so much more to cover on a busy news day. we continue right now with ali velshi. >> we'll pick up where you left off. you and chad talking earlier of string of tornadoes hitting arizona. hears at least seven people injured. chad's tracking it all with us. you talked to a sheriff down in the county. tell us what's going on. >> a number of tornadoes, some that happened, some i think just happened we don't have reports for them and some probably will still happen. >> okay. >> so the potential continues forever ever i think at least until 3:00, 4:00 tonight. the deal is flagstaff, sedona. okay. the belly of the sun, phoenix, not involved but storms could get down there.

tracking to the northeast and building further south and tracking over the same area. one we knew earlier today took a train and pushed it off the tracks. >> unbelievable. >> 28 cars on the track. the train stopped because it knew there was a tornado. >> right, right. >> got in the way. >> unbelievable. the sheriff was telling us about a couple of tractor trailers on i-40. >> yes. >> that had been overturned by the tornado and closed the highway down for a while. >> right. the highway is open and close, open and close depending on where the tractors are. you have to get the equipment in, turn it over, they have to stop the flow of traffic. i-40 west of flagstaff, don't even try it. i want the show you, the colorful part of the map. flagstaff. i can't make the words bigger. sedona, cottonwood. sedona, driving from the valley of the sun through prescott and sedona, beautiful, picturesque. >> yep. >> mountainous areas. there was a cell here and the

color right there. headed for the same location that already had a tornado. but in the last couple of minutes, it gusted out. >> okay. >> no longer rotating but that doesn't mean it's over because you know what happened in new york city with the 80 and 90-mile-per-hour winds heading through flagstaff right now. damage can occur and you can get hurt. >> some damage has happened and anything now will blow the debris around. >> i was in hurricane frances and gene over the same area and we were in trouble as a crew because there was plywood all over. >> right. >> we had to get out of the way of hurricane gene even though it wasn't as big as frances but the stuff flies. >> we were speaking to the sheriff saying he was in front of a house that's destroyed. >> there's damage. mainly west of flagstaff.

belmont. i assume a tornado on the ground west of sedona. in an unpopulated area. there are homes every quarter mile, beautiful homes that people buy, they build them prescott. they build them in phoenix and scotsdale. they come up here for the mountains, seclusion. they will come and find surprises. >> stay on top of this. we have a few more hours. the environment is ripe for them. we'll keep an eye on it. chad will keep an eye on it. this is a day when the go-to gauge for stock markets is a big, round number. 11,000. we are not there right now. we are many points away from it. we are about 70 points away from it. earlier today we were within striking distance. this number 11,000 doesn't mean a lot in itself. that's where we are right now on the dow. but it is -- i think it's a great opportunity to take stock of how far we've come in a short time. and what people are watching for. now, this is the dow.

we know that already. what we need to do is discuss why this is important for you. after yesterday's 2% surge, the dow is approaching 11,000. what if you are invested on -- in blue chips? what if you were invested in the first trading day of 2009 and never put another penny in the market? you would have yourself a profit in the neighborhood of 21%. that's outstanding if you happen to snap up the ultra cheap stocks at the low point of last year. your profit closer to 70%. but millions of small investors, regular people, either out of necessity because they needed the money or sheer panic have fled the markets since the start of the great recession and have not gone back. more than $30 billion flowed out of mutual funds, that's how most of us invest, some of you might invest in stocks individually but about $30 billion flowed out of mutual funds so far this year. your investment decisions are your business. it is my business to give you a

full and balanced picture of the u.s. economy. a balance sheet has assets and liabilities. start with the good news and there is lots of it. first of all, stocks. that's the good news. we have seen a remarkable surge in the stock market and that's really why we're talking about this. is 11,000 is a reminder to you that something is going on in the right direction. corporate profits have been okay. sometimes even good. big investors are betting big. corporations are using some of the profits, some of the money they have stored up to buy other companies because they think those other companies are on sale. they expect that those other companies that they're buying these mergers and acquisitions more valuable in the future. something else, china, brazil, india. other markets for u.s. exports are booming. china is going to have growth around 10% this year.

take the rest of -- the rest of asia without china, 8%. india, 6%. on the downside, boy, this is a big downside. u.s. unemployment. still very high. businesses are still leary of adding staff because they don't know if there's demand right here in the united states. and despite these rock-bottom interest rates, small -- there we go. unemployment is still there. small businesses are still finding it hard to get loans. and that's the balance we are looking at. the so-so area of our economy, by the way, is housing market. home prices are trying to crawl out of the cellar and still a lot more supply than demand but as you know we have the low interest rates and might be an opportunity. might be a problem for some people. we have foreclosures going on. on the jobs front, news of hundreds of laid off workers recalled in an unlike entry. american airlines says it's bringing back 250 pilots and 545

flight attendants in the wake of new alliances that it's formed with british airways and the spanish airline iberia. american says it has a pending deal with japan airlines, as well. my good friend and colleague richard qwest sat down with the american airlines parent amr. >> one of the toughest things you do in business and this job is furlough somebody and it's really, really a good thing to bring people back to work. >> reporter: there must be an improvement in business to justify bringing people back on to the books. >> clearly, the financial results are better this year than a year ago and the third quarter will be better still when we announce here in a few weeks so, yes. business is a lot better. i mean, we went through the oil crisis and then the financial crisis and things have stabilize and improved but i called it fragile because we continue to be dependent on economic

activity. to the extent economies are fragile and i think people think economies are still fragile today then the airline recovery is by definition fragile. >> as the ceo of the parent company of american airlines we talk about airlines inkay or thes of the economy. richard joining e now after the interview. richard? >> reporter: the amr american airlines there and the 800 jobs that he is bringing back, he says it's largely because the recovery is ticking up. what they announced today or at least koconsummated because thi deal, we have talked about this years. 14 years. since american and british airways -- 14 years since american and british airways got engaged. they finally made it to the altar and consummated the deal. their alliance designed to beat

the new eye nighted and the gigantic delta. >> richard, what do we think happens to passengers as a result? great news hiring back pilots and flight attendants where we worry about jobs. what do we think -- how does the passenger benefit? >> reporter: okay. the core question, now british airways and american are going to be one across the atlantic. what happens? because they're no longer duelling against fares. what the airlines say is there's one fare that will be offered by all the airlines, ba, aa and iberia. isn't that anti-competitive and mean a restriction in the number of fares? they say, no. the competition is not between individual airlines. it's between the alliances. one world, sky team and star alliance. and as long as the big carriers are in those alliances, well, you pay your money, you takes your choice.

that's the fighting ground for the future. >> all right. for all of us traveling, we have seen fares go up. we have to see how it plays out over the course of the next few years. it will look different a few years from now. richard, my good friend, thanks so much for bringing us that. you can see richard on his show every day on cnn international. louisiana man came within a month of execution and now hopes that the nation's highest court will side with him in a multimillion dollar lawsuit against his prosecutors. i'll tell you about this interesting story. the supreme court is dealing with it. luetooth, remote keyless entry and turn-by-turn navigation available in every model. so it must be hard for you to hear autoweek.com say our interior raises the small-car bar. if you want to talk about it, call me... that is you know when you get home... since you don't have bluetooth in every model. the all new chevrolet cruze. starting under $17,000. get used to more. ♪

18 years in prison.

