but across the border, a new report says pakistan is challenging the enemy to attack u.s. forces. roy holliday turning his first ever playoff start to something historic. holliday's no-hitter against the cincinnati reds last night is just the second in baseball's postseason hist story. the second no-hitter ever in the postseason. the first since yankee donald arson's perfect game. and an independent commission finding the obama administration vastly underestimated the size of the spill or tried to deceive the public about it. ed henry live from the white house this morning with the administration's response. but first this morning, some major developments in afghanistan, on the day that we enter into our tenth day of the war. first, word that afghan president hamid karzai is talking to the taliban about peace but over the border. a new report is saying pakistan

is trying to stir the pot even more. >> the "wall street journal" reporting that pakistan spy agency, isi, is urge be the taliban to strike u.s. and coalition forces. in the past week alone the taliban has claimed responsibility for attacks near quetta. ivan watson discovering both of these attacks. he's live in kabul. ivan, the president saying it's tile to sit down to talk to the taliban? >> reporter: that's right, after trying and failing for years to ask taliban leaders to stop coming against the government, he's holding what he's calling a high-peace council. about 68 afghan elders, some former warlords. religious clerics. eight women gathering to try to find ways to talk to the

taliban. take a listen to what karzai had to say at this inaugural meeting. >> translator: the opposition are our taliban brothers. every son of this land and every youth, whether he's inside or outside of this country, wishes to serve this country. i call on them once again to use this opportunity and to say yes to this endeavor. i want them to come and bring peace to this land. >> reporter: now, john and kiran, that is a message we've heard over the years from president karzai. he and his aides are trying to play down some of the swirling media reports of alleged high-level contacts between his government and the taliban. we spoke to the taliban today, they are denying these reports. and saying they have no representative that is currently negotiating with the karzai government. john. >> and at the same time, you have these reports that pakistan is urging the taliban to attack u.s. convoys. this is a surprising revelation about a critical ally in the

war. but we've seen all week the pictures of these oil tankers and convoys on fire. >> reporter: well, those are reports that, of course, pakistani officials have denied. they say that they are fighting and losing soldiers in the fight against militants on their side of the border. but there's no question that this conflict across the border has been heating up in recent weeks. the tensions between the u.s. and pakistan, it's supposed to be an ally have heated up. last week, u.s. attack helicopters mistakenly killed two troops in a cross-border trip in pakistani airspace. last night, the u.s. ambassador to pakistan apologized noor. meanwhile, the militant attacks on these convoys of civilian oi afghanistan have stepped up a bit. we had 40 trucks torched and hit on that side of the border.

keeper. >> ivan watson for its at the very latest in kabul this morning. ivan, thanks very much. and a story you may have been following. mexican police have now called off the search for an american man who was reportedly shot by pirates while jet ski wig his wife on a lake with the mexican/u.s. border. cnn has learned that they've received threats and fear that their mission would be ambushed. tiffany hartley and david hartley were jet skiing last week when he was shot. you city there on the map. texas officials say it's a disturbing sign that drug violence is spilling across the border. tiffany hartley held a news conference yesterday calling on the state department and the president to help recover her husband's body. >> once we do receive david back and we can, you know, properly

give him the burial that he would like, we could be able to say our good-byes and really have that closure. >> texas governor rick perry has asked to speak to mexican president filippe kaerld roane in the next few days to make sure mexico is doing everything they can to help recover hartley's body. also in the next half hour, new subpoenas from the federal grand jury asked to investigate the campaign of john edwards. edwards' attorney says a sizable number of subpoenas have been issued in the case. edwards publicly admitted for the first time earlier this year that he fathered hunter's child. well, coming soon to a verizon store near you, haven't we heard this one before, the iphone. the apple store is making

available the iphone available in the first quarter of 2011. the new phone will resemble the iphone 4 which currently is sold by at&t which until now had a lock on the apple product. and the first ever, roy holliday makes history with a no-hitter against the cincinnati reds. he's just the second pitcher to throw a no-hitter postseason. 1956, dan larssen who threw a perfect game in the world series. this was almost a perfect game. >> yeah, philly fans are grumbling that the catcher moved a little to the side. they called it a ball. it should have been a strike. it was wonderful. six minutes past the hour. even the yankee fans were watching that game, right? >> oh, yeah. >> they came on to it very closely as well. >> you got to tip your hat. i got a picture of that dan larson pitch that they threw in

my living room. congratulates to them. phoenix or flagstaff, we talked about the tornado threat yesterday. early in the morning how rare it was to have tornadoes drop in arizona. well, several did. and we had damage. check it out west of flagstaff. four in all, two of which were in the bellemont area. 200 homes damaged. there were six or seven injuries, none of which were severe, which is good. and a couple other tornadoes touched down near flagstaff and one other one in utah. so a strong storm. we don't expect that kind of activity today, as the low that produced that is now beginning to weaken just a little bit. that low's been sticking around the northeast. that is beginning to weaken and pull out. but another day of unsettled weather today expected in that area. and this, subtropical storm otto, 60-mile-an-hour winds could become a hurricane today. but we do expect it to stay out to sea. well, this time of year, not

only for the weather but the baseball, back to you guys in new york. >> yeah. >> you've got football going as well. basketball. everything. >> yep. >> the whole ball of wax in a nutshell, rob. an independent commission appointed by the president has released its investigation in the oil spill in the gulf of mexico. and the obama administration reeling this morning after od getting slammed for its handling of it.et a live report just ahead.ta a live report just ahead.ta eight minutes after the hour. use it almost anywhere you use sugar. even in cooking and baking. sweet! [ female announcer ] splenda® granulated with fiber.

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♪ coming up now at 11 minutes after the hour, when it came to determining the size and scope of this summer's oil spill in the gulf of mexico, the white house either vastly underestimated it or tried to deceive the public about it. >> that's an conclusion of an independent commission that's being investigated. it's investigating the disaster since june. it was a commission that was actually appointed by the president itself. ed henry's live at the white house this morning. so not a very flattering investment of the obama administration's performance as it relates to the oil spill. >> that's right, kiran. this is just a blistering series of reports that this commission comes out, basically charging that this administration did not fully inform the public about how much oil is flowing into the gulf. it goes back to two weeks until

after the first explosion where basically these reports are charging that government scientists wanted to put worst case scenarios out there for the public about how much oil might be pumping into the gulf and that it was blockeded eby the administration. and throughout it, the administration did not simply inform the public in this commission which you said was appointed by the president itself. is charging that led to the sense that the government at all levels just is not on top of it. take a listen to this in a report, quote, the federal government created the impression it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not fully candid with the american people about the scope of the problem. it is possible that that the flow-rate figures may have hindered the subsea efforts to stop and contain the flow of the oil at the wellhead. as the commission completes the investigation, this crisis is clearly not over.

>> so ironic that the white house is getting slammed by its own report? >> you're right. they wanted this independent commission to sort of maybe point the finger at bp, perhaps, get to the bottom of it that way. now, it's take a hard look at the government itself. the white house pushing back and saying, look, the only reason they didn't want the initial estimates to get out there was that they were not fully studied. statement from the administration, quote, senior administration officials were clear with the public what the worst case flow rate could be. the response was based on science even when that pitted us against bp or state and local officials and the response pushed bp every step of the way. this is getting backup from democratic senator ed markey who is over the whole cries. and he's saying the whole finger should be pointed at bp and not at the white house.

>> we heard from ed henry at the bottom of the show. and now this. thanks, ed. just 26 days until the election, democrats struggling to hold on to their majority in congress. they're trying to stay ahead in places they hoped to feel strong at this point. >> well critics are put something blame on president obama. last night on "parker spitzer," the conversation centered around what the president could have done better. >> he's loyal to a fault. doesn't understand that americans actually respect people with the guts to fire people. and he should have done that then. mike was quite right about the that. >> who do you fire? >> axelrod. a sweet guy, straightaway. and rahm emanuel -- >> axelrod -- >> well, when are you going to be tough? when is the machine really going to work? it works in congress. it eventually did the job it was supposed to. >> tonight on "parker spitzer,"

don't miss ralph reed, political activist, chairman of the faith and freedom coalition. that's tonight. 8:00 right here on cnn. >> are you sick of the texting. sorry i'm late. be there in a second. running ten minutes late. be there in a second. we're going to talk about how technology has enabled us to be a little ruder because we don't have to say it to anyone's face anymore. d breakfast to help build strong muscles and healthy bones. carnation instant breakfast essentials. good nutrition from the start. [ but aleve can last 12 hours. tylenol 8 hour lasts 8 hours. carnation instant breakfast essentials. 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.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. 18 1/2 minutes past the hour. we all have that friend, right,

the one who is hopelessly chronically late to everything. or they may be your mother but we're not in a therapy session. they always have excuses but now technology to back it up. texting, mobile e-mails, a lot of it makes it easier to explain away your lateness in realtime. has technology helped to enable the rude behavior? elizabeth bernstein joins me now. thanks for being with me this morning. so it is easier to blow somebody off when you don't are to do it face-to-face or on the phone? >> it's so much easier. you send a text, i'm sorry, i'm late, you don't have to see how mad they are, or see their reaction. >> other interesting thing which you described in your article, you showing up at 8:00 for a date with your buddy, it was supposed to be 8:00. you got this series of realtime excuses coming through on your blackberry explaining why this person couldn't make it. >> it keeps coming.

oh, i'm sorry, i'm leave might go office. i thought we were supposed to be here. and then 8:15, my boss is still talking to me. >> and then they stopped to pick up draperies? >> that lost me. >> as you said in your article, if it was a generation ago, you would have called the police and say this person may be missing. nowadays, you can keep in touch with the mobile devices so you don't have to be on time anymore? >> i feel like people have lost that sense you have to be on time. now, we text and text. one person interview, i can start dinner at 8:00. even then, i pick up the phone and call her and i'm talking to her the whole time i'm driving to dinner. >> it is interesting. this doesn't extend into the workplace, professionally speaking, you have to be on time or have mobile device changed that as well?

