more specific?

the initial reaction the new york's mayor and other politicians had, this was a lone wolf. do you think they were being too politically correct? >> i don't think it matters. what matters is there are a lot of young muslim men in this country and overseas who are on the edge here. this guy, like a lot of the terrorists we find out about, wasn't poor, he was living this middle class life. then, you know, the backup plan, terrorism, his wife left him or the house was underwater or something, you know, i know i'm a broken record about religion, when that stuff is in your head, it just gives you this neurological disorder, anything is possible. i don't think the problem is guys like this hate america, i think the problem is they like america and they feel guilty about it. they come here and they like eating at chili's and they like

the water slide and they like going to the strip club and then they get on their jihadi websites and feel terribly guilty about it, and decide if things go bad -- maybe they don't decide, this guy didn't look like he had much of a plan, it just hits them visiting a painful chast chastisement on the infidel. that's appealing, too, or i might go home and watch "nip/tuck." >> between those two? >> yeah, it seems like that. >> we want to hear from you. join the live chat on cnn.com and we'll talk about the oil spill and islam.

let's continue with more of the "360" interview. with bill maher. on your show last week, you made fun of south park. >> when south park got threatened last week by islam miss, insensed with the depiction of mohammad. it served and should serve our culture isn't one just different than one that makes death threats to cartoonists, it's better. because when i make a joke about the pope, he doesn't send one of his swiss guards in their striped pantilooms to stick a pike in my ass. when i make a jewish joke, rabbis talk about it but don't

pull out an semitar and make an adult circumcision. when i insult scientology, the worst that happens is -- >> why is is slam the one religion so many in america and the west sensor themselves about when it comes to making fun of? is it just fear? >> absolutely. because they're violent. they threaten us and they are threatening. they bring that desert stuff to our world. i said the same thing friday night. we don't threaten each other, we sue each other. that's the sign of civilized people. they don't. yes, we do have religious nuts in this country. there was a cleric in iran who recently said earthquakes were caused by slutty women. pat robertson once said abortions caused hurricanes, i think. the difference is pat robertson doesn't have the power to cut your arms off. you know, people who want to

gloss over the difference between western culture and islamic culture and forget about the fact the islamic culture is 600 years younger and they are islamic culture is 600 years younger, and they're going through what the west went through with the dark ages when religion had had too much power, do so at their peril. when they caught this guy -- >> when you hear, the vast majority of american muslims abhor this kind of stuff, they will say, look, islam is a religion of peace, do you buy that? >> is it a religion of pace? i don't know, i have not red the koran in its original. when you read the translation, there are many, many, many passages that are not peaceful at all. that are about killing the infidel and so forth. there are many passages like

that in the bible too. not as many, and we don't take it seriously. that's the difference. we blow off our religions. if we took the bible seriously, we would look over our fence sunday morning seeing our neighbor mowing his lawn and think, huh, working on sunday, i really should kill him. that doesn't happen. but there are entire schools where the kids read just one book. they're memorizing the koran, that's all they do. you know, that's not what we do in this curve the. >> i want to talk a little bit about what's happening on the gulf coast. how do you think the response has been? do you think bp is going to pay for it? >> they may pay for the spill itself, they'll never pay for all the ancillary damage that goes on. so i -- you know, i have no idea what the response is so far. it's too early, and to me, that's not even the bigger

question. the bigger question is, you know, why aren't we moving forward to get off the oil. you know, something we should have started doing in the 70s. you know in 1984, the average fuel economy for a car was 20 miles per gallon. 20 years later, think about all the technological advances that took place between 1984 and 2004, cd's and the internet, whatever's going on with bruce jenner. >> what is going on with bruce jenner, that is a question i've been asking and have not had had answered. >> i should not have opened that can of worms. >> 1984, average car fuel mileage efficiency 20 miles a gallon. 2004, 20.7. this country has not been serious about reducing our dependence on oil. >> i have to say, i have mike

brown from brownie heck of a job with fema on the program last night. he has a theory that the obama administration wanted this to spread up the east coast, because their secret plot is to halt all offshore oil drilling, even though the obama administration has publicly supported it and going back to 2008 and the debates, obama was supporting some forms of offshore drilling. >> they're so desperate to make this obama's fault. as soon as it happened, we heard, this is his katrina, because -- you know, in the minds of those who don't think too far or too deeply, okay, disaster, louisiana. okay, that's enough. that's enough, i don't have to think any further, bush had his katrina, obama had -- except that katrina was something that he was warned about, it was a natural disaster, and they kept saying days before, the storm is coming. no one kept saying to obama, oh, the rig is going to blow in three days.

it's brewing up there in the gulf. >> bill maher, always good to have you on. >> pleasure, anderson. up next, higher learning, kids build a rooftop on their school. one simple thing.

a school where higher learning has taken on a new meaning. students in new jersey are using the top of their building where they're getting an education to help the environment and themselves. tucked between apartments and vacant factories you'll find a rooftop garden. >> it also absorbs the what? >> the nutrients. >> the rooftop is part of a program called ecospaces. an independent school where 360

kids are learning about sustainability and healthy living. >> even if you just go like this and brij, what does it smell like? >> it was a way to create environments for teachers to utilize -- to get kids to learn about the closed food loop psych em, learn about a seed being planted in the ground, nurturing the seed, harvesting, cooking and actually bringing it back to composting and putting back to the earth. something that our urban kids generally aren't getting when they go to a local superintendent and seeing things under plastic and processed. >> let's go to our flat. >> it includes three main learning environments, the teaching kitchen, the cafeteria and the rooftop garden. >> when you're dealing with an urban environment and dealing with student who is have never been exposed to a carrot or tomato, we decided that when we got to this location, we didn't

just want ornamental grasses, we wanted to pull some of these ornamental grasses, sell them to families and othrchards and pla a sustainable garden. >> from the garden to a teaching kitchen, where students learn fraction. children embrace the program, taking what they learn beyond school walls. >> i actually recycle at home with my parents, and try to encourage them to turn the lights off at home. >> my daddy, when he sees the garbage, he picks it up and throws it in the recycling bin or trash can. >> i think it's important, we have to stay green. we only have one earth. the more plants you have, the better it is for us. >> you don't have to be a master garden gaen