14 of those years on death row. all of that time a louisiana man proclaimed his innocence. now, he wants the supreme court to side with him in a lawsuit against his prosecutors who knew he wasn't their man. josh levs focusing on the fascinating case, one that the supreme court is dealing with. first week back and with justice kagan. >> you can't sue prosecutors. >> i didn't know that. >> if they purposely hide evidence, you can't sue them. if they break laws, you cannot sue them because something the supreme court decided 30 years ago and stuck that way. right? what they're looking at today is interesting case. this is the guy's case. we are hearing it. surround this man, john thompson. wrongly convicted of murder and carjacking on doet row in louisiana and a month from the execution, the attorneys found that the prosecution hid evidence that proved he was innocent and everyone admits this. prosecutors today say it's true. these guys did it back then and

overturned. so what the case -- the supreme court is hearing now what he did that's unusual. he went after the district attorney's office. people know harry connick. his son -- it was the d.a. harry connick at the time. he filed suit against him and his daufs because they employed the prosecutors. >> oh. you can sue the d.a.? that's the question? >> a jury gave him $14 million. and the test now is whether he gets to keep it or not. >> right. >> i want to tell you. this is from "usa today" and did a great job. take a look at what they found. 201 cases since 1997 judges have found federal prosecutors broke laws or ethics rules. you would think prosecutors maybe don't need to sue them to take them to law. look at this. zero of the prosecutors disbarred, one was tried and then acquitted so the idea here, what their side is saying, you know what? they're not chasing the prosecutors. you need to be able to sue them to scare them off. the other side said they might not go after the tough cases.

that is the big question wfr the supreme court. >> the supreme court is hearing oral arguments today and sometime before we get the result on that. we wanted you to know. great xliexplanation on that on i have a quiz for you. how many homes went into foreclosure this august? 381, 13 and 3,000? which one is it? we have the answer on the other side. i gonna be great. gothgeckt-shirt... "4 milon drirstched!" gecko water bottle... notebook... chamois...

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all right. we asked you before the break how many homes went into foreclosure this august? you know the answer to this? >> 1 in -- i do. >> 1 in -- i asked the question

wrong. i asked the question wrong. 1 in how many homes wept into foreclosure in august. our job is not that demanding. just get it right. my apologies to everyone. that changes the answer entirely. it is "a," 1 in 381 in august alone. foreclosures affect lots of americans. there's a freeze on foreclosures in 23 states by a number of banks and pressure on banks right now to halt foreclosures even in more states with allegations that banks rubber stamping foreclosure applications without verifying the necessary leg stuff therein. jennifer westhoven is here with me. i saw you making an understandable so i wanted you to do that for us. >> this is a huge deal. this is something that state prosecutors all across this country right now are looking at. i'm guessing right now in their office looking at this. we just learned reuters reporting that the u.s. justice department says they're looking

at it, too. it's all about allegations of basically sloppy service. by some major loan holders and, you know, servicing companies so the deal is that hundreds of thousands of loans may have been rubber stamped like you said, nobody looked at the details. some documents may have been faked. these are three major firms and there's signs that it is not just three firms. >> right. >> there's more we don't know about. >> the fact it's three firms and a sense of people with so much volume in the world they were just signing off the documents. foreclosure documents are complicated. >> how on earth do you get a free hearing asking for a modification if they're not looking at the documents? this is a really big deal and i think we have a map showing you 23 states where they're frozen. they're only frozen wherefore closures have to be approved by a judge meaning in the other states there isn't even anybody to look over their shoulder but the places they know a judge is

going to look and kind of going, let's make sure we have everything right. >> we're hearing reports an trying to confirm those that the justice department is looking into this. >> right. >> and for some people, this might mean some changes. but, but in many cases the implication isn't that people are going to save their homes from foreclosure. >> right. you won't get your home back but if you're in your home right now and you haven't been play paying for a long time, you probably can hold on and also means more disarray in the mortgage markets for months maybe years to come. >> thank you for explaining this. you do a great job every morning on hln and good to see you here. >> you, too. >> jennifer westhoven from hln. more information on things to do with your money? every saturday and sunday, join our mutual friend kris teen romans and me. sobering parents of afghan

parents. the sons cannot go to school because bombs and suicide attacks. tomorrow marks the ninth anniversary of the start of the war. we are going globe trekking right after this break. [ woman ] alright, so this tylenol 8 hour lasts 8 hours. but aleve can last 12 hours. and aleve was proven to work better on pain than tylenol 8 hour. so why am i still thinking about this?

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the men one by one to the surface arrived at the mine. the steel capsule will be sent down a rescue shaft once drilling is completed. the relatives of the miners not only had a firsthand look at the capsule but get into the narrow cage which is a little more than 20 inches wide and i have trouble understanding this. i don't know people 20 inches wide and expected to take 20 to 30 minutes to pull each up from the shelter. this is going to be, wow, so close to freedom and, yet, it is so harrowing. they've been trapped more than 60 days and i suppose waiting a few hours once the capsule goes down is okay. can you imagine the ride up in that little capsule? they could be pulled out as early as next week. when they were trapped, the government expected the rescue effort to last through december. look at that. that's what it looks like. they're in the capsule and it's called the phoenix capsule with oxygen in it. it will have communications equipment in it and escape hatch

and curious where to escape to. i don't think it goes at that speed but takes 20 to 30 minutes to do that. one by one they get to the top and we are going to cover it for you when it happens. okay. time for globe trekking now. our focus the war in afghanistan. tomorrow marks the ninth anniversary of the start of that war. when president george w. bush launched the invasion in october 7th, 2001, most everyone was confident that the taliban would be defeated and stunned how quickly the forces toppled the regime. nine years later, american service men and women still being wounded and killed. how did the taliban go from defeat to being a powerful enemy today controlling a vast area of afghanistan? let me show you a time line showing how a war that seemed to have been won nine years ago seems to have no end in sight. after civil war, the taliban seized control of afghanistan back in 1996.

they had been fighting with the russians and forced the russians out. nobody has ever successfully defeated afghanistan. back then, they controlled about two thirds of the country. now, the hardline islamic rulers, the taliban, began their oppression of women. they banned music. they held public executions. you know these stories. by 1998, two u.s. embassies in africa were bombed in east africa. the u.s. said that al qaeda and osama bin laden were responsible for that. in retaliation, the u.s. launched missile strikes against bin laden bases in afghanistan. 1 1999 to 2001, the u.s. imposed sanctions on afghanistan to force the taliban to surrender bin laden to the united states. they didn't do that. and then they blew up the two giant buddha statues a. sign to the world they don't care about anything outside of their culture. the move condemned around the

world and a real symbol of what the taliban meant. september 11th, 2001. the attacks on the world trade center, the pentagon. the u.s. blamed bin laden for the attacks. that was september 11th. by october 6th, the u.s. and nato forces invaded afghanistan. president bush ordered the action after the taliban refused once again to hand over osama bin laden. november 13th, 2001, two months after the attacks of 9/11 the taliban were driven out of kabul. they flee to the south to neighboring pakistan. that border area that we talk about so much these days. coalition forces take control of the afghan capitol. by december 2001, seemed to be a bunch of missed chances to get bin laden. the battle of to ra bora, that was a chance. they escaped.