>> i'm pretty sure that you have to be on time for your job. many times, those people are on time for work. but i feel like we abuse the people we love most. >> people in your newsroom said mobile devices make it so you can really have friends that you never speak to face-to-face because of facebook or texting you don't have to have a real relationship? >> you're not saying that much, right? just tiny bites. >> sometimes, you overshare in facebook, you know everything about a friend that you might have lost touch with. a high school buddy. what is the purpose of that? >> we know way too much about people. the other thing about texting, you don't really communicate well, right? you can't read any sign? i can see your face right now, i can hear your voice inflexion. when i say i'm late, and they say, okay, i are no idea if

they're mad or it's okay. we're really missing a lot here. >> and what is the net effect of technology? it's not going anywhere. we're increasingly using it more and more, so what's the net effect on our social relationships in your opinion? >> i think it's all changing right now. facebook, we're connecting with all of these people we might never have stayed in touch with. we can connect with a lot more friends and stay in touch with people. they don't have to be here, whether they are. it has a lot of good. we also need to think through some of these things. our rudeness, our behavior, how this may be changing it's how it may not be good as well. >> maybe we have the quantity and not the quality as much anymore. >> i think exactly. >> what about your friend? what did she say after you wrote about her for the article? >> she knew i was going to write about her before but afterwards, she said, i didn't know i was that late. >> time tastamp, that's the bes

part. >> some people, i think it's safe to say, better to have a virtual relationship with. coming, roy holliday makes history to be the second relief hitter to throw a no-hitter game. everyday. driving home nails quickly and easily in the tightest spaces. more innovation, more great values. craftsman. trust. in your hands. no calorie sweetener granulated with fiber. sweet! [ female announcer ] tastes like sugar and has 3 grams of fiber per tablespoon. use it almost anywhere you use sugar. even in cooking and baking. sweet! [ female announcer ] splenda® granulated with fiber.

♪ hit me with your best shot

they've been calling it the year of the pitcher in major league baseball. now, we know why. took almost 54 years but don larson finally has company. >> larson still holds the record because his no the hitter was also a perfect game. yesterday, halladay was nearly perfect, just a walk in the fifth inning, but definitely the biggest game of his career. >> surreal, it really is. i just wanted to pitch, pitched in the postseason. to be able to go out and have a game like that, you know, it's a dream come true. >> cnn contributor, max kellerman, our resident sports guy joins us now. what a thriller in the postseason. but also, boy, i hope he's going to buy the catcher dinner.

>> he gave the catcher credit. he continuously referred to "us." even if it was just him doing what he did this year, it could be the year the pitcher. he threw a perfect game in the regular season and was one pitch away from the perfect game in the postseason. he's been the -- the most interesting thing to me about halladay is he's the type of guy who everyone always assumed would do well under pressure. but he'd never had to pitch in the postseason even though he was the best pitcher in baseball. then he came through, in the biggest possible way. you know, it leaves people speechless. >> not bad. >> and for people who love baseball, this is why they love baseball. it's such an intricate game. there's so many variables. and in this situation, explain for people why, this is only the second time we're talking about a no-hitter in postseason history. >> and it's the first time anyone's ever pitched a perfect game and a no-hitter in the

regular season. one being in the regular season, one being in the postseason. no one's ever done that before. it's not dependent on just the pitcher. it's also the catcher. it's also your defense. some of it's luck. >> like wings in oregon? >> exactly. baseball is really, unlike basketball, say, where one player can touch the ball as much as he wants and really you can run the offense through him, or football, you try harder, you do better. it's a full contact sport. baseball is really fundamentally a problemistic sport. you do as much as possible. that's what the pitcher does over the course of the game. and halladay, that's why they call him an ace. he's a deck of aces. he's incredible talent and clearly the best pitcher in major league baseball. >> and a call is a little bit of a controversial one. >> don larson was pitching

against the brooklyn dodgers and campanella and duke snider. these are the reds where they do have an awesome year. larson gets the last pitch of the game which is more of a ball that the pitch what halladay gave up the walk on to jay bruce. that was a closer pitch than larson's final pitch, so included in that kind of problemistic luck factor are things like umpire calls. >> what about years where you saw more juicing or suspected juicing in baseball and, of course, since they've cracked down. could this have happened in the heydays of the big run derbies? >> less likely. fundamentally problemistic, less likely. halladay, you got to think of him like krypton. he was pitching during the juice

era, and shehe's still a domina pitcher. monster. $200 million yankees payrolls and the boston red sox, $150 million payroll. he's pitching in that environment and dominated. then he goes against the national league in cincinnati, excellent offense but not like the american league east. so it's like he leeaves the red sun of krypton and comes to the yellow sun of earth. >> you like baseball, don't you? >> and comic books. >> clearly. and when they come together, that's just a bonus. max kellerman. great to see you today. >> thanks, max. time for the top stories. peace talks under way to end the war in afghanistan as we enter today the tenth year of the war. president hamid karzai says he's appointed a peace council to talk to the taliban. mexican police are calling off the search for david

hartley. hartley and his wife were jet skiing when she says that pirates pulled up and started to shoot him. and americans appear to be softening their opposition to gay marriage. for the first time in 15 years, pew finds fewer than half of us, 48% not opposing. more main line protestants and catholics approve of it. and those opposed last year are now equally divided. turning to politics, the poster woman, christine o'donnell, laying low since her senate victory in delaware. but he did re-emerge, she met with top leaders. >> our jim acosta is there to go

one-on-one with christine o'donnell. what did she have to say, jim? >> reporter: i tried and sort of like that game last night, a switch and a miss, john and kiran. for reasons too numerous to count, she has avoided the national spotlight in the last few weeks and she won the republican primary here in delaware. but christine o'donnell is starting to change that. as you mentioned, she's starting to do more public events in what looks like a chance to introduce her to voters. any chance we'd get a couple questions? >> no. >> reporter: with that, christine o'donnell blew past our camera and into what was billed as a republican forum. the event was staged in this shopping center and oddly enough just two doors down from a halloween costume shop. >> we want to welcome christine o'donnell. >> reporter: the discussion moderated by the republican party official started off with a softball. it ended up being a curveball. >> where did you grow up? >> i'm confused. i thought i was going to share

remarks and take audience questions. are we not doing that. >> no, we're not doing that. >> okay. >> reporter: but the evening did get into specifics and o'donnell repeated our vow to make the bush tax cuts permanent. >> make sure at that tax increases coming in january do not happen. i'm not a witch. i'm nothing you've heard. i'm you. >> reporter: o'donnell whose past statements about dabbling in witchcraft have come back to haunt her is in damage control mode these days. her events are tightly controlled. >> any chance you can now answer any questions from the press just for a few moments? >> reporter: and she rarely takes questions from the national news media. but her opponent democrat chris coons says -- do you take her seriously? >> die take her seriously. if you believe her website she's raised $2.8 million over the past two weeks.

>> reporter: the professor who conducted the poll says o'donnell can turn her campaign around. >> there are an awful lot of don't know or undecided voters. >> reporter: one of her volunteers told us she's sticking with o'donnell despite her missteps. hasn't changed your mind at all? >> not at all. if anything, i support her more. >> reporter: while taking questions from the audience, o'donnell complained of being under siege. >> i've put my name on the line. i'm taken a lot of hits, a lot of character assassination. >> reporter: then she left out the back door where she promise shed would give us an interview soon. >> call dave and set something up. >> reporter: promise? >> yes, yes. >> reporter: you heard it right there, she promised. we'll be talking to dave later today, press secretary with her campaign. meanwhile, she explained the backdrop behind me. this say gun range here at new castle, delaware. she's going to be here picking up the endorsement of the

delaware gun rights group. it's one of those endorsements that she's going to need one of those core constituencies that christine o'donnell needs to win this race in just a few weeks from now. john and kiran. >> love it. it's great. she promised she's going to talk to you. she said "call dave." >> reporter: we'll see. i'll call him right after this. exactly. >> she said, jim, she was going to ignore the national media and instead the local media. do you know if she's doing any interviews with local press? >> reporter: from what we understand, no. she may have taken a couple of questions here or there from the local media. we actually talked to some folks from one of the affiliates in philadelphia that cnn does business with. and they told us at one of the events just recently that christine o'donnell held that she actually tried to keep the national media out and let the local press in. that is not an unusual approach. there are other campaigns who would like to keep it local and just talk about local press and keep the national media at bay.

we're going to have to see what happens. this is sort of a work in progress. she really went underground a couple weeks ago when the clips were coming out on the bill maher show. now, she seems to be doing more events. perhaps, she'll give us that interview, perhaps she'll start doing more with other folks in the national media. >> what was the deal with the understanding of what format that was going to take? did that get cleared up relatively quickly? >> it did. i guess, you know, she started to take gress that republican moderator at the event. and then towards the very end she started taking questions from the audience. but really, it was just two or three questions and then she was out the door. and took no questions from us, as you can see, in the tape there. >> all right, jimmy. we'll let you go so you can call dave and good luck with that. >> thanks, jim. >> reporter: all right, thanks. i'll keep you posted. next wednesday, by the way, democratic candidates, christine

o'donnell and chris coons will face off. you'll see it here with complete coverage on "american morning" as well. >> we're headed to delaware. it should be a. >> one. well, the federal government is considering cracking down on hundreds of coal-burning plants across the country. they're concerned about coal ash contaminating the environment. there's a big debate raging over this. carol costello joins us with more next. [ female announcer ] introducing splenda®

