help the veterans. >> anyone who purchases this ticket, win or lose, is really helping our men and women who have worn the uniform of our country, our veterans. all the proceeds, all the money that people pay for that ticket goes into a veterans assistance trust fund. >> each ticket costs two bucks with the top prize around $20,000. and that is it for me. "cnn newsroom" continues with my "cnn newsroom" continues with my good friend, t.j. holmes. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good to see you, as always. good to see you all. i am t.j. it's 3:00 eastern time. boy, oh, boy, can you imagine. you're supposed to be out on a seven-day tour. it turns into a four-day tour. but you're hoping it could be even shorter than that. dry land never looked so good for the thousands of folks who are aboard this carnival cruise ship.

splendor is the name, but it was anything but. it docked in san diego. these are the pictures you're seeing, just a couple of hours ago. passengers finally starting to get off this thing after enduring three days of just some deplorable, and that's a quote from one of the passengers, deplorable conditions. we're talking about smelly toilets that they couldn't flush for a couple of days. they had long, long lines waiting for hours to get, what? cold spam. pop tarts. they didn't have lights. they didn't have air conditioning. this big cruise liner lost power. this was on monday they lost power after just being out for one day because of an engine fire. it was one day in what was supposed to be a beautiful seven-day cruise to the mexican riviera. that ain't happening. paul vercammen is at the dock in san diego. what is the first thing out of people's mouths when they come talk to you? >> they are so glad to see the port of san diego. a lot of them said they felt they were kept in the dark about

what was going on and were never told that there was a full-fledged engine fire. we're going to talk to two of the youngest guests aboard the ship. this is 8-year-old kaelin and 11-year-old ryan. for you, what was the worst part of it? >> we had no electricity. that was the worst part. >> and that meant walking around in the dark with no elevator and all that, right? >> yes. we had -- we had to go downstairs many, many times with our luggages. >> and how about for you? what was the worst part for you? >> probably waiting in line for gross food. the food was gross. >> what were you eating? >> we were eating -- like, for example, one time i had a sandwich with just cheese or a sandwich with jelly and butter. >> and how about for you? what did you eat? >> i only ate a salad. i did not like the rest of the food.

>> so you avoided the food. what about what people have to do every day, shower and brush your teeth and, of course, use the toilet. you did you get around that stuff? >> well, i didn't take a shower but i brushed my teeth and went to the bathroom. >> and how about for you? >> well, i didn't go to the shower, but the -- the toilet didn't work for a couple of days. then it started -- then they announced that it worked. and before that, we had to just go to the bathroom in the toilet. >> can you describe for me if it smelled? >> it smelled -- i didn't really smell it. >> how about you? >> i smelled it. it smelled terrible. >> well, i have a question for you. let's just say -- they're out of school. let's just say someone said to you would you like to go on a carnival cruise down to mexico, what would your answer be? >> yes. >> yes. >> so you guys had a good time. or you think you would have had a great time. but things changed? >> yeah. >> now, what was it like for you

to be on board for so long? were you just itching to get off? can you describe that for us? >> yes. i was because -- because it kept moving back and forth and it kept going up and down. i kind of got a little dizzy. >> and they said they tried to provide some entertainment or music to keep you guys busy. how did you occupy your time? it's pretty easy to get bored anywhere. >> they had a kid's club that we would go to, that we would go to every day. >> what did you do in there? >> we played board games and we were just messing with the girls and telling -- talking. >> i got you, ryan. thank you so much. well, there you hear it. they were playing board games and messing with the girls. anything to get through the final days as tug boats brought the splendor here into port in san diego, t.j. >> and, paul, one more thing to you. i know you've talked to a lot of

folks. we have been following this in the press here so much. seemed like we had so much information about what was going on on that ship, but they did not. were some of them even surprised to hear what was actually happening on the ship? and were they, frankly, offended or upset that they didn't have more information, more information wasn't coming to them being on that ship? >> yes, that's exactly true. in fact, some of the people we talked to said that they felt that they wanted to hear more from the ship. and they said that they -- what they thought was absurd, one young man said they heard that there was a non-flammable fire. he said, what is a non-flammable fire? and they also got information about they might be going to in s ensenada. they can fly people directly out of san diego to other parts of the united states. so that's basically what was going on there, t.j. >> paul vercammen, i'll have to continue to work on that non-flammable fire part myself. paul, we appreciate you.