apparently again for those border areas in pakistan. taliban birthplace, the taliban birthplace kandahar, that's the spiritual center fell finally to coalitions force. that seemed like an attack at the heart of the taliban. hamid karzai was sworn in as the head of an interim government in afghanistan. by 2003, nato taken over command of security in kabul. now, nato it was the first time that they had an operational command outside of europe. the u.s. invasion of iraq began then and the focus started to shift to iraq. the taliban took that opportunity to regroup. by 2004, a new afghan constitution was adopted. hamid karzai now becomes the first democratically elected president of afghanistan. by 2005, afghans go to the polls for the first time, first parliamentary and provincial elections held in more than 30 years. the taliban continues to gain

strength, however, in southern kandahar province. in 2006, nato takes over security operations throughout afghanistan. heavy fighting erupts in areas that the taliban still controls and osama bin laden is still alive and believed to be hiding in pakistan. 2007, opium production soars in afghanistan. the taliban control much of the opium production. they use the money from the sale of opium to buy weapons. pakistan strongly spented of aiding the taliban including planning some military operations. 2009, barack obama worn in as the president of the united states. 36,000 american troops are in afghanistan at that time. in february, president obama adds 17,000 u.s. troops to the combat zone. counterterrorism expert general stanley mckris scrystal is name commander. there are charges of widespread fraud in the elections. in october of 2009, president

obama increases u.s. troop presence by 30,000 in afghanistan. now 100,000 troops in afghanistan. president obama announces he'll start troop withdrawal by july of 2011. almost a year from now. 2010, this year, the american death toll in afghanistan soars. by the end of the summer, 1,015 american troops have been killed in the war. mcchrystal, stanley mcchrystal was fired over controversial remarks of the obama administration in "rolling stone" magazine. general petraeus takes over command of u.s. forces and the war now continues with no end in sight. the taliban are far from beaten. they attack yet another supply convoy that's headed for u.s. forces in afghanistan. we have been reporting on this for a week. there are i think six attacks in six days and there are reports that the afghan government either wants to talk peace with

the taliban or involved in talking peace with the taliban. where do we stand right now? where do we go here? i'll talk to ivan watson about it. dicine you take just once a month. taken with methotrexate, simponi® helps relieve the pain, stiffness and swelling of r.a. with one dose once a month. visit 4simponi.com to see if you qualify for a full year of cost support. simponi® can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious and sometimes fatal events can occur, such as infections, cancer in children and adults, heart failure, nervous system disorders, liver or blood problems, and allergic reactions. before starting simponi®, your doctor should test you for t.b. and assess your risk of infections, including fungal infections and hepatitis b. ask your doctor if you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, or develop symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough or sores. you should not start simponi® if you have an infection. [ woman ] ask your rheumatologist about simponi®.

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[ female announcer ] multigrain pops with pringles. all right. i'm going to show -- just talking about the taliban's level of control of afghanistan. they've expanded the control. 2007, the next one, this area here shows you the area that was of heavy taliban province. in the southern kandahar province and other areas. this is what the taliban largely controlled. area in green is what they had substantial presence in. this area in blue is really what they didn't control and only 8%

of the land back in dwec2007. this is 2008. they have gone to controlling this, as well. taliban presence increased to 72% of the country and 21% is the area that they're in substantial control of. the part they're not just 7%. let me go to the last map and show you what it looks like in 2009. we have gone from 72% to 80. substantial control. 17% with some presence. only 3% of the country is absolutely and certainly not controlled by the taliban. get to ivan watson. he is in kabul. you have been following this with great detail, ivan. let's talk about where we are. from the outside world, we see nato and u.s. troops continuing to be in danger. we see a government that is not effectively functioning and then we see this map that says that the taliban do they really

control that much of the country? >> reporter: well, i think that may be a stretch because the taliban can roll in and out of a village when a nato or a u.s. military armored convoy of armored vehicles rolls into the village. the taliban will run away in many cases very quickly but it says something about the extent of the authority of the afghan government and the challenge of the taliban presenting. ali, you did that historical course basically in the last decade of history. after the taliban was overthrown in 2001, it was a joke as a fighting force and couldn't amount much resistance in the first few years and watched the sad and tragic decline of security around the country over the past nine years. provinces in the north of the country that i could safely drive to two years ago, one of those according to a governor

now some 40% of that province is now controlled by taliban insurgents and it just shows a very sad decline despite the fact that u.s. and nato dramatically ramped up not only troops but also aid money to afghanistan, especially over the last two years. >> ivan, real quick, i just don't know what the truth is or not about this. we heard reports the taliban negotiating with afghan government, nato troops, and then u.s. troops. are there talks, peace talks going on between the enemies? >> reporter: there's certainly an initiative by the afghan government right now. they want to talk peace. they see that things are not going well right now. the taliban is denying claims, both by the u.s. general commanding general here general petraeus and today from a senior government official of the afghan government that some high-level figures reached out.

taliban denying that. a problem of the afghan government is they don't know who exactly is in charge of the taliban right now and believed mullah omar is in next door in pakistan and realize the fighting unit isn't working in a strict structure and may not follow the orders of exile leaders across the border. >> thank you very much for your coverage. we'll talk to you tomorrow. the future of being connected. i want to talk to you about something entirely different and all about video and the big i. here's a question to ponder. what country has the highest percentage of wired citizens? is it'sland, japan, the united states or canada? take a hard guess at that. ♪

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okay. when we left i asked you which country by far the most connected by percentage. iceland, 97.6% of the people connected to the internet. isolated from the rest of the world. guess where the u.s. is, 22nd. i would have guessed third or fourth. let's talk about the future of connectivity. this is like talking about the future of electricity 100 years ago. the future of phones 50 years. carlos domigos, he joins me right now. this is what you do. >> yes. >> you need to understand what the world will look like. what are we going to be doing differently from five, ten years

ago and viewers decide they want a part of the future to get educated 0er what's going to change? >> i think we are at a point where everything is changing. seen the social change of networks into consumers. what the next wave is all about video. >> right. this is what i keep hearing. why? i don't care to down load a lot of video and watch things i could have watched and you are not talking about me watching video. >> no. i think that wave has come and will continue and the quality will continue to improve. what i'm talking about is realtime communications. you communicate with loved ones in a remote area from your home and having an experience like it's being there. >> the way to interview you from anywhere in the world and people have that degree of connectivity the way we make phone calls now and use skype? >> exactly. the quality is much more immersety. when you look at communications, 55% is body language. a lot of it is going to be able to see exactly the grandson or