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40 minutes past the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. right now, a wave of red toxic sludge is swallowing villages in hungary. it started when a waste reservoir in an aluminum plant burst. it makes its way close to the danube river threatening a water supply. these are pictures. news reports from hungary say that four people are dead, six people are missing because of it. and more than 100 people had to be hospitaled for chemical burns. >> what a tragic situation there. >> right now, in this country, more than 500 coal-fired coal plants are releasing dangerous toxins into the air every day. that's why the government is considering regulating coal ash. >> many areas where these plants operate people insist that the air they breathe and the water they drink is poisonous.

carol costello visited one place in pennsylvania. what was it like and what were people saying? >> people were really scared. the epa is now deciding whether to classify coal ash as hazardous waste. some say that's a no-brainer, after all, coal ash has potentially cancer-causing substances. some people say if it's hazardous, you'll notice in in your electricity bill. >> reporter: marcy hugues has lives in western pennsylvania her whole life. it's gorgeous here. rolling hills. lush farmland and little blue run. something proposed by pennsylvania power back in the '70s. what did they tell you in 1975? >> well basically, they said they were going to have it, you could swim, cyou could picnic. they even showed a sailboat. >> reporter: they said they would dump coal ash, the waste left over from burning coal into

a valley and then fill the valley with water. and it did. but sailboats? no. we thought you should see why for yourself. so when environmentalists offered us a ride, we took it. we're on our way to little blue right now. it's about eight minutes away. really want to demonstrate to you how big this thing is. it's nearly 1,000 acres. and in some places, it's 400 feet deep. tons of coal ash and other waste is piped into little blue every year. it comes from the first energy corporation, the utility company that now owns little blue. the epa says coal ash contains potential karnes-causing agents like arsenic, cadmium and lead. and now first energy wants to make little blue bigger to handle an increase in waste. >> they are killing nature, trees, wildlife and making human beings sick. >> people are sick and people are dying. >> reporter: the epa is now holding hearings across the country on coal ash impoundments

like little blue. after the disastrous coal ash spill in tennessee two years ago, the agency is considering whether to toughen regulations and classified coal ash as hazardous. right now, it's considered ordinary garbage. for hughes' daughter tracy, that's unbelievable. tracy has suffered three types of cancer. the first at 18. the last seven years ago. she and her mother suspect little blue is to blame. >> i know that they want to expand again. so when you hear about expansion, what goes through your mind? >> putting my house on the market. uprooting my family. listening to my cardiologist who basically, the first time we visited him, looked at my mom and i in the exam room after the exam was over and asked why do you still live there? >> and why are you drinking the water? >> reporter: the fear is that toxins from little blue are seeping into the ground water and possibly into neighbors'

well water. barbara reed fears that, too. her son's fixer upper is less than a mile from little blue. first energy tested reed's well in 2009. and the result showed reed's well water contained dangerous levels of arsenic. when you see this, what goes through your mind? >> fear. we drank that water. we were not told it was bad. >> reporter: subsequent tests showed no arsenic. his fixer upper now sits abandoned. >> we believe it's completely safe. we have not identifying any well, drinking water well, that we have contaminated or contributed to. >> reporter: and first energy is right, there is no scientific test that shows anyone is getting sick from little blue. why do you think they're standing up and saying these things then? >> i can't answer that. i think they've gotten some

information that it's not relate order scientifically supported. >> reporter: the pennsylvania department of environmental protection show its own tests that nothing is leaking from the neighborhood pond. but some aren't convinced. this is going to sound surreal and maybe too hollywoodish, i'd like to invite them to dinner, turn on my tap and hand them a glass of water from my tap and see if they will drink the water. >> reporter: when we say there's no scientific tests showing elevated arsenic and ground water, i want to clarify no scientific tests have been done yet. but researchers at the university of pittsburgh have begun testing residential wells in the area. but, of course, it will take some time before we see the results of those tests. >> what about the water in the retention pond itself? does that have high levels of arsenic in it? >> that does indeed have high levels of arsenic. but the pennsylvania department of environmental energy said that it's contained.

they have 69 wells around little blue and the department of environmental protection in pennsylvania checked those wells. and they say if there's elevated levels of arsenic in those testing wells, then they've got a problem. first energy fix is that nobody's water out of those test wells are affected. >> what about residents, are they sticking to bottled water? what are they doing? >> many residents use bottled water. they're not trusting of the department of environmental protection in pennsylvania or first energy because they don't know what to believe. because when you look at that thing, it just looks bad. >> is there any kind of liner in that pond as there would be in a landfill? >> excellent question. no liner. but when first energy expands, they will put a liner in the new part. but little blue is so big. and it would be so expensive to put a liner under that thing, it wouldn't be worth it. they would have to shut it down. if they had to put a liner under it, i should say. >> carol costello for us this

morning. tomorrow, we'll take a look at the economic impact and consequences as well. it's now 47 minutes past the hour. still to come with the most news in the morning, rob's going to join us. he has the travel forecast. right after the break, plus, video of wild weather in arizona yesterday. let me check. oh fudge, nothing without a big miles upcharge. it's either pay their miles upcharges or connect through mooseneck! [ freezing ] i can't feel my feet. we switched to the venture card from capital one -- so no more games. let's go see those grandkids. [ male announcer ] don't pay miles upcharges. don't play games. get the flight you want with the venture card at capitalone.com. [ loving it ] help! what's in your wallet? [ smack! ] [ smack! smack! smack! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum ta tum tum tums

take a look at this video out of bellemont, arizona, just to the west of flagstaff yesterday. trains derailed and trailers flipped over from two tornados that touched down. another two that touched down near flagstaff. unbelievable active and unusual day for arizona. the low that caused that is beginning to weaken and drift up to the north. what we're looking at parts of the east coast say similar situation that things are not quite moving along as fast as they should. we're looking at rainfall in parts of new england and parts of eastern new england as well. we're looking at subtropical storm otto which may become a hurricane here over the next few

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out which got the police more upset. of course, they had a complete explanation for everything. >> we were trying to have 20 or 30 of our friends over. and just kept coming and coming. word of mouth, i guess, and just got out of hand. >> there's like ten cops behind him in that picture. >> yeah. nobody knows how many were actually at the bash. estimates, 200, 300 people. the roommates say 110 at the most. >> i'm sure the police can bank on the fine, the money coming in. >> $86,000. wow. >> if they're drinking keystone light -- no, we'll be right back. tastes like sugar and has 3 grams of fiber per tablespoon. use it almost anywhere you use sugar. even in cooking and baking. sweet! [ female announcer ] splenda® granulated with fiber.

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politics. jim acosta wears out the campaign trail until pursuit of christine o'donnell. >> this o'donnell, any chance you could answer some questions from the press just for a few moments? and reversing engs tings. california's condor population soars to a half century high. soars to a half century high. on the most news in the morning. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com wedge is everyone is talking about this. roy halladay pitching a no-hitter. and max kellerman is going to join us. mexican is promising the u.s. that they will intensify the search for the american david hartley. there's still no word when. last night, they called off the

search for fear of being ambushed. his wife says that pirates pulled up in a boat and shot him in the head. a federal grand jury may be extending its investigation into former presidential candidate john edwards. they're looking into whether campaign funds used to kump edwards' affair with reyell hunter. we're going to talk to the contributor embedded in 2008 just ahead. and the white house getting slammed for handling of the oil spill in the gulf. an independent commission finding that the obama administration vastly underestimated the size of the spill, or tried to deceive the public tab. ed henry's live from the white house this morning with the administration's response. first this morning, major developments to tell you about in afghanistan. on the day we enter into our tenth day of the war. afghan president hamid karzai said he has launched a peace council to find a way to negotiate and end the war. but a spokesman told the group

that the group is not interested in peace talks. chris is live at the pentagon. they are talking? are they not talking? do we know what's really going on? >> well, john, there was a lot of criticism right off the bat when the members of this peace council were announced. a lot of people in afghanistan said said look who's not on the list, where are the business leaders. the civil affairs leaders. they say it's stacked with warlords, former members of the taliban. in fact, one person, one of the civil leaders in afghanistan said these people have more experience in making war than in makes peace. but president karzai has invested a lot in this peace council. in fact, he seems to be making more public overtures to the taliban. take a look what the he said in reference to what's going on here. and how he especially paid attention to how he referred to the taliban.

>> translator: the opposition are our taliban brothers. every son of his land and every youth, whether he is inside or outside of this country wishes to serve this country. i call on them once again to use this opportunity and to say yes to this endeavor. i want them to come and bring peace to this land. >> and from all accounts, anything that would be brokered in terms of peace, the taliban are going to want some sort of negotiated timetable for u.s. troops to leave. now, i asked a defense official here exactly how is the u.s. military figuring into all of this. and he said, well, if for some reason that the karzai government would have to come to general petraeus and say, look, your military efforts are hindering the reconciliation efforts, at that point, perhaps we would, you know, re -- think about a different way of going back things. but he said it's not like the u.s. has veto power over any agreement going on. john? >> as you pointed out, chris,

interesting that he referred to them as our taliban brothers. i mean, the taliban is killing afghan soldiers and civilians. >> pretty significant. and as far as i know, i've never heard him quite use that term in that way before, to sort of, you know, sort of task the net wide to say, look, we're all in this together. you know, this say force that karzai has criticized before. you know, he's come out publicly and criticized them after their public bombings. and now to use the word "brothers" seems to signal a very significant sift. >> chris lawrence live at the pentagon. thanks. mexican police are promising the united states they will intensify their search for american david hartley. last night, they called off the search for fear of being

ambushed from threats. the wife of the missing man says a shooting took place while they were on falcon lake. it's located on a state park in texas. it straddles the border between u.s. and mexico. it's a popular destination, great for bass fishing, boating, camping, nature trails. now texas officials fear it could be becoming a casualty of drug war. tiffany and david were boating. her story has been openly questioned by some mexican authorities. >> i think for anybody in my situation, and i know, there's been stories out there before. and people question. but i know what i know. i know what i saw. and i can just tell you what i know. it is hard to be able -- to be judged, but, you know, if you were looking at the end of a barrel of a gun, i think maybe

then you could judge. >> well, let's bring in cnn producer justine redman. she's on the phone right now from zapata county, texas. good morning, let's explain to people how the story began, this allegation that they were ambushed by pirates while they were on this lake. >> hi, kiran. well, it was last week, actually, when this young company were out on jet skis on the lake. and there's been a lot of warnings issued to americans who are out there that they shouldn't cross into the mexican side of the water. there are markers that go down the lake showing you which side you're on. but they go on to the mexican side to do some sightseeing. and apparently, they were fired upon by three boat loads of pirates. nobody witnessed the incident.