thanks so much. this has been a drama that's been playing out for the past several days and finally these folks are home. they need showers. they need warm showers. they need hot food. but they have made it. i talked to a couple of people, a couple of passengers on this ship a little earlier today as they were just starting to pull in. one of them is leonore chavez. this was her first cruise. this wasn't exactly the trip as you can imagine that she was hoping for. but at the same time, she was able to put this experience in perspe perspective. take a listen. tell me what the moment was like when you all finally were starting to be able to see the port of san diego. >> oh, my gosh. what a relief. what a relief. i said,ori oh, my gosh, there i land and we're home and we can get off of here. i don't -- i don't know that many of us could tolerate another day on here, especially with the food. no.

we're hungry and our legs and tired and hurt and we need hot water. you know, we want to bathe. >> but now that you have made it through it, how are you walking away? what are your thoughts walking away now? >> it will be very, very memorable. it's something that's very unforgettable. and i just thank god that we're all safe. and i know people out there have had worse experiences. you know, in events around the world. so i feel we're okay. and maybe we weren't meant to go to mexico for some reason. i don't know. trying to look at it in a positive way. >> some perspective there from lenore chavez who was on her first cruise. this was her first experience doing that. she says she does want to take a cruise once again. but we're talking about some 3,300 paying passengers aboard this thing. 1,100-plus of the crew. they have finally made it back.

this could have been a much bigger incident, a disaster of some sort you could argue, but not the case. they all made it back. good to have them back. they're glad to be back. we want to tell you what else we have on tap for you this hour. on this veterans day, some families are angry. will the coffins carrying their loved ones be moved to make room for an airport runway? and how does the u.s. get itself out of a huge financial hole? the military, medicare, social security, are they all on the chopping block? oh, and how about your mortgage tax deduction? plus, police say the eye of google street view caught drug dealers in the act. good news, right? but wait a minute. what about privacy? is your face on street view, too? that's ahead. i can't believe i used to swing over those rocks...

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welcome back, folks. americans at home and around the world paused today. hope you did as well. people pausing to pay tribute to american veterans and to honor their ongoing military service around the world. the president in south korea marked the day with a visit to a u.s. army base and renewed a u.s. commitment to take care of veterans after their service is over. the vice president, joe biden, participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at arlington national cemetery. take a listen. >> collectively, the generation of soldiers, sailors and airmen and marines who have served and

sacrificed for us are the heart and soul, the very spine of this nation. >> of course, you noticed a lot of the veterans day parades and ceremonies taking place around the country today. on the political front, is there a deal on tax cuts? according to the huffington post, david axelrod says the white house might negotiate with republicans on a temporary extension of the bush-era tax cuts, bout the white house is stepping back from that story. axelrod says they see a need just to extend the middle-class tax cuts. 15 people killed, dozens injured in a suicide car bombing outside of a police facility in karachi, pakistan. the taliban was behind the attack. the blast happened in a

high-security area near government buildings. the u.s. consulate and major hotels. the bombing happened after gunmen fired on a security checkpoint. also, taking a picture here out of florida, this is ft. myers in familiar. you see this here. this is a gas line that ruptured. two people have been injured here. this was the result of construction in the area. it appears possibly some of that work hit a gas line. one person had to be transported to the hospital with burns over 50% of his body. officials do tell us right now, though, that there's no threat of an explosion or anything going any further than what you're seeing in this picture, which is just gas being burned off right now. but utility crews working right now to get this turned off. two people injured in florida. we'll keep a close eye on what's happening there. as you know, you've been hearing a lot about one of america's biggest problems, our growing debt. how are we supposed to fix this?

president obama appointed a group to come up with some ideas to tackle the debt. we're starting for the first time now to hear some of those ideas. how could those ideas affect your wallet? you need to hear what we have to tell you about that. also, many voters who came out for the president back in 2008 didn't exactly show up at the polls this time around in the midterms and do what he was asking them to do. who exactly are these voters? we're talking about them. jessica, hi. haven't seen you in a while. good to see you. looking forward to talking to you after the break.

all right. returning to politics now, it seems like since last week's midterm elections we heard everybody out there trying to break down and talk about and figure out exactly what happened for democrats, why things didn't go so well. today we got real numbers, some hard facts we can point to, some brand new stuff. it doesn't really paint a pretty picture for the president or his party. take a look at this. in the election last week, democrats lost among independent voters, lost the women's vote, lost the white voters who never went to college, lost the senior vote. jessica yellin, the democrats, did they at least win the democratic vote? it seems like they lost a lot. >> they did. but they even got fewer democrats than usually turn out. these are painful realities for the democratic party. they're losing support from key constituencies and that railsse concerns for them. i want to break this down to independents and women. back in 2008, president obama won in part on the strength of his appeal to swing voters.