your daughter or having, you know, i travel a lot so for me being able to connect back to 23578ly on the road and being able to do it in an immersive way, that's priceless. >> i talk to anybody i want on skype we important thing, i don't have a doctor for skyf and say can we do did interview via video. what will make that happen? that's when it's effective. i don't have to go on a plane or too sick to go to the doctor and talk to me, you know, through some video connection in my home. i assume it means secure, affordable and yubiquitous. >> right. what are the applications and do differently to change the pair dime? with video in the home it changes everything. you brought up good applications and when you marry video with other applications to detect a person's walk and determine whether they're feeling good or

not, that is invaluable. right? so all of these things will evolve. there's stuff around education. who says i need to be tumored for my guitar lesson in person? >> that might be the biggest gain. a degree or high school courses. >> absolutely, absolutely. all of those things will be enabled through video. and it doesn't only have to be on the phone and tablet based. in home is one of another mediums. >> i love it. sounds so exciting. i love the fact you believe it will happen soon. >> it will happen now. we're announcing a brand new product today that actually brings video of this high quality into the home. >> let's hope it gets to the point where it's affordable and easy to use. thank you very much. great to have you. sisqo senior vice president. why is that your house so trashy? a texas couple design and build homes from things you toss out.

>> reporter: license plate roofs. picture frame ceilings. wine cork floors. >> it feels really good. >> reporter: those are a few of the in-home treasures dan phillips is designing from trash. >> i suspected one could build a house out of whatever went into the landfill. >> reporter: now it's a business. >> i think it is worth trying. >> reporter: his wife lends a creative hand. clients don't have much say. the primaries grow from the building materials. it is a creative equation that keeps costs way down. phillips with all of his projects approved by state inspectors builds exclusively for artists, low income families and single moms and enkorchs many of the tenants to help construct they future homes. >> you protect it. you know how many times you hit your thumb and dirty and sweaty

you got. >> reporter: christie stevens and two sons helped to renovate this home and now living in it paying $368 a month. >> very, very proud of this work. probably the hardest i've ever done. >> reporter: ed lavandera, cnn. pinned down by the taliban. the youngest guy in the company steps out to draw fire so his brothers in arms can escape. staff sergeant robert miller was 24 years old, killed in action. saving others. in minutes, his parents will accept his medal of honor. one word turns innovative design into revolutionary performance. one word makes the difference between defining the mission and accomplishing the mission.

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[ sobbing ] [ camera shutters clicking ] ♪ whoo-hoo, yeah ♪ whoo-hoo, yeah all right. i want to show you. we're waiting for presentation by the president of the united states, the family of staff sergeant robert miller, he was

killed in action on january 25th, 2008. he'll be receiving the medal of honor. he was born in harrisburg, pennsylvania. he was 24 years old when he died. he was the younger member of his company. his team came under fire by taliban insurgents in a village near the pakistani border. the commander said that they were fish in a barrel when the shooting started. now, miller deliberately left safe cover to engage his attackers and he drew fire from more than 100 enemy fighters and kept firing, he kept growing grenades even after he was wounded. he's -- he's said to have saved the lives of fellow green berets and 15 afghan soldiers who were fighting with them. he's the seventh service member from the iraq and afghanistan campaigns to receive the medal of honor which is the nation's highest military honor. it is given for and i'm quoting here conspicuous gallantry at

above the call of duty while engaged in a action of any enemy of the united states. 3,400 awarded since the medal's creation in the civil war. it is presented by the president on behalf of the congress of the united states. we will bring you that as soon as it begins. meanwhile, as you know, we are 27 days away from the midterm elections. president obama is the face of the democratic party. is he living up to the billing to carry his party through? on cnn's "parker spitzer" oliver stone talked about how the president has done until now. >> it was that hope that he would be, breathe a new spirit and take on the corporations and take on theal gar i cans that run america and say, look, new way of doing things and he could have got out of afghanistan and iraq and quicker about it and attacked the wall street issue

faster and so forth. >> and so, i sense more than some minimal disappointment in a sense that he is pulled the punches as it were. >> yeah. no one's -- that's not surprising and still rooting for him. it's either him or mccain and or palin or bush. you know, i don't think there's about sarah palin? is she movie fodder? >> i think it's a bad idea because you're already empowering her. she is a moron in my opinion and doesn't say anything and she's very colorful but you give her more power like father coughlin in the 1930s. she's an andy griffith character. >> you can see parker/spitzer nightly here on cnn. how are we doing on the medal of honor? i understand that the president is moving his way into the room. we will take a quick break. when we come back, he should be starting to speak.

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here's the president of the united states getting ready to present the medal of honor. >> welcome to the white house. and thank you, general carver, for that beautiful invocation. we are a nation of more than 300 million americans. of these, less than 1% wears the uniform of our armed services. and of these, just a small fraction has earned the badges of our special operations forces. in the finest military the world has ever known, these warriors are the best of the best. in an era that prizes celebrity and status, they are quiet professionals, never seeking the spotlight. in a time of war, they have

borne a burden far beyond their small numbers. training foreign militaries to stand on their own, bringing schools and medicine to remote villages, and taking to the terrorists and insurgents who plot against us. few americans ever see their service. but all americans are safer because of it. and our hearts swell with pride just hearing their names. including the legendary green berets. today it is my privilege to present our nation's highest military decoration, the medal of honor, to one of these remarkable soldiers, staff sergeant robert j. miller. to do so, we are joined by vice president biden and from the

millers' family home state of florida, their congresswoman. we're joined by leaders from across my administration including secretary of defense robert gates, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff admiral mike mullen and leaders from our armed forces, including army secretary john mccue and chief of staff general george casey as well as commander of special operations command, admiral eric olson. we are honored to be joined by rob's fellow soldiers in whose ranks he served. his teammates from alpha company 3rd battalion 3rd special forces group from ft. bragg and those who now welcome him into the ranks, members of the medal of honor society. most of all, we welcome more than 100 of rob's friends and

family, especially his father, phil, his mother, maureen, and his many brothers and sisters. it has been said that courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point. forrob miller, the testing point came nearly three years ago deep in a snowy afghan valley. but the courage he displayed that day reflects every virtue that defined his life. rob was wise beyond his years. growing up in whedon, illinois, outside of chicago, weighs the boy in school who penned a poem about american g.i.s in world war ii. men, like the soldier rob would become himself, who he said fought day and night fighting for what they thought was right.

rob was born to lead. the high school gymnast who trained so hard, his coach had to kick him out at night so they could close the gym. he was the army recruit who pushed himself to his limits both physically and mentally to earn the title green beret. he was the special forces soldier who on his first tour in afghanistan earned two army commendation medals for his valor. devotion to duty, abiding sense of honor, a profound love of country. these were the virtues that found their ultimate expression when rob, just 24 years old and on his second tour, met his testing point on january 25th, 2008. rob and his team were in the remote northwest of afghanistan.