but when tiffany, the wife, was able to outrun these so-called pirates, she sped off on her jet ski to the american side of the lake. and went up to the house of someone on that side and asked them to call 911 and that's how it got widely reported. >> right. now, did u.s. authorities question her story or do they believe indeed her husband was the victim of a pirate ambush? >> i think there's been a fair amount of skepticism on all sides. if you talk to people in this area, there's some skepticism that it escalated to this point. because although there have been a handful of incidents on the lake this year with people brandishing ak-47s and roving

fishermen. this is the first time that someone's actually been shot and the first time that someone's actually been killed. i think there's some skepticism about why this would have gone that far. but -- so it isn't -- so it isn't really anything more than that. and the sheriff who's leading the investigation on this side says that he -- has absolutely no reason to doubt this woman's story. >> i got you. as we understand, there have been calls from the obama administration to maybe step in, intervene. the state department, perhaps, try to speed up this process. we'll continue to follow this story. justine redman for us following this closely. thanks so much. well, there are new developments this morning in the federal investigation of former senator and presidential candidate john edwards. a new round of subpoenas have gone out at issue is whether edwards used campaign funds to cover up his affair with rielle

hunter. head wards admitted earlier this year that he is the father of rielle's child. do we have any idea who the subpoenas are targeted towards? >> we do, the subpoenas, according to my sources which i talked to last night, they're casting a very wide net. much wider than they did a year ago. they're talking about people who were schedulers, staffers, small-time staffers, including very, very big people involved with the campaign. >> what has been admitted so far by the edwards camp about what may or may not have happened. >> well, i think, first of all, we don't know what is true that comes from the edwards campaign. we already know that. the issue at hand are payments out of a committee. every candidates has a pac. but it was believed that it was given to rielle but then there

was an april payment in 207 for $14,000 that went to her and it was believed was hush money but reported as a furniture purchase that and would would be a violation of campaign finances. that's why the allegations are out. >> we know in andrew hunter's book, she was put up in a house, so could this go well beyond this $14,000 that was paid out to her? >> absolutely. the money trail is far and wide. from new york, to fred melon who passed away. there are players dead and alive. people like to say baseball is america's favorite pastime. and it's politics. this has proven worthy of an andrew sorkin movie. which is know is going to happen. >> for john edwards, what's the worst case sin they're joe? >> the worst case scenario, at the end of the day, john edwards

say lawyer. >> and wade smith said we didn't do anything, pleading innocence. great to sigh this morning. thanks. coming soon to a verizon wireless customer near you, if it's you, no, they're getting the iphone. that's right, "the wall street journal" reporting that apple is making a version of its iphone for the verizon network. and they say it will be available in the first quarter of 2011. the new smart phone will resemble the iphone 4 which is currently sold by at&t which of course until now had a lock on the product. >> jim acosta is getting his interview with christine o'donnell, too. and roy halladay's postseason debut not just memorable, it was historic. pitching a no-hitter. it's only happened once before. it was back in 1956 when the yankees dan larson pitched a perfect against in the world series against the brooklyn dodgers. >> a lot of people have that poster up in their house still

including our own rob marciano who what, you were 5 when it happened? >> '56 -- no, i think i was 15. >> well preserved. >> my grandfather owned a bar and he had that picture. i think he won it in some sort of barter or bet. anyway, it's framed in my house. i've met don larson, he's a large man, i'll tell you that. no doubt, he can pitch a perfect game. it was nearlile perfect weather for that game and nearly perfect for tonight as well but not so perfect in flagstaff and to the west. the ireport coming to us from the rough weather that rolled through arizona yesterday. yeah, flipped cars. about 200 homes damaged. we had freight trains run off the track and trailers and rvs rolled over as well. at least four tornadoes touching down in and around the flagstaff area, during the morning hours yesterday. all right. well, that storm is beginning to weaken, thankfully. and lift up to the north. and we're looking at rainfall in

some spots across the northeast today. that stubborn storm system will eventually get out of there this weekend. that will bring you a nice weekend. today, a little more unsettled weather expected. john and kiran. >> that's okay. as long as it's good for the weekend. thanks. christine o'donnell hasn't appeared much in public since winning the primary three weeks ago. now the tea party darling may be reinventing her. our jim acosta tracked herd down. she was in a public appearance last night. did she talk to him? and an independent commission slamming the obama administration for its participation in the gulf. [ female announcer ] introducing splenda®

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16 minutes past the hour. she was a shooting star just three weeks ago. she had a stunning win in delaware's republican senate primary, but since then, we

haven't seen much of christine o'donnell since the infamous witch tape where she claim she is dabbled in witchcraft during an appearance on the bill maher show back in the '90s. >> that could all be changing with the underground campaign with less than a month to go. the darling of tea party may be real remerging with the image maker. jim accoosta caught up with her and got a pledge from her last night, jim, what's that all about? >> reporter: well, we'll have to see how it all works out, john. you say tracking the candidate. i say chasing the candidate. that's sort of how it went down last night. but she did say, at the end of the evening she would like to sit down with cnn and talk about the issues in the campaign. so we'll have to see about that. but as you just mentioned for reasons most americans know right now, christine o'donnell has not made very public appearances since she won that primary three weeks ago. she doesn't do many interviews

with the national news media. she may be changing that. she's starting to do more public events, get out there and talk to delaware voters. it's all part of an effort, it appears, for christine o'donnell to remake her image. >> any chance we get a couple questions, miss o'donnell? >> reporter: with that, christine o'donnell blew past our camera. the event was staged in this shopping center, oddly enough just two doors down from the halloween costume shop. it starts off with a softball, but ended up being a curveball. >> where did you growup. >> i'm confused about the format. >> okay. >> i thought i was going to share some remarks and take audience questions? are we not doing that? >> no, we're not doing that. >> okay. >> reporter: but the evening did get into specifics, and o'donnell repeated her vow to make the bush tax cuts permanent. >> make sure at that taxes, the tax increases that are coming in january do not happen.

>> i'm not a witch. i'm nothing you've heard. i'm you. >> reporter: o'donnell whose past statements about dabbling in witchcraft have come back to hau haunt her is in damage control mode. her events are tightly controlled. any chance you could answer any questions from the press for a few moments? and her democrat opponent chris coons says he's taking nothing for granted. do you take her seriously. >> i do take her seriously. she's raised $2.8 million over the internet in the last three weeks. >> reporter: a university of delaware poll shows coons with a lead. still the professor who conducted the poll said she can turn around. >> there are a lot of undecided voters. >> reporter: told us she's stick wig o'donnell despite her

missteps. hasn't changed your mind at all? >> not at all. if anything, i support her more. >> reporter: o'donnell can complained of being under siege. >> i've put my name on the line. and i've taken a lot of hits, a lot of slander and a lot of character assassination. >> reporter: then she left out the back door where she promise shed would give an interview soon. >> call dave and we'll set something up. >> promise? >> yes, yes. >> reporter: you heard her right there, she promised. i just have to call dave. i have his number. he's the press secretary for the campaign. and she said she would talk to us. i should mention we're standing in front of a gun range. her campaign manager said she'll be out here today. we don't know if she'll fire any weapons but she is picking up the endorsement of a local gun rights group. that's one of the core constituencies if she hopes to win this campaign. she's going to need all of those conservative republicans to show up as they did in the primary. >> standing in front of a gun

range. careful, jim. >> i will. i got my flap jacket. >> last time a trench time now a flap jacket. next wednesday, october 13th, christine o'donnell will be taking the stage for a 90-minute debate with democrat chris coons and cnn anchor wolf blitzer is moderating the debate. i hope you'll join us for that. we'll take a quick break. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 what if every atm was free?

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♪ get started let's get it started let's get it started hot let's get it started in here ♪ and what a start it was, almost 54 years to the day since don larson pitched his perfect game in the world series, phillies pitcher roy halladay has joined that exclusive club. he threw a no-hitter against the

reds in game one of the series. >> that's right, halladay's historic performance game, believe it or not, in the postseason debut. first time he made his appearance in the postseason. cnn's contributor, max kellerman, our sports guy joins us now. my husband's a huge philly fan but he said it's on the back page. >> he'd been begging to be traded either for toronto where he was to really beef up their team and to start to spend money with the red sox and yankees which many believe they're incapable of or at least trade him to a place where he could possibly make a postseason because he had more games pitched than any pitcher in baseball, currently, any active pitcher who hadn't been to a postseason. and he's just the type of guy that people always assumed he's going to be great under pressure, but you just never know. you figure you give him seven good innings. he threw a no-hitter.

unbelievable. >> talk about expectations. even the highest expectations. so what do you think makes him so good in the national league? >> well, he's used to pitching in the american league east which is the toughest division in baseball. the highest paid. tampa has the smaller payroll, but they're an excellent team now. now, he's pitching against much weaker opposition in the national league. but just technically, he has a great fast ball. great sinking command. he not only pitches a great breaking ball but great speeds. they're calling it doctober now. his name is dock halladay, like doc holliday. it's a different era in baseball right now. than when you saw the slugfest, the home run derbies. >> part of that, not only did

pitchers have to adapt to pitching to the monsters, and now the monsters aren't as prevalent as they were. but teams started investing in proprietary defense metrics. the big market teams had a lot of offense. the smaller market teams said we need to find a way to counteract this and spend time investing in resources. not only is the hitting going down but the defense has gotten better. and in the year of the pitcher, it's halladay's lead. i mean, halladay is the pitcher in the year of the pitcher. threw a perfect game in the regular season. came one pitch away from a perfect game in the postseason. >> and we should point out, too, while it is a lot about the pitcher, the rest of the team deserves credit, particularly the catcher. >> carlos ruiz, roy halladay gave him credit after the game. ruiz had a big season last year when he played the yankees.

he's an excellent defensive player. halladay comes to the team with two no-hitters with carlos ruiz. >> it was fun to watch last night. >> the boys of doc tober. >> already sick of it. 27 minutes after the hour. we'll be back after this quick break. it's time we took familiarity back. and that's exactly what we've done with this car. >>i dare you to look at this car and find something that stands out. it simply can't be done.