independents. back then, he picked up 52% of the independent vote. this year midterms, democrats got only 37% of that vote. that means democrats lost this group by 27 points. and then women, in house races, 49% of women voted for republicans versus 48% who voted for democrats. that might strike you as not a huge difference, but what is meaningt ing meaningful, it's the first time when more women went republican than democratic in house races. so there's a shift. finally, one interesting area whe democrats did not do as poorly. and that's with the youth vote. you know, conventional wisdom has been that president obama won largely on the strength of the new young voters. there's a lot of concern those obama voters wouldn't vote this time. the truth is young people voted in this midterm race at about the same rate they usually vote in midterms, so there actually wasn't a big change. he didn't get a surge of them,

but not a big change. >> not a change. there was so much talk before the midterms about this enthusiasm gap, about republicans who are really fired up and coming up, democrats not so much. any way to prove or disprove that one way or another? >> yes. definitely. there is a big enthusiasm gap. this year we saw the greatest number of conservatives turn out to vote in a midterm election since exit polling began. so let's take a look at that number. this year -- usually conservative voters turn out in a midterm between 31 and 34%. this year, it was 42%. 42%. amazing, right? that is a huge enthusiasm gap. and only 35% of voters who self-identify as democrats turned out. that's the lowest rate since 1986. a big change and bad news again for the democrats. >> maybe that did play out the way a lot of people thought it would. did anybody out there try to spin these numbers?

i mean democrats and maybe the white house, try to spin these numbers in such a way to say maybe they're not so bad or is everybody in agreement here that this was not a -- a good go for the democrats? >> yeah, it was not a good go for the democrats. one thing to keep in mind, in midterm elections there's always fewer voters than there are in a presidential election and the dynamic could shift significantly for 2012. what is meaningful is that there were fewer voters this time, but the fall-off was greater among president obama's voters in 2008 than it was among mccain voters in 2008. so more mccain voters turned out as a percentage than did obama voters. remember, president obama said he was building a new coalition. based on the midterm results, it does not look like that coalition is holding. again, final point, it could change before 2012 and you've got to be sure that the white house will be working on that. >> at the same time, this has so much to do with the fact that his name, this man, obama, was not on that ballot. it's one thing for him to get

out and get people to vote for his candidates or for his message, but at the same time, a lot of people back in '08 were voting because of this man. that's why they didn't turn out. >> definitely. that's why we say that the midterm vote is always lower than the presidential vote because presidential candidates have much bigger coattails. there's much more enthusiasm. that's especially true with president obama. and so the expectation is that he could have a big following again in 2012 if he can restart that campaign enthusiasm or if the economy stays where it is, maybe he'll lose some of that and maybe this coalition will turn over to the republicans and it will -- or at least it will be shaken up. that's the big unknown for the next race. that's why we'll cover it with a lot of excitement. >> jessica, are you ovever goin back to d.c.? >> i'm doing the bill mahr show tomorrow night, so i'm getting ready. >> we'll tune in for that. oh, good luck to you, dear lady. my goodness. jessica g to see you.

thanks so much. it goes without saying really, soldiers earn every single cent they get paid. but some soldiers are owed a few more cents, dollars and cents. and they may not even know it. we'll talk about millions and millions of dollars out there not being claimed and the debt line is coming. we'll explain that. and the president taking time for his economic tour of asia to honor troops serving overseas. his veterans day tribute coming up next . ♪ [ male announcer ] one hundred years ago, chevrolet sprang bolt by bolt, car by car, out of the very best america had to offer. ingenuity. integrity. optimism. and a belief that the finest things