their in mission clear afghan forces terrorizing villagers. had he they came across an insurgent compound, rob and his men made their move, unleashing their fire and calling in air strikes. now, they were on foot heading over to that destroyed compound to assess the damage and gather intelligence. it was still dark. just before dawn. it was freezing cold and silent except for the crackle of the radios and the crunch of snow under their boots. like so many times before, rob was up front, leading a patrol of two dozen afghans and americans on a narrow trail along the valley floor. the steep mountains towering over them. at first, it was just a single insurgent jumping out from behind a boulder. then the whole valley seemed to explode with gunfire. within seconds, rob and his patrol were pinned down with almost no cover. bullets and rocket-propelled

grenades raining down from every direction. and when enemy reinforcements poured in, the odds were overwhelming. rob's small patrol of two dozen men was nearly surrounded by almost 150 insurgents. with the enemy just feet away, some so close he could see their faces, rob held his ground. despite the chaos around him, he radioed back enemy positions. as the only pashtun speaker on his team, he organized the afghan soldiers around him. but the incoming fire, in the words of one soldier, was simply astounding. rob made a decision. he called for his team to fall back. and then he did something extraordinary. rob moved in the other direction toward the enemy, drawing their guns away from his team and bringing the fire of all those

insurgents down upon himself. the fighting was ferocious. rob seemed to disappear into clouds of dust and debris, but his team could hear him on the radio still calling the enemy's position and they could hear his weapon still firing as he provided cover for his men. and then over the radio they heard his voice. he had been hit. but still he kept calling out enemy positions. still he kept firing. still he kept throwing his gre nadz. and then they heard it, rob's weapon fell silent. this is the story of what one american soldier did for his team, but it's also a story of what they did for him. two of his teammates braved the bullets and rushed to rob's aid. in those final moments, they were there at his side, american soldiers there for each other.

the relentless fire forced them back, but they refused to leave their fallen comrade. when reinforcements arrived, these americans went in again, risking their lives, taking more casualties, determined to bring rob miller out of that valley. and finally after fighting that raged for hours, they did it. when the dust settled and the smoke cleared, there was no doubt. rob miller and his team had struck a major blow against the local insurgency. five members of his patrol had been wounded, but his team had survived. and one of his teammates surely spoke for all of them when he said of rob, i would not be alive today if not for his ultimate sacrifice. this is the valor that america honors today. to rob's family and friends, i know that no words can ease the ache in your hearts.

but i also know this. rob's life and legacy endures. rob endures in the pride of his parents. phil and maureen, you raised a remarkable son. today and in the years to come may you find some comfort in knowing that rob gave his life doing what he loved, protecting his friends and defending his country. you gave your oldest son to america and america is forever in your debt. rob endures in the love of his brothers and sisters, all seven of whom join us today. your brother has laid down his life so you could live yours in security and freedom. you honor him by living your lives to the fullest, and i suspect rob would be especially proud of his younger brother tom, who inspired by his big brother, is now training to be a green beret himself. rob endures in the afghans that

he trained and he befriended. in valleys and villages half a world away they remember him. the american who spoke their language, who respected their culture, and who helped them defend their country. they welcomed him into their homes and invited him to their weddings. and in a sign of their lasting gratitude they presented rob's parents with a beautiful afghan rug which hangs today in the miller home, a symbol of the partnership between the people of america and afghanistan. rob miller endures in the service of his teammates. his brothers in arms who served with him, bled with him, and fought to bring him home. these soldiers embody the spirit that guides our troops in afghanistan every day. the courage, the resolve, the relentless focus on their mission to break the momentum of

the taliban insurgency and to build the capacity of afghans to defend themselves and to make sure that afghanistan is never again a safe haven for terrorists who would attack our country. that is their mission. that is our mission. and that is what we will do. and i would ask rob's team, who were with him that day, to stand and be recognized. [ applause ] finally, rob miller and all

those who give their lives in our name endure in each of us. every american is safer because of their service and every american has a duty to remember and honor their sacrifice. if we do, if we keep their legacy alive, if we keep faith with the freedoms they died to defend, then we can imagine a day decades from now when another child sits down at his desk, ponders the true meaning of heroism and finds inspiration in the story of a soldier, staff sergeant robert j. miller, and a generation that fought day an night fighting for what they thought was right. that is the meaning of this medal and that is our summons today as a proud and grateful nation. so please join me in welcoming phil and maureen miller for the

reading of the citation. [ applause ] >> the president of the united states of america authorized by act of congress march 3rd, 1863, has awarded in the name of the congress the medal of honor to staff sergeant robert j. miller, united states army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. staff sergeant robert j. miller distinguished himself by extraordinary acts of heroism while weapons sergeant in special detachment alpha, 3312

combined joint special operations task force afghanistan during combat operations against an armed enemy in kunar province, afghanistan, on january 25, 2008. while conducting a combat reconnaissance patrol through the valley, staff sergeant miller and a small element of u.s. and afghan national forces engaged a force of 15 to 20 insurgents occupying prepared fighting positions. staff sergeant miller engaged the enemy positions with his vehicle's turret mounted automatic grenade launcher while simultaneously providing dee tailed descriptions of the positions to his command enabling effective, accurate close air support. following the engagement staff sergeant miller led a small squad storage to conduct a battle damage assessment. as the group neared the small steep narrow valley that the enemy inhabitated there was a near ambush from elevated

positions with ample cover. exposed with little available cover the patrol was totally vulnerable to enemy rocket pro feld grenades and automatic weapons. as point man staff sergeant miller was at the fronts of the patrol cut off from supporting elements and less than 20 meters from enemy forces. nonetheless, with total disregard for his own safety, he called for his men to quickly move back to cover positions as he charged the enemy over exposed ground and under overwhelming enemy fire in order to provide protected fire for his team. while maneuvering to engage the enemy he was shot in the upper torso. ignoring the wound, he continued to push the fight, moving to draw fire from over 100 enemy fighters upon himself. he then again charged forward through an open area in order to allow his teammates to safely reach cover. after killing at least ten insurgents, wounding dozens mosh and repeatedly exposes himself to enemy fire moving from

position to position he was mortally wounded by enemy fire. his valor ultimately saved the lives of seven members of his own team and 15 afghan national army soldiers. staff sergeant miller's heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty at the cost of his own life are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the united states army.

>> join me in prayer. for today's ceremony has given us a vivid glimpse at the true source of our nation's greatness. it's founded in the heart and soul of dedicated women of heart and women like staff sergeant miller. rob's legacy of selfless service displayed in battle will never be forgotten in the annals of american history. may we never cease to live our lives worthy of noble patriots as rob miller an remain forever grateful for members of our armed services both past and present whose courage and commitment have kept our nation the land of the free and home of the brave. may your divine favor and eternal wisdom rest upon our president and all our national leaders as they lead and serve

our great country. bless soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and guardians especially those in harm's way. whether he is the families who serve alongside them especially those who have lost loved ones in battle. we ask your continued blessings of the united states of america. we pray this in your holy name, amen. >> thank you, everyone. >> and president obama and first lady michelle obama stepping into the crowd now and exchanging some greetings with the family of staff sergeant rob miller, who was killed in action january 25th, 2008 when he was 24 years old in the middle of a firefight in afghanistan, in a valley. he drew fire away from his group, enabling everyone else in the group to survive.

he was wounded. he continued firing. continued throwing grenades and he has been awarded the medal of honor now as a result of his bravery. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back, i'll continue with some news that is just developing. we need directions to go to... pearblossom highway? it's just outside of lancaster. sure, i can download directions for you now. we got it. thank you very much! onstar ready. call home. hi, daddy! i'm on my way. send to car and...done! you have one saved destination: dillon beach. would you like those directions now? yes, i would. go north on route 1. check it out. i can like, see everything that's going on with the car. here's the gas level. i can check on the oil. i can unlock it from anywhere. i've received a signal there was a crash. some guy just cut me off. i'll get an ambulance to you right away. looks like our check engine light's on. can you do a diagnostic check for us? everything's fine. oh, but you've got a loose gas cap.