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half past the hour. time for this morning's stop tors. mexican police promising the united states that they will

intensify their search for american david hartley. but still no word from them when. last night, they called off efforts for fear of being ambushed after receiving threats about the search. hartley was said to be jetskiing along falcon lake on the mexican border last week when his wife said pirates pulled up in boats and shot him in the head. both he and the jet ski are missing. well, an update on the story in chile. they're trying to rescue the trapped miners. they hope to reach them this weekend. they say the planned drill is within striking distance. they're onsite and preparing to bring the men up to the surface. and a major milestone for california's popular condors. the population of the free-flying birds has reached 100 for the first time in a century. it's the result of a recovery effort by the u.s. fish and wild live service. today there are 381 california

c condors in the world in captivity and in the wild. when it came time to estimating the size of the spill in the gulf, the white house vastly underestimated it. that was the result of a commission since june. that was a commission appointed by the president himself. ed henry is live at the white house this morning. we remember the white house saying 5,000 barrels a day spilling into the gulf. at the end of the day, it ended up being 20 times higher. at the end of the day, is it stimulation or deception? >> well, it's a blistering report as you said by the president's own commission. they have some credibility here, as you say on the flow rate, for example that the white house just relied too much on bp's flawed numbers. that they were overly optimistic as well, about how much oil was near the gulf, near the end of this crisis, they were overly

optimistic. and that they held key information. and the report goes two weeks after the bp rig first exploded. they claim very government scientists telling the white house they wanted to put out worst case scenarios for the public and it was essentially blocked by the administration. the federal government created the impression it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not fully candid with the american people about the scope of the problem. it is possible that inaccurate flow rate figures may have hindered the subsea efforts to stop and contain the flow of oil at the wellhead. the white house clearly thought this crisis was over. maybe it's not. it's clear at that president's own commission is digging pretty deep into the details here. and the white house may not like the findings, kiran. >> all right, ed henry for us this morning at the white house. thanks so much. well, u.p.s. is spreading some preholiday cheer. the company says it plans to hire 50,000 seasonal employees this holiday season. they need driver helpers, package sorters and other

workers to handle an unexpected spike in business. the hiring process is scheduled to begin this month. how hot is the cast of "glee"? they just knock off the beatles among nonsolo acts. the "glee" casts the top 75 top singles that compared to 71 by the fab four. and first it was vinyl lps, but could cassettes be making a comeback. no one is expecting the cassettes to regain the music ground that it lost years ago. my question is, when i heard this is is why? >> i remember one of the best christmases ever was getting that boom box knowing you could play your cassettes but now -- >> it was cutting-edge technology. but now when you can put 200 songs on something the size of a postage stamp, that's it. what was your favorite? >> we were talking about this in

the newsroom today. all right. my favorite was dr. feel good by motley crew. >> hair band? >> yeah. i mean, when you're in the car, blasting that thing, absolutely. >> my favorite was pink floyd's "the wall." >> that was a good one, too. >> it was. i had a high-quality cassette machine and good stereo in the car you could crank that. that obsess where the drums come in, you know, that always sounded great in the car. >> one of the songs, i think it was "dr. feel good," the sound of an ambulance coming by. loud songs on the road. and my parents thought it was an ambulance and always pulled over to the side of the road. they hated this song. >> 35 minutes after the hour. that's logistics ♪ ♪ when the parts for the line ♪ ♪ come precisely on time

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corporal carter. his daughter is arguing before the supreme court. >> when you have a public funeral and you broadcast to the nation that that dead soldier say hero and that god is blessing america, we will be there and tell you god is cursing america. it is a curse for your young men and women to be coming home in body bags. and if you want that to stop, stop sending. >> albert snyder is the man at the center of it. he's matthew snyder's father. al, thanks for joining us. i want to talk about the supreme court because you were there yet. first of all, tell us a little bit about your son, lance corporal matthew snyder? >> matt was a good kid. he was 20 when he was killed over in iraq. he was the middle of three children. matt always had just a great personality.

i tell most people that if he wouldn't have gone into the marine corps, he may have been a stand-up comic. he was a very loyal person to his friends and family. and he just really loved his family. >> i mean, i can't imagine the extent of the loss. and then on top of it, to have the funeral protested by members of the wellsboro baptist church, how did that impact you and the family? >> well, basically, john, the best way to describe it is being kicked in the face when you're laying on the ground. it -- it hurts very badly. i talked to many marines and soldiers' parents that have gone through the same thing i and they tell me, it's bad enough when you get that knock on the door, but then an hour later, to think, oh, my god, are these whack jobs going to show up and ruin the funeral. >> and protesters did show up at

the funeral. >> yes. >> so take us into the supreme court. what's your sense of the arguments that you heard? many people who were there believe that it looks like the justices sort of would like to help you out, but their hands may be tied by the first amendment? >> well, i don't think their hands are tied by the first amendment because there's no such thing as absolute free speech. as far as in the courtroom, you know, the big thing that they went over was pride of a public figure. well, there's no way i was a public figure at the time. when the phelps get up there and talk and says i gave all of these interviews before they did this to me and i talked about the war. and i called and talked to john murtha, well, they're all wrong. i gave a couple interviews to my local paper. and i called john murtha to see if he could find out for me what happened in that vehicle

accident. i didn't call him to protest the war or anything else. and one of the articles they may have asked me, you know, what i thought about the war. and i said, i thought it was senseless. but, you knower every parent that loses a child, somebody from that family gives a statement because your local papers want to know. >> sure. absolutely. >> if they're going to count that as being a public figure, it's not going to be bought by the u.s. supreme court, i don't think. >> what are the issues being talked about the witnesses watching the hearings yesterday or hearing about them, the idea of equal application of the first amendment. for example, done want employee testers there. but if there had been a group there demonstrating in support of the military, would they have been welcome? >> yes. this was for friends and family. and it's a time for people to be remembered and honored for what they did.

that's what the tradition of funerals is about. i mean, for them -- the thing that just strikes me absolutely amazing is they're saying there are two groups of protesters there besides them. the one group was the patriot guard which came because of them. >> yeah. >> and the other group that was there was the parochial school children lining the driveway with american flags saying we love you. >> the argument is that the first amendment has to be applied equally. and if you didn't want the protesters against the military there, then the other people who are demonstrating in favor of the military shouldn't have been there either. but ruth bader ginsburg articulated the difficult points of law here. she said that the protesters weren't breaking any laws even under the current maryland funeral picketing statute that was passed. but she said, why should the first amendment tolerate exploiting this bereeved family

when you have so many other forums for getting across your message? i think the real crux of the sargent here was, what they did might have been terribly offensive, but was it illegal? >> it might not have been illegal, but it did cause emotional stress and emotional damage. and, you know, you have to look at this as tort law, too. there's a lot involved in this, just other than free speech. you know, it gets me so much, john, when i hear these people say, well, this is what your son died for. you know, you didn't know my sons, so don't tell me what he died for, first of all. but no soldier or veteran goes into the military and takes an oath that it's okay to target an innocent family and harass them. and it wasn't just about them showing up at the funeral. it was about what they did before and after the funeral. two days before that funeral, they sent out notices to press and emerge -- you know, the

authorities. this notice had matt's picture on it. it has a military coffin. underneath it, it's burial of an ass. then it went on to say we'll be protesting at st. john's catholic dog kennel. >> wow. >> i knew they were go to come there. they stood 30 feet from the main vehicle entrance of the church, and what the vehicle procession had to be rerouted, we still came within 300 feet of the church. >> well, this is a very important case regarding free speech. we're definitely watching this very closely. we're not expecting a decision for months, though. >> just remember, john, the slippery slope can go either way. >> al snyder, thanks so much for being with us this morning. and we do appreciate your loss and i just can't imagine what it would be like as a family to go through something like that. thanks for joining us this morning. >> thank you, john. well, still to come, a rare look this morning, inside the sarah palin political machine.

coming up, angry e-mails to alaska senate candidate joe miller after she gave him the endorsement and a possible hint about palin's own presidential ambitions. also, the rain is lingering in the northeast this morning. rob marciano is along with this morning's travel forecast right after the break. it's 46 minutes past the hour. . [ scoffs ] forget about it. but i love this card. bankamericard cash rewards credit card. 1% cash back on everything i buy. period. no limit to the amount of cash back i can get. no hoops to jump through. simple. [ male announcer ] the refreshingly simple bankamericard cash rewards credit card. apply online or at a bank of america near you.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. we had some tornado it's across arizona yesterday. four of them crazy stuff.

sunshine across the midsection of the compun across the country. actually, there's a lot of spots with sunshine. this stubborn low will go away. just in time for the weekend. unsettled weather from new york to boston. a couple showers. not too big of a deal. right now, the rain is little b you in nassau and suffolk county. these are record lows. alabama, 37. asheville, north carolina, higher up. almost the freezing mark. daytime highs today 70s in the nation and including new york and chicago and 68 degrees, kind of cool in l.a. how are those flat rate boxes working out?