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well, welcome back. president obama is in south korea for an economic summit, but he took time out to deliver a veterans day message. ♪ >> hello. >> let's take a listen to the message he had for the troops. >> we recall acts of uncommon bravery and selflessness. but we also remember that honoring those who have served is about more than the words we

say on veterans day or memorial day. it's rubout how we treat our veterans every single day of the year. it's about making sure they have the care that they need and the benefits that they've earned when they come home. it's about serving all of you as well as you've served the united states of america. >> also today, the president took part in a wreath-laying ceremony. the u.s. has more than 28,000 troops in south korea. in his comments today, the president made a promise that the country would always honor their service. >> on this day, we honor every man and woman who has ever worn the uniform of the united states of america. we salute fallen heroes and keep in our prayers those who are still in harm's way. like the men and women serving in iraq and afghanistan. so i want all of you to know when you come home your country

is going to be there for you. that is the commitment i make to you as commander in chief. that is the sacred trust between the united states of america and all who defend its ideals. >> it's been 60 years since the korean war. that conflict claimed 37,000 american lives. the president told troops in south korea today they continue still to make a difference. >> real change comes slowly. many people don't live to see the difference they've made in the lives of others. but for the men and women who have served on this peninsula, all you have to do is look around. whether you're a veteran who landed in 1950 or one of the troops today, the security you've provided has made possible one of the great success stories of our time. >> the president also had a

message for north korea, saying that the u.s. commitment to south korea is unwavering. the president is meantime talking about the economy on this trip. and also talking about the economy back here in the u.s. there is a -- there are very tough decisions ahead when it comes to solving the debt crisis. who exactly is going to make these decisions and just how fiery is this debate now going to get? nother day ♪ ♪ another dollar ♪ daylight comes [ dogs barking ] ♪ i'm on my way ♪ another day ♪ another dollar ♪ working my whole life away ♪ another day ♪ another dollar over a million people have discovered how easy it is to use legalzoom for important legal documents. so start your business,

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we've got a problem in this country. debt. at some point, our bill is going to come due. we as a nation are staring at a huge heck of a payment plan we'll have to get worked out. the president's debt commission is to make recommendations next

month. but we are starting to see some of the ideas, at least the leaders of that debt commission are laying out. now, we saw these for the first time yesterday, and it got some response that was probably what you would expect from the left and from the right, but how would you feel if maybe your favorite tax break was taken away? enjoy it while you can because you just might lose it. we're talking about the mortgage interest deduction. what about the child tax credit? what about your retirement? might not happen when you had planned. also, your benefits might be a little less. gasoline tax might go up. pentagon could see some serious cuts. these are not necessarily options according to some. take a listen now. the words of the debt commissioners themselves. they say there is no easy way out. >> we're clearly on an unsustainable path. we can't grow our way out of this problem. we can't tax our way out of it.

we can't cut our way out of it. we've tried to put a balanced approach out there that takes $4 trillion out of a budget so we cut the deficit by $4 trillion over the next ten years. >> it's all there. i just say to people, read it before you get -- before you get nailed with emotion, fear, guilt and racism and all the things that go with any kind of heavy work, read it. and i ask the american people take a look at it. it's a very interesting document. >> interesting document, huh? gloria borger is joining me now. is this a good starting point? >> any starting point at this point is a good starting point. one of the reasons -- it's kind of interesting to look at the way washington works. here you have these two co-chairmen. they put everything out on the table. it was very clear to them that they probably weren't going to get some agreement inside the commission unless they kind of forced the issue. and they still may not get any agreement.

so they decided to release it all quite early so the american public could start digesting it. and so they're playing a little bit of an outside game here. as you point out, none of this is popular, t.j. if it were easy, we would have done it years ago, right? but there's not a lot of political will. >> is this good for us not just up there on capitol hill, but for all of us to understand? this is the truth that maybe we have been in denial about for some time. >> you think? >> we're not going to grow ourselves out of this position. >> we want everything, okay? we want to be able to balance the budget. we're concerned about the deficit. but you know what? don't take away by tax benefits. don't scale back my medicare or my social security. don't scale back my favorite domestic spending program. you know, the interesting thing in this draft document, which i have here, they talk about their guiding principles and values, t.j. and this is what they say. the problem is real, the solution is painful, there's no

easy way out, everything must be on the table, and washington must lead. how is that for something odd? washington must lead, right? >> yeah. >> they're begging for it, but honestly, right now if your you look at the political situation, it doesn't look like they're going to do much in this lame duck session, t.j. >> i was going to get to that question. who has a better chance or who should deal with this? the lame duck session or the new crop that's coming in in january? should this be something they get a chance to take up? >> what does it tell you about washington, that the best hope for something may be with members that have lost their bids for reelection. so the political stakes for them are not as high, right? i think that there's probably not going to be 14 out of 18 commission members who support a lot of things in this document together. and according to what -- to the way this commission was formed, you need 14 of 18 to agree in