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all right. i want to bring you some news about a plane crash that we're hearing about. a small plane pipe mer 32 in naperville, illinois. it's a community just outside of chicago. unconfirmed reports at the moment. we've got some video of this. it does appear that a plane has gone into the roof of an

ex-sport fitness center in naperville. you're looking at live pictures right now. we're led to understand there may have been two people on board. we don't know who was in the building at the time. there you can see the pictures of the fitness center. a small plane appears to have gone into the building. fire crews are on the scene. as we get more information we will bring that to you. tomorrow marks the ninth anniversary of the start of the war in afghanistan. and to this day, the taliban far from defeated. there's no end in sight for this war. for the past several years, the taliban have actually grown in strength and expanded their control over vast areas of the country. maps we have here tell a big part of the story. let me show what you it looked like in 1987. this red area is what the taliban controlled. it's described as a heavy taliban presence included 54% of the country.

38% of the country is an area of -- let's call it substantial taliban control. the blue area is areas lightly controlled by the taliban or maybe by somebody else. this is 2007. move to 2008. 54% has now grown to have 72%. they've added this year and this area under substantial taliban control. 21% is now under some taliban influence and 7% lightly influenced by the taliban. take it ahead to 2009 now. this is the most recent one we've got available. we've now growno have 80% of the country under substantial taliban control including this area around here. 17% with some taliban influence. only 3% of the country here, here and here with very light taliban influence. ivan watson joins us now from afghanistan from the capital. he's in kabul and he has some new news in. for the last several days you know we've been reported to you there have been attacks on these convoys of fuel and supplies going into afghanistan because

the pakistanis have blocked that supply route from going in. ivan has brand new information on this. ivan, what have you got? >> reporter: that's right. by our account now, this is going to be the sixth convoy of tanker trucks headed to nato international forces here in afghanistan torched just across the border on the pakistani side of the border. pakistani police telling us unknown assailants attacked the oil tankers using rockets and machine guns. further down south along that border another convoy of trucks was attacked earlier today. the taliban on the pakistani side the border claimed responsibility and one person was killed while about 20 tanker trucks were torched in that attack. ali. >> ivan, what is this all about? why have these attacks been taking place over the last six days? what is pakistan doing to deal with this? >> reporter: well, it could be linked to an incident last week where u.s. helicopters crossed the border into pakistan from

afghanistan. they say in pursuit of fighters. and opened fire and killed two pakistani border guards. pakistan was furious at this. we have just gotten within the last hour or so a join report from pakistan and nato forces saying that what they think actually happened was the pakistani border guards fired warning shots to the u.s. attack helicopters and they mistook them for fighters, opened fire and killed two border guards, wounded four more. within the last hour, the u.s. ambassador to pakistan has apologized for this incident to the families as well and saying that both countries, both militaries need to communicate bet they are the future. that could be part of the issue here. in retaliation, pakistan shut one of its border crossings to afghanistan. >> okay. the issue, though, is in doing so they've made sitting ducks out of these tankers and these supply trucks. >> reporter: yeah. and there's another issue here. the u.s. has dramatically

stepped up cia drone attacks on suspected taliban targets on the pakistani side of the border in those wild border provinces up in the mountains, really carrying out scores of attacks over the course of this year. and in the taliban statement to cnn to our islamabad bureau, a taliban spokesman said we're torching those tanker trucks in retaliation for the, quote, innocent pakistani civilians that you are killing with those drone strikes. and the taliban spokesman promised to step up attacks with special service squads, strike squads to target u.s. and nato interests inside pakistan. so we'll probably see more of the same in the weeks and months to come, ali. >> okay. we'll discuss this more with you tomorrow about the ninth anniversary of the war in afghanistan and where we really stand with this. ivan watson in kabul with new information about another attack on the nato convoy. barack obama, hillary clinton, a ticket in 2012? a lot of buzz about that prospect. we'll tell you what mrs. clinton

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let me bring you up to speed with some of the top stories we're following here at cnn. oral arguments getting under way at the supreme court today that pits a slain soldier's dad against a fundamentalist church. at issue privacy rights versus free speech. it stems from the church's anti-gay demonstrations during the soldier's funeral. the white house is waving off talk of an obama/hillary clinton ticket in 2012. in an interview journalist bob woodward claimed it's, quote on the table. the secretary of state also dismissed the eye dee saying both she and vp joe biden are very happy doing what they're doing.

wild weather in northern arizona. at least two confirmed tornadoes have touched down in the flagstaff area. extensive damage. you can see some of it right there. this is brand new video that we're looking at right now just in to cnn. some injuries have been reported. one of the twisters, listen to this, derailed 28 cars of a parked freight train, a train that had stopped because of the tornado. it also overturned a couple of trucks. the crew on the train made it out okay. chad will be here in a couple of minutes to talk about this tornado and what is going on. cnn's anderson cooper and talk show host ellen degeneres both using their shows to fight bullying in light of recent suicides involving gay children and young adults or those perceived to be gay. last night ellen made a special appearance on "ac 360" to talk about the kind of behavior that can push someone over the edge. >> do you find it surprising that people still tell gay jokes, that people still use the "f" word? that people still use that word, that's so gay? i think i mentioned this to you.

i went to a movie theater this weekend and in a preview for a new movie, a vince vaughan movie, in the preview he uses the term. it shocked me not only they would put it in the movie but the preview that they didn't think this might offend some people. i think it should offend a lot of people. >> i think it's so like, you know -- it's -- that message has been going on for so long and no one has stood up to it that it just is subconscious. it's subliminal. i think that's what is dangerous. kids see this. and whether adults are saying something like that and kids are saying it in the school yard when you hear it, it's acceptable to say and it also means -- it's not a compliment. it doesn't sound like, that's so gay. it's not like going up. that's so gay, so if we changed it, maybe that's so gay. maybe we change the inflection

and we can turn the whole thing around. >> that's a good way to put it. she frames things nicely. today anderson makes a special guest appearance on ellen's show where they continue the conversation on bullying and need for compassion. this friday 10:00 p.m. "ac 360" holds a town hall bullying: no escape in conjunction with the "people" magazine and car tune network. i have a discussion on my facebook page. your opinions on bullying and what can be done about it. saving lives. one bridge at a time in kenya. i'll introduce you to one of our top ten cnn heroes of the year who helped save countless people from raging crocodile-filled rivers. what's this option? that's new.