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welcome back to the most politics in the morning. 54 minutes past the hour right now. crossing the political ticker this morning, todd palin down playing the e-mail sent to joe miller. >> our senior political editor mark preston live at the cnn politics.com desk with more for us this morning. when's this all about? >> hey there. todd palin being a protective husband or plotting her presidential bid? well, let's just set up the whole story. todd palin sent off a sharp and nasty e-mail to miller that knocked off the incumbent senator lisa murkowski in the republican primary. he was on fox news krecenkrrece asked if sarah palin was qualified to be president. he didn't give the strongest of answer. todd palin fired off an e-mail to mr. miller. let me read a little bit from the e-mail.

quote, sarah put her blank on the line for the for joe and yet he can't answer a simple question. is sarah palin qualified to be president? is that someone being a protective husband or plotting a presidential bid? a blog up in alaska picked it up. first to publish it. todd palin said, actually, i'm a little sorry. i think we got the wires crossed and sent this statement to a conservative magazine here in washington, d.c. quote, my family has worked hard in supporting joe miller and when i heard he said something less than supportive of my wife's efforts i responded but joe didn't say anything like what i've been told. miller was on fox again yesterday saying some kind words of sarah palin. said she elevated the debate and done some phenomenal things for the country. asked again if she was qualified to be president, he said, constitutionally qualified. not the ringing endorsement.

michael steele-barack obama. will they have a beer summit? a story up on cnnpolitics.com talking about that subject. in fact, michael steele told me that he'd like to sit down with him just to talk about things other than politics. he said he has a standing request to the president. the president hasn't taken him up on the offer. >> if people wonder of the expleti expletive, it rhymes with because. >> something i don't think i could say on air. >> a lot of places that do say that these days but go back over the todd palin thing again. joe miller says something. todd palin fires off a nasty note to him. and then comes back and says, no, no. he didn't say that at all and miller says pretty much the same thing todd thought he said in the first place? >> that. miller is only thing that any candidate would do, not taking

sides. he needs the help going into election day. having said that, the palins are credited with helping elevate the candidacy and knock awfully is a murkowski. >> constitutional qualified? that's from the faint phrase club, i think. >> should have said yes after all of that drama. >> an move on. no question. >> i mean, i called him todd. mark, thank you. >> thanks. >> mark preston for us this morning. top stories after a quick break. we have three minutes to the top of the hour. oducing splenda® no calorie sweetener granulated with fiber. sweet! [ female announcer ] tastes like sugar and has 3 grams of fiber per tablespoon. use it almost anywhere you use sugar. even in cooking and baking. sweet! [ female announcer ] splenda® granulated with fiber. the most comfortable line of furniture in existence. it's a motion line of furniture that conforms to your body and supports your head, neck, and back seamlessly in any position, leaving your entire body feeling rested and rejuvenated.

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good morning. thanks so much for being with us on this thursday. the 7th of october. i'm john roberts. >> i'm kiran chetry. overnight, we have new developments this morning from afghanistan as we enter now the tenth year of the war this morning. president karzai says he is reaching out trying to broker peace with the taliban. but is the taliban on board? we're live at the white house with reaction. the white house getting slammed for its handling of the oil spill in the gulf of mexico. an independent commission finding the obama administration vastly underestimated the size

of the spill or tried to deceive the public about it. what's most intriguing is this is the commission that was struck by the white house. ed henry live from the big house with the administration's response this morning. a federal government considering tough new regulations for more than 500-coal powered plants across the country. they're spewing coal ash into the environment. people insist they're being poisoned living nearby. >> they're killing nature, trees, wildlife and making human beings sick. >> people are sick and people are dying. >> however, technically, there's been no study to confirm that so carol costello visited a pennsylvania town where residents say they pulled a fast one on them. up first this morning, major developments in afghanistan to tell you about on the day that we ent iner into the tenth year war there. president karzai said he has a

peace counsel to negotiate with the taliban. >> a taliban spokesman told cnn they're not interested in peace talks. chris lawrence is live for us this morning at the pentagon an almost comes full circle thinking about it. ten years now. we went to war to overthrow the taliban because they supported al qaeda. and now, ten years later, we are talking about perhaps peace talks with them. >> reporter: that's right. you know, defense official told me you have to take a grain of salt what anyone says publicly. a lot of times groups have to posture publicly to pacify their base and talks can be very different held behind closed doors. i spoke with a senior defense official who said that the peace counsel and what he confirmed is high-level talks with high-level taliban leaders and said there's inherent value in having the talks and he doesn't think that the u.s. military campaign is far enough along to yield any sort of substantial results

right now. he told me, we don't think that the taliban is losing to the degree that they'd come to terms in large numbers an without question they're hurting an we have it on good information that they're feeling the pressure. he says, just not enough. he also said, you know, they really back the idea of any of these negotiations being afghan-led but he said that's got to come from a position of strength and it's debatable whether we are there yet. hamid karzai pushing ahead with this. take a look at how he referred to the taliban in his latest address. >> translator: the opposition are our taliban brothers, every son of this land and every youth, whether he is inside or outside of this country wishes to serve this country. i call on them once again to use this opportunity and to say yes to this endeavor. i want them to come and bring peace to this land.

>> reporter: again, you know, this is a group that has killed afghan civilians. launched attacks on afghan security forces. karzai referencing them as brothers. i did some checking. not the first time he used that reference. back in june, at the peace counsel that sort of kicked off this whole initiative, he again referenced them as brothers. and invited them back into the fold. john, kiran? >> latest story, "wall street journal" reporting that pakistan spy agency isi saying to strike coalition troops and long been ties between the isi and taliban. aren't they supposed to be on our side, the isi? >> reporter: there are a lot of factions in afghanistan and admiral mike mullen has been somewhat outspoken and critical of the isi and some of their moves, urging them to sort of shift their strategic focus.

again, there was a difference between, say, the intelligence arm of the pakistani government and the isi and some of the elements within it and the pakistani government, the generals an the officials with whom u.s. officials and u.s. military officials have very close ties. so again, this group you mentioned, they helped bring the taliban to power. they broke with them after the september 11th attacks. but obviously, u.s. officials have said there are elements within pakistan that want to make sure that pakistan has a place at the table. end la has also -- has interest there in pakistan. pakistan has interest there and more players on the table than just the united states. >> chris lawrence at the pentagon this morning, thanks. the white house vastly underestimated the summer's oil spill in the gulf or tried to deceive the public about it. that report from an independent commission that's been investigating this disaster since june. also, says that the

administration down played the size of the oil spill. >> it goes on to say that the government tried to block information from scientists who were using bether methodologies and slow to react right from the start. ed henry live from the white house this morning and be careful what you wish for because the white house asked for this investigation. >> reporter: you're right, john. the president appointed the commissioners. this is not a partisan attack and what they're alleging in this series of really blistering reports is that they believe the white house was overly optimistic throughout this crisis about how much oil was in the gulf and specifically charging that they may have kid key information from the public. for example, two weeks after the bp oil rig first exploded, they're now saying in these reports that basically government scientists wanted to go public with some worst-case scenarios for the public and that the obama administration essentially blocked that. this report saying, quote, the

federal government created the impression it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not candid about the cope of the problem. it is possible that inaccurate flow-rate figures may have hindered the sub sea efforts to stop and contain the flow of the oil at the wellhead. the white house has a whole different view here, they insist they didn't hide anything and we should point out preliminary reports, sort of just drafts. not the final report and it could change. but just the fact that all of this is out there it is a big, big political problem for the white house. >> how are they responding to the commission's assessment this morning? >> reporter: they're saying, for example, with the question of why government scientists not allowed to go without with the worst-case scenarios to the public, the administration saying, look, they believe those worst-case scenarios were flawed, not fully cooked if you will and wanted more analysis before going public with them and go on to say the administration and official

statement, quote, senior government officials clear with the public what the worst-case flow-rate could be. it was based on science. and the response pushed bp every step of the way. significant. you see they mention bp several times there. this white house wants to really make sure the finger of blame pointed at bp, not them, john, kiran. >> to the point they may have blocked experts with new technology or better technology of assessing the flowrate, that's something environmental groups and scientific groups talking about from the outset of the spill. >> reporter: absolutely. the administration, though, getting cover from congressman ed mar i can. he been on the program before. insisting the mistakes bp's fault and it was not the government's. we'll see, obviously, what the final report says. this is sort of the umpire here

created by president obama himself in the form of this commission. what they have to say in the end is going to carry a lot of weight. >> ed henry at the white house this morning, thanks. also this morning, right now a wave of red toxic sludge swallowing villages in hungary. officials say it's reached the danube river. hungary declared a state of emergency. news reports say four people dead, six missing. more than 100 people hospitalized for chemical burns coming in contact with the red sludge. >> just looking ate, horrifying. this morning, federal grand jury expanding the investigation into john edwards, a slew of new subpoenas issued. the panel's looking into whether funds that edwards' 2008 presidential campaign paid for a cover-up of his affair and his attorney said that he is innocent and welcome government

scrutiny. new jersey frank lautenberg is asking for anti-bullying rules following the suicide of fresh man tyler clementi. lautenberg wants to require colleges and universities that receive federal student aid to accept codes of conduct that prohibit bullying and harassment of students. this kegger is really going to cost them. three students at the university of wisconsin-madison fined a total of $86,000 after police came to bust up the house party. two of them underage. the other one was 21. police say they shut off the lights and refused to come out and agitated the police more and, of course, they had a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything that happened. >> we were trying -- probably 20, 30 of her friends over and just kept coming and coming, and word of mouth, i guess. and just got out of hand. >> well, the number vary on how many people were at the bash. the cops say 200 to 300 people. roommates saying no, no.