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a lots of things i love about cnn including a fairly regular paycheck. one of the things i like a lot is our "heroes" program. it really is a remarkable opportunity to pick some of the best people in the world for some of the things that they've been doing and not honored elsewhere for. our here yoef today is harman parker. he is helping save lives by building bridges across rivers in kenya, rivers that otherwise would have -- the absence of those rivers would have meant that people would be drowning. but bridges do something else.

they don't just help people across rivers but help people do more with their lives. it connects people. it allows people to go to school. it allows people to access markets with the goods that they want to sell. harman parker joins me on the phone right now. he went to kenya in 1989 as a young missionary with a few masonry skills and so far built 40 bridges. thank you for being with us. >> thank you, ali. great to be on your show. thanks for calling. >> congratulations on being one of the top ten heroes of the year. i have to tell you this is a little counter intuitive. i didn't know that people even did what you did. i thought governments built bridges. i thought cities built bridges. i didn't know regular people go out and build bridges or they'd even know that bridges needed to be built. tell me how you got involved in this. >> it happened very quickly. i had an invitation by a community to help them build abridge and they knew that i was a builder. i was doing other type of development work. and they asked me and a partner if we could do it and we took it

on and said, yes, we'll give it a go. and that was in 1997. and 45 -- >> harmon, you still there? all right. i don't hear harmon. i hear that little noise that says we don't have harmon. we're going to try to get him back on the line. i figure a guy that can build bridges can probably redial us. we'll talk to him in a couple of minutes. the top ten heroes honored on thanksgiving night. if you have not made a habit of watching "heroes" or going to the website this is the year to do it. the fourth annual all-star tribute. to vote head over to cnn heroes.com. these are people you have chosen, your votes. your nominations. now you can vote on who the winner will be. the last full day to vote is november 17th. we're going to try to get harmon back on line because he has a great story. we're following other breaking weather news. tornadoes have caused major

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i got harmon back on the line. harmon parker, you're originally from kentucky but now you're in the bush in kenya, right? >> i'm in the middle of the bush and it's amazing that we can even speak at the moment. i'm working on a brands new bridge project for the cnn crew actually who will be coming next week to the filming for the tribute show in los angeles in november. and very excited about it. >> harmon, for people who don't sort of get it, because you figure bridges are where they're supposed to be and if they aren't you go somewhere where

there is one -- what do building a bridge do for the communities? >> well, number one, it saves lives. the bridge site i'm working at now, four people drowned earlier this year. poor, marginalized people. and it shouldn't happen. there's thousands and thousands if not hundreds of thousands of footbridge needed in this world right now. and not many people are doing anything to address it and we are. we're about saving lives, number one. number two, we want to be able to provide access for education, health and commerce as you said earlier. >> harmon, what is the prize -- either the nomination as a top ten hero or the money associated with it, what has it enabled you to do? >> it will enable us to become better. it will enable us to introduce new bridge designs. it will enable us to build more bridges for saving lives and transforming communities. >> harmon, we congratulate you

for the work that you've done. unsung for so long. we wish you the best of luck. harmon parker is one of our top ten heroes for the cnn heroes program this year, joining us from kenya. thanks, harmon. okay. back to our breaking news now. tornadoes have struck arizona, northern arizona. they are still under a tornado watch. chad, you've been paying attention to this. you talked to the mayor of a county earlier today. now we have fascinating pictures. there's real damage out of this. >> obviously. we always talk about how tornadoes hit mobile homes. it's just that mobile homes -- in this case recreational trailers are so light and get more damage than a real house would get, structural stick-built house would get automatically. let's just go to this picture because some of the things i'm even seeing here live coming in at this point in time from black knight productions. we had these earlier. this is very close to i-40. this was an rv trailer sales

area. so no one in the rvs camping. this was in an area along i-40. and i-40 was shut down for a while. obviously, a couple of semis turned over. when that happens you can't do anything. brand new stuff right here. there it is. >> and from was a train that -- i don't understand this train thing. there was a freight train going through and they stopped because they knew there was a tornado coming through. >> right. >> then it derails 28 cars. >> probably -- it takes a long time to stop a train. you can't say okay, stop. takes miles and miles. they had this thing and said stop the train because the tornado is coming and stopped it right in the right place or the wrong place clearly because the tornadoes knocked off the train. 28 train cars. new video coming in. i'm going to take a chance and put this. this is the train. i can't tell what is off. this could go to black or bars or something i don't want to show on tv. you never know sometimes. we still have tornado warnings coming in.

>> what is the box differences? >> orange box means severe thunderstorm warning which means you can get wind to 55 miles per hour and hail. when you get a pink box that means something is spinning. if something is spinning you can get a tornado. i can show you here. i made the towns bigger. the roadway you may not be able to see but flagstaff wrb arizona, here. the first tornado and where the train is over is over here near belmont, arizona. if you draw a line down you can get to phoenix and scottsdale down that way. this is the storm right now spinning. you look for colors going one way, colors going the other way. i know this is a raw map but i love showing it because this is what i do all day. people -- what do you do at work? i look for reds next to greens. when reds are next to greens we know there's spinning. that means wind is going one way in the storm and going can the other way not far from it. there could be a tornadoes there. that's why that pink box is right -- >> what time is that watch till? >> this is warning.

a warning means it's happening or indicated by doppler radar. that's another 30 minutes. the watch wisconsin means it could happen in any of the storms and may spin at some point until 5:00 p.m. local. >> you're staying on top of it closely. we'll let you know anything we get on. he's already in the ivy league and should be coasting through his senior year but today's "mission possible" guest is trying to get other kids into college. this is a great story coming up. ♪ [ e. clark ] i'm an engineer. i love my job. i can see what it's doing for the community on a day-to-day basis.

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unless you have been living under a rock, you know college is expensive. and it is totally, totally out of the financial reach for most families. for many families. getting in can be expensive too.