maybe 110 at the most. >> a kegger that got out of hand. never heard of that before. never heard of such a thing. >> paying the $86,000. >> i think they'll appeal. roy hall day's first-ever post season start was historic. it's only happened once before. 54 years ago when yankee pitcher larson toss add perfect game in the world series. hall day allowing one walk in the fifth inning. >> it's surreal. i mean, it really is. you know, i just wanted to pitch here, pitch in the post season and, you know, to be able to go out and have a game like that, you know, it's a dream come true. >> didn't get the perfect game last night but pitched a perfect game in the regular season back in may. >> there you go. rob marciano in the extreme weather wenter th center this m. you are a nice yankee fan. some are saying it was a first,

you know, it was a division playoff game. no big deal. the yankees did it in the world series. >> can't compete against the era of the yankees gone by. this era's pretty good and the phillies pretty tough. i'm sure overall, probably had a kegger at his place last night. we have showers, a few thunderstorms across the west today but nothing like yesterday. check out the video from arizona. four tornadoes touching down. all in the span of about four or five hours. unbelievable. belmont, just west of flagstaff, about 200 homes damaged. training derailed. six injuries. none of them deemed serious. so that's the good news but the pictures are certainly scary. the storm that produced that is weakening and moving slowly. we have a storm in the northeast refusing to go away and does that tonight but until then, unsettled weather new york to boston. the weekend looks to be not too

shabby. sunshine and relatively warm temperatures are expected across much of the country. john and kiran, back up to you. >> liking that. thanks. oprah still has staying power. she landed the number three spot on the only "forbes" list. lady gaga moved into the top ten coming in at number seven. >> beyonce snagged the number nine spot. ellen degeneres rounded out the top ten and number one spot, first lady michelle obama ranked number 40 last year. so she's really climbed up. most improved player. >> there you go. forget hillary clinton as vice president. does she want the white house for herself in 2016? cnn's senior political analyst ed rollin and contributor donna brazill get right to the point. they join us next.

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! 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. safely connecting you in ways you never thought possible. onstar. live on. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2.

we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the world's energy demands. welcome back to the most politics in the morning. the political ambitions of secretary of state hillary clinton creating quite a buzz on capitol hill this morning. not necessarily the v.p. talk on the 2012 ticket we heard about yesterday but whether or not she's interested in a white house run for herself in 2016.

joining us to talk about that and other hot topics this morning, senior political analyst ed rollins and cnn political contributor donna brazill. james carville said once you run for president you always want to be president and she has followers, campaign workers shut out of the obama white house and very eager when the talk of replacing biden on the ticket came up over the weekend. do you think that hillary clinton would potentially make a go of it in 2016? >> i don't know. secretary clinton is quite happy with the job she is doing. she is doing an amazing job as secretary of state but 2016 is a long time away. but what we do know is that secretary clinton has a long following in this country. she has a strong -- she had a strong organization leaving the campaign trail in 2008. many supporters are committed to her. they voted for president obama so i assume that they would like

to see the president continue to do the great job he is doing but come 2016, the party will be open and if secretary clinton would like to throw the hat in the ring or the gloves in the ring, i'm sure she will be one of the front-runners. >> what is your take? >> my -- >> do they plan that far enough ahead? >> sure they do. joe biden is not a viable candidate for president. may get to stay at vice president but there's no way he's shown great appeal to voters across the country. hillary has a tremendous base, she begins with a political operation as good as any and basically steps in as the obvious front-runner. >> we said that in 2008, as well. and that didn't workout. >> giuliani -- maybe you thought that. i was mike huckabee's chairman and did everything i could to stop giuliani. long ways to go. we have an election in four weeks and what we're really focused on. >> the interesting article today

in "the new york times" that caught my attention, donna, talking about democrats if they lose this year, the third consecutive time that the president's party lost in the midterms. clinton and bush, as well. they say it's a sequence that's never happened before in the history of the united states politics and pointing to the independent voter who is really above everything else, circumstances, economic circumstances, ideology, really anti-incumbent. >> they fundamentally want change. i believe that the most important thing that they're looking for is two major parties to sit down, work out the differences and to try to get our common problems fixed without resorting to bickering and demonizing each other. these voters are very important and why in the closing days of this season, democrats are reaching out reminding independents that we -- we took up the challenge to try to get the economy off the cliff and to bring jobs back. we haven't created as many jobs

as we need and clearly not losing as many as we inherited in 2009. >> independents are the key. by 13 or 14 points, favoring republicans. >> what do you do as a -- you know, as a campaign to get people to vote for you if it's not necessarily issues based? >> it is not about partisan. with joe biden out there talking about strangling republicans and obama basically beating up his own base for not voting, turns voters -- independent voters off. nothing changing the dynamics for two months about independents. more and more supporting republicans. that will be the balance of power. >> right now, right now, republicans a republicans are filling in an empty blank. we are not in power but independents like to see us return to economic growth and want to ensure that the health care bill that will provide children with preexisting

condition coverage. they want to see the changes that many of the democrats have proposed but you know what? right now they're in a foul mood and not willing to take any chances with i think the tea party so i still believe, ed, in the closing days of the campaign we'll get the independents back. >> the key test for you, obviously, to get the democrats to turn out. you have to energize your base and that's the task ahead of you. right now, our base and the independents many of them tea party ren thuzed about this election. >> that's why i got up this morning early, ed. >> love you. >> i know you start early. i'll work the bus stop when i finish, ed. >> ed will leave at 11:00 p.m. and as long as we have coffee more him. >> the bar before shop, ed. >> i'm the best i'll look all day. >> you both look great. thank you for joining us. donna, ed, thank you very much. >> donna's cooking with grease already this morning. going to be the largest

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already? really? >> little early for that. >> first week of october. >> you don't have to go shopping yet but how you can get the money to go shopping because 24 minutes after the hour, time for minding your business. u.p.s. planning to hire a record 50,000 seasonal employees this holiday season. yes, there will be a lot of cheer to go around, looking for driver helpers, sofrters and other workers. elves. to handle an expected spike in business in the peak season. >> well -- >> didn't even flinch when i said elves. >> no. how many toys can santa himself

build? come on. passenger complaints about airline service on the rise according to the department of transportation consumers filed for than 8,700 complains up 22% from last year. why all the griping? the agency says it's easier to file complaints online. many passengers say there's another reason, when things go wrong, they're left with little or no information saying they're stranding for days. coming soon to verizon wireless customers, here it is, folks. very own iphone. "the wall street journal" reports that apple is making a version of its iphone that will be available for verizon customers first quarter of next year and resemble the iphone 4 that's currently sold by at&t and will have its own name. they had a lock on apple products until now and things will change. for the tenth straight year silver is the most popular car color in the world. black and white tied for second.

red third. followed by blue and then natural colors like browns and tans came in fifth. all right. we asked you before the break who was knocking off the beatles from the top 100 list? glee's musical juggernaut keeps rolling on. knocked off the beatles for the most hot 100 among non-solo acts and 6 new songs this week. six. 75 top 100 singles compared to 71 by the fab four. well, every day is halloween in lay did ga-lady gaga's world. dressing up like her will be the hottest things. they expect to sell 1 million of these. i saw that in the hollow wean shop in the neighborhood. >> pretty tame? >> i guess if you want to go out in a blue unitard, sure. she is the single most popular

outfit for adults in six decades. don't worry. if it runs out, you can go to the butcher. get yourself a meat dress. the epa considering cracking down on the coal burning plants across the country. neighbors suspect toxic elements leaked into the ground water because of this, an enormous holding pond. carol costello takes a tour of a pennsylvania town and investigates those claims, coming right up. ♪ ♪ another day ♪ another dollar ♪ daylight comes ♪ i'm on my way [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ another day ♪ another dollar ♪ working my whole life away [ dogs barking ] ♪ the boss told me ♪ i'd get paid weakly ♪ and that's exactly

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conflict today. president karzai says he's appointed a peace counsel to the talk to the taliban but this morning a taliban spokesman told cnn the group is not interested in peace talks. the white house hammered for the handling of the oil spill in the gulf of mexico and independent commission hand picked by the president finding the obama administration vastly underestimated the size of the spill or tried to deceive the public about it. ed henry live from the white house this morning with the administration's response. milestone in the recovery of california's endangered condors. 100 are flying free across the state, the largest number in the last half century. u.s. fish and wildlife service plans to release a half dozen more over the next couple of months. current world population is at 381. more than 500 coal-fired power plants spewing potentially dangerous toxins into the environment every day and the government is considering

regulated coal ash. >> many neighborhoods where the plants operate people insist that the air and water is poisoned. carol costello visited a place in pennsylvania. jo tell us. >> people are concerned about their health and getting cancer and other dreadful diseases. there's a place in pennsylvania called little blue run. it sounds so innocuous. the environmental protection agency is listening. >> boy, you cut about as well as i do. >> reporter: marcy hughes lived in western pennsylvania her whole life. it's gorgeous here. rolling hills. lush farm hill and little blue run. something proposed by pennsylvania power back in the '70s. what did they tell you in 1975? >> basically, they said they were going to have it where, you know, you could swim, you could picnic. they even showed a sailboat. >> reporter: hughes said the utility company told neighbors

to dump coal ash, the waste from burning coal to make electricity into a valley. and then fill the valley with water and it did. but sailboats? no. we thought you should see why for yourself. so when an environmental offered us a ride, we took it. we are on the way to little blue run right now. it is about eight minutes away to demonstrate how big this thing is. it's nearly 1,000 acres and in some places it's 400 feet deep. tons of coal ash and other waste is piped in every year. it comes from the first energy corporation, the you fillty company that now owns little blue. the epa says coal ash contains potential cancer-causing agents like arsenic, cadmium and lead. >> they're killing nature, trees, wildlife and making human beings sick. >> people are sick and people

are dying. >> reporter: the environmental protection agency is holding hearings on coal ash impoundments like little blue. after the disastrous spill in tennessee two years ago, the agency is considering whether to tuchb regulations and qualify coal ash as hazardous. it is considered ordinary garbage. for hughes' daughter, tracy that's unbelieve. tracy suffered three types of cancer. the first at 18. the last seven years ago. she and her mother suspect little blue is to blame. >> i know that they want to expand again. so when you hear about expansion, what goes through your mind? >> putting my house on the market. uprooting my family. listening to my cardiologist who basically the first time we visited him looked at my mom and i in the exam room after the exam was over and asked, why do you still live there? >> why are you drinking the water.