some of the college board prep courses can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars but we know they make a difference. what if you can't afford it? that doesn't close the achievement gap that exists in this country if people can't get the help they need to get into college. check these out. low income students score an average 300 points lower on s.a.t.s than higher income families. 37% of low income ends up going to college versus 81% of the high income students. may have to do with the testing or other aspects of their life but something that jason shaw found out as a teenager after doing some research. and that led him to try to level the playing field a little bit by launching a free online s.a.t. prep site with one of the best names on the internet. i need a pencil.com. there he is. there's the man. jason is now a senior at harvard and joins us from boston and he still has the site

ineedapencil.com. crazy names. what does it do? because you're not giving pencils out. >> no. basically i need a pencil.com is a completely free online s.a.t. prep program where students can read through 60 lessons in math, reading and writing and take 800 practice questions in order to prepare. >> you have 60 lessons on it, more than 800 practice questions. i was just on it again a few minutes ago checking it out again. it's got advice. it's got prep -- test prep information, information on applications and admissions. why did you do this? >> well, when i was a junior in high school, i went to visit my sister the month that i took my s.a.t. she was teaching in an urban middle school in west philly. i had never seen how far some students -- how far behind their own peers in the suburbs. as i took the s.a.t. i thought what are these students going to have to do when they take the

s.a.t. and how are they going to compete with other students with way more resources. i started tutoring and before long i realized i couldn't scale my tutoring so i had an idea to start a website. >> let's think about this. kids get access to your site. how do they learn about it and what happens to them when they get to it and they start using it? >> so usually we partner with schools and afterschool programs to target the students we're reaching out to and usually how they find out about us. once they come to the website they'll sign up to make an account and read through the lessons i talked about to understand the material and transition into the question section where they answe t take one afterwds tare depa i the ste

secrety staof aisers who think it w be ld ill a few alone 2012, 2016. while on one hand joe biden previously said he love to be secretary of state just like rahm emanuel said he'd like to be mayor of chicago and he ran out of here pretty fast you'll note. joe biden since he said he wanted to be secretary of state is vice president. and i think it would be seen as major step down. no matter how you slice it.

i've been talking to various senior democrats around town today. they say you can't get around the fact it would look like a huge step down even though secretary of state is a big job. he's shown no signs of wanting to leave. so they expect and robert gibbs made clear the president thinks one of the best moves was picking joe biden and they plan to have him on the ticket in 2012. >> good saturday night live fodder. the election is 21 days until 6 days away from the leeks. i know you have contact with the people leaving. i know you've met rahm emanuel but you're tight with robert gibbs. and i've heard rumors he's looking for something. >> reporter: it's funny. politico reported over the weekend robert gibbs may be -- some of his friends or allies may be angling to make him the next chairman of the democratic national committee. robert tweeted about on saturday and down-played it but never actually denied it, said he hadn't had conversations about it. people pressed him again today, fellow reporters, is he going to get in or not. he again said i haven't had

conversations but didn't really shoot it down. peter baker of "the new york times" says, look, you shot down the secretary clinton for vp harder than this. even robert laughed as did the rest of the press corps because it's true. i think bottom line he's keeping his options open. he's made it clear at some point he wants to step down from the podium. maybe not right away. if the dnc came calling he's very close to this president. he might be a very forceful advocate for him on the outside. >> ed and ali on the off hours. yesterday we talked about you teaching me how to swim and first we would buy board shorts together because as you mentioned they're more forgiving. maybe now we can sing together. i understand you're a karaoke guy. >> reporter: i got roped into it for charity and i picked cruz's "dynamite." i thought this was like 20 people, just a fun little thing for charity. now i've got colleagues saying i'm going to see you tonight, what song are you saying? people are talking trash.

other reporters who are competing. i'm starting to worry. i think i'm coming down with a cold and might back out of this. >> we can practice. i like it. >> reporter: it's not going to be on youtube. >> someday when there's not a lot going on we can do it right here. cnn white house correspondent ed henry at the white house on "the stakeout." midterm elections are 27 days away not 21. i'm just anxious. taste time for a cnnpolitics.com update. right now cnn congressional correspondent bree yaia briana keeler. >> on the ticker we're looking at the first cnn poll of polls. the battle for the control of congress. what it shows is likely supporters favoring republicans over democrats. 60% of voters said they would pick the republican, 44% said the democrat. there's a lot of details you can

check out at cnnpolitics.com. we're also looking at a couple of polls that specifically talk about the delaware senate race. what it shows is that in this seat of course vacated by vice president joe biden that the democratic senate candidate chris kuhns well ahead of republican candidate. my personal favorite story if we can get it going. todd palin, did he turn down "dancing with the stars"? on the ticker a story by our political producer peter hamby. it turns out according to his wife sarah palin sounds like what it happened. she let it slip that the show's producers wanted him on the show. of course her daughter is on the show. she sort of squeezed by last night getting to the next round of competition, the fourth rounds. >> everybody is on that show. it's not even a special thing anymore. i said no to them. >> did you? really. that would have been great.

your dance is what? >> no, i don't have the dance. >> the cha-cha. >> we could try that. good to see you. brianna keilar. 27 days away from the elections. they keep making me say that because i said 21. before the midterm elections. president obama is the face of the democratic party. is he living up to the billing to carry his party through? on cnn's parker/spitzer noted film director oliver stone talked about how the president has done until now. >> there was that hope that he would breathe a new spirit and take on the corporations and take on the oligarchies that run america and say, look, new way of doing things. he would have had the people behind him. i think he could have gotten out of afghanistan and iraq and been quicker about it and attacked the wall street issue faster, so forth. >> so i sense more than some minimal disappointment. >> yeah. >> the sense he pulled his

punches as it were. >> that's not surprising. on the other hand, i'm still rooting for him. it's either him or mccain and -- or palin or bush. you know, i don't think there's a choice. >> could you see making a movie about sarah palin? is she movie fodder? >> i think it's a bad idea because you're already empowering her. she's a moron in my opinion and she doesn't say anything and she's very colorful but give her more and more power like father coughlin in the 1930s. she's an andy griffith character. >> and you can watch parker/spitzer nightly k p.m. on cnn. as the dow rises and falls so do emotions and all around the world. what is this number 11,000 everybody is talking about on the dow? what does it mean and where does it stand? what's happening? i'll tackle that next. but ale. and aleve was proven to work better on pain than tylenol 8 hour. so why am i still thinking about this? how are you? good, how are you? [ male announcer ] aleve. proven better on pain.

time now for the "xyz." a lot of people asked me what i think of the dow again coming close to 11,000. what does it mean? is it important? and if not, is it

psychologically important? it is neither financially nor psychologically important. it is simply a round number and we like that sort of thing. basically, a big round number. that's an interesting opportunity to examine how we got there. this is not a particularly significant milestone. the dow has crossed back and forth across the 11,000 line several times. most recently on may 3rd just before that flash crash you all remember. the dow closed yesterday at its highest lefl since may 4th so a move above 11,000 won't change that comparison. of more significance perhaps the end of this week october 9th marks the third anniversary of the record highs of both the dow and the s&p 500. the dow closed back in 2007. on that day at 14,164. right now it is about 10,952. this is worth noting. the dow is up 5% for the year so in the unlikely event the market ends where it is right now investors will have chalked up small gains after some very volatile trading.

having said that i'm most intrigued by who these investors are and who they are not. since the start of the great recession at the end of 2007, millions of small investors have pulled their money out of the market either by necessity because they needed the money or because of panic. not only have they not gone back, they are still running for cover. as i mentioned last hour, more than $30 billion has come out of mutual funds so far this year. so why are stock prices rising? because big investors are investing big. big corporations are making money. they're using that money to buy other companies. and that's a sure sign of faith in the economy. now, your investment decisions are your business. but it's my business to give you the facts about the economy and everything else that affects your world. my team and i do that for you every weekday from 1:00 to 3:00 eastern. that's it for me. "newsroom" continues with brooke baldwin. >> it's a wave