>> reporter: the fear is toxins from little blue are seeping into the ground water. and possibly into neighbor's well water. barbara reed fears that, too. her son's fixer upper less than a mile from little blue. first energy tested reed's well in 2009 and the results show reed's well weather contained dangerous levels of arsenic. when you see this, what goes through your mind? >> fear. we have drank that water. we weren't told it was bad. >> reporter: there's no proof arsenic came from little blue. tests showed no arsenic but once was enough for reed's son. the fixer upper is abandoned. >> we believe it's completely safe. we have not identified any well, drinking water well, that we have a contaminated or contributed to. >> reporter: first energy is right. there's no scientific test that shows anyone is getting sick from little blue. why do you think they're standing up and saying these things then? >> i can't answer that.

i think they've gotten some information that is not closely core lated scientifically supported. >> reporter: the pennsylvania department of environmental protection says its own tests show nothing harmful is leaking from the retention pond but some neighbors are unconvinced. >> this is going to sound surreal and maybe too hollywood-ish but i'd like to invite them to dinner, turn on my tap and hand them a glass of water from the tap. >> reporter: and see if they would drink? >> see if they would drink the water. >> when i say no scientific test show elevated levels of ararsen, no scientific tests have ever been done but researchers at the university of pittsburgh testing residential wells in the area and of course it will take sometime before we see any results from those tests. somebody's finally doing it, right? >> arsenic in the water? >> arsenic in the retention pond, yes. >> and there's no liner in the

retention pond? >> no liner. that's a big thing for neighbors because if there were a liner underneath all of that stuff, that would prevent it from seeping into the ground. now, if another retention pond is built somewhere or first energy expands, there will be a liner underneath that but it's almost a thousand acres. they can't possibly put a liner under that. do you know how much money? probably drive first energy out of business and not a good thing and we use electricity. we do. first energy produces the electricity here along the coast coast. what do you do with the waste? first energy has that problem. what do you do with it? >> the other interesting thing, though, don't they have to test drinking water in general? i mean, don't municipalities have to make sure it's safe especially in wells? >> well water, it's the responsibility of residents and the epa would say you should test your well water anyway. all sorts of stuff is seeping into the ground.

if you're on city water, that's tested, right? your well water, it is up to you. neighbors that live around the little blue can ask first energy on the pennsylvania department of environment to test their wells for them. and then, of course, you have to send away and wait for the results but, you know, once was enough for mrs. reed. her son moved out. >> amazing. tomorrow, we're going to touch on the environmental impact as you said. everybody wants and needs energy. what is the answer? columnist joe klein took a cross country road trip to gauge the mood of voters and politicians. what has people most concerned? why do they call president obama a political mystery? joe's coming up. your fall weather is about to get just gorgeous according to rob marciano and hurricane season 2010 will not end quietly. otto is now stirring in the atlantic. rob joins us with details. this one card i had -- there were all these rules. rules and restrictions. oh, and limits.

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. here's a look at what's going on for the hurricane season which doesn't want to end. tropical storm otto. subtropical storm. doesn't have complete tropical characteristics and showing that with a full flare-up of thunderstorms around the center. 60-mile-a-hour winds right now. away from the u.s. and likely very close to hurricane strength but more likely a tropical storm heading out to sea. this storm across the northeast, been with you all week. be nice to have it go away for the weekend. looks like it is going to do that. another day of unsettled weather. breezy, cool, at times damp. most of the rain upstate new york and the finger lakes and then through maybe the

catskills. south of there where the cool air is. records set in austin, texas, yesterday. hot springs, arkansas, seeing 40 degrees. 39 inial xa al xania ainialexan. delays in new york maybe, too. salt lake city expected a few showers and thunderstorms but nothing like yesterday. across arizona with four tornadoes touchdown. that low is weakening as it's moving into the inner mountain west and sunshine and relatively warm temperatures are going to be the call i think for a lot of folks this weekend. you are up to date weatherwise. essentials t supplies the nutrients of a balanced breakfast to help build strong muscles and healthy bones. carnation instant breakfast essentials. good nutrition from the start.

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45 minutes after the hour. we are back with the most politics in the morning. with more voters paying attention, "time" columnist joe klein hit the road for september. for the four weeks traveling close to 7,000 miles talking to americans. klein writes about the experience in the upcoming issue of "time" magazine. great to see you this morning. >> good to see you. >> a general sense, what kind of mood is the country in? >> they're frustrated. and they're anxious. it's not -- you don't see the fist shaking anger that we show on, you know, the news all the time here. but, you know, they're an awful

lot of people with mortgages in trouble. i meet with like nine first responders, cops, firefighters, emergency workers in the middle of michigan. eight of the nine had mortgages worth more than the value of their houses. >> underwater. >> they were underwater. and they're really worried that we're slipping down from number one, that china moving ahead of us. people talk about china constantly and about the loss of jobs. and they're not hearing from the president or from the republicans about what they're going to do about the constant shipping away of jobs. >> getting a sense that the american era may be coming an end? >> yeah. you know, i'm doing this for a while and whenever we have an economic downturn, people fear the kids may not live as well as they have and then, you know, there's always a new technology that rushes in. >> oh, yeah. >> there is no new technology that they trust right now. they're really -- they're convinced that the american era

is ending rather than fearful of it. and they're not hearing from washington real plans about, you know, long-term plans about what we do about it. >> you said that the tour, quote, nourishment for the mind and soul. what was the biggest surprise? china? >> yeah. i have been to afghanistan three times, pakistan three times. the middle east countless times. i haven't been to china because all of the action has been directed by what happened on 9/11. >> right. i've been to china a couple of times and the national bird is the construction crane is the joke. >> i spent a month there in 1993 but abandoned it because there's al qaeda out there. i covered the iran elections and people don't mention that. they're not interested in that. they're interested in where their kids are going to work. >> yeah. it's -- anybody's who's got a child in college shares that concern. you say they're frustrated by the national political

conversation as presented by the media. >> right. >> what are we not doing right? >> well, we're not talking about the issues that affect their lives directly enough and often the way that we do it. one person in a meeting i had in uba city started talking about cnn and said why when something happens in afghanistan do we see two american political consultants talking about it? they want to see less of the left versus right sort of stuff and they want to see more smart analysis and reporting. that's what we're here for is to go out and report. >> so rather than having two people in the states talking about afghanistan, go to afghanistan. >> that's right. >> to tell the story. is the nation really in as much of an anti-incumbent mood as we seem to think they are? >> yes. but they're in an anti-circus mood, as well. we present the bread and circuses. if it looks like christine

o'donnell is running for president in america because that's all you see and carl paladino, the guy -- you know, the angry guy running for governor in new york. you don't see any of the really thoughtful or not much of the really thoughtful both democrats and republicans who are coming up with ideas that might help. >> what's the sense of the president? >> there's a segment, maybe a third of them who don't like him at all and who may think he's a secret muslim or a -- a socialist. >> but even people who do like him -- >> people are disappointed. they admire him and think he works hard and tries hard and don't see results. and they -- and they don't see leadership. they don't see him standing out there and saying here's what we have to do now. they see big, vast complicated pieces of legislation. >> do you think that mood

reflected in november? >> yeah. i suspect that this is going to be a pretty good year for republicans. but doesn't take a genius to see that. when you look at it from the bottom up, you see individual races. good democrat here. a good republican there. and it's hard to add it up. >> like they say, all politics is local. well worth reading article. thanks for coming in. kiran? you probably thought about it before but winning the lottery will not make you happy forever. it is the priority that is you set in life. do you have the right priorities? we'll talk about it coming up. >> so, ah, your seat good?

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van halen cassette. bringing back the cassette. >> bring back van halen, too, then. incarnation. don larson some company in record books. hall day throwing a no-hitter last night. >> '56 world series. max kellerman is with us this morning. some of the yankees' fans, no,

no, no. no comparison. final game of the world series. this is a playoff game, first round. >> there's a big difference there. on the other hand, larson's last pitch was probably a ball that the umpire gave him as a strike. in fact, the umpire later admitted it and the only walk for holidalhalliday in the fift inning. he is a big-game pitcher. there's a debate that rages about whether clutch hitting exists. is it just that the best hitters do well or the sample size so small that a bad hitter gets a few hits. this a es no debate that clutch pitching does exist that there are -- you can show threw a variety of some evidence some pitchers rise to the occasion and everyone always thought that halladay was that kind of guy but he never pitched in the post season. we all wanted to see it.

and we have plenty of evidence at this moment at least that he is, in fact, a big-game pitcher. >> you were saying that larson's last pitch was probably a ball that was called as a strike? >> umpire later admitted. >> the last ball, right? >> yeah. >> but the close call with halladay was in the fifth inning. the principle applied to larson's steven j. gould wrote in defense of the call that truth is -- the question was, is truth spot or circumstance? and steven j. gould argued that truth is circumstance and too close of a pitch given the circumstance for the batter to take. in this case, it did occur in the fifth inning and it was probably a ball. but, you know -- >> you don't know he's going to have a perfect game. >> and you could argue the more obvious argument, he doesn't