order to get it to congress as a proposal by december 1. so what i would have to believer is that parts of this are going to be picked apart, but you've got a lot of deficit reducers who have been elected to congress. so this is their first serious challenge. to put up here. and that's why i think we saw the republicans being kind of quiet about this at first. you know, the democrats came out and said, no, no, don't touch social security. they lost all those seniors in the election, remember. but the republicans were a little bit more circumspect about it and that may really be a good sign. we just have to see. >> okay. last thing here, gloria, you have to sell this to the american people. >> yeah. >> because these guys have to get reelected. they're not going to be up there voting for anything that's not popular. is the whole point here now not even to go up on capitol hill and negotiate and do their back-and-forth, it's up to us, isn't it incumbent upon us as

americans to get it and to understand it and to realize, folks, we don't have any options here? >> right. everything as we say in life is a trade-off. and, for example, if you lose your home mortgage deduction, what they're saying in this document, and it's -- you know, it's not written in stone, but what they suggest is if you lose a deduction, then the top tax rates and your tax rates, my tax rates, anybody else's will come down. so you'll pay less overall, but you'll lose some here. we all have to take a look at the document and say, okay, can we raise the retirement age a couple of months over the next decade and finally raise it to the age of, you know, 67, 68, 69? will we be able to swallow that? so we as a nation can pay our bills? maybe we will. but, you know, we all say we care about the deficit. now we have to take a look at things and say, okay, are we

willing to give up something to get this done? >> and it's -- it's worth mentioning again to our viewers, everybody out there, this is just a draft from the actual chairman of this commission. a long way to go before any of this stuff is actually implemented. this starts us on the conversation. gloria, always appreciate the conversation. >> good to talk to you. >> talk to you again soon. >> yep. what is the expansion of chicago's o'hare airport? a veteran's cemetery, sacred ground versus an extended runway? a court is now weighing in. we've got the details for you. thousands of veterans, most of whom extended their tours of duty during wartime, still waiting to get paid, but can they get their money before the december deadline?

all right. want to give you an update on the story a lot of people were fascinated by. the carninal cruise ship splendor actually, it's back now. its 3,300 passengers, 1,100 crew, this is the ship that took off on sunday, supposed to be going to the mexican riviera for a beautiful seven-day beautiful cruise, but got cut short because one day after the cruise got started they had a fire in one of the engine room rooms, t lost power. folks on that ship have been actually eating spam, eating

other cold foods. the toilets weren't working. it was just nasty for a while. you're seeing a live picture there. it has made it back. i want to share with you a tweet that the carnival cruise line sent out, giving us an update. 2,500 guests have disembarked the carnival splendor. 20 buses have departed. they've arranged transportation for these passengers. also hotel rooms for these passengers as well. they're starting to get off. kind of a long process to get these 3,300 off. this could have ended a lot differently, but everybody is okay. got some stories to tell, of course, but everybody is okay. got something in important to tell a lot of veterans out there. al also, if you know a veteran who served extra time in iraq or afghanistan, need to hear this. you're running out of time. the u.s. government may be holding on to money for you right now. i know. a lot of us used to hearing it, the government, free money? this ain't exactly free, but the

government has money out there. it's money for veterans that needs to be claimed in a hurry. chris lawrence explains this for us. >> reporter: it's like a winning lotto ticket that's rubout to expire. the government has got half a billion dollars to give away but can't find enough troops to claim it. >> i was immediately suspicious about it. it seemed like another scam that a lot of people prey on soldiers with. >> reporter: but it's not. ian smith earned that money. so did other soldiers and marines. when their enlistment was up, the pentagon forced them to stay in. >> you have orders to report to the first brigade. >> not me. i'm getting out today. >> you leave on the 22nd, shipping back to iraq. >> reporter: like the fictional soldier in "stop loss" ian smith finished his enlistment, including a brutal tour in iraq. >> i could not bring myself to acknowledge all the horrors. we had daily memorial services for people that were dying in

atrocious ways. >> reporter: ian works in st. louis, but still remembers when the army told him you're going back to iraq. and they weren't just saying stay another month or 60 days. >> right. it's going to be a surge tour. it's going to be 15 months instead of 12. it was probably the worst news that i could have heard at the time. >> reporter: proops like ian put off school and new jobs, some lost relationships. so congress authorized $500 a month for any month they were held over. thousands of veterans forgot to fill out paperwork or thought it was too good to be true. >> as your commander in chief, i'm here to tell you this is no gimmick or trick. >> reporter: even after the president implored vets to get their money, there's still $300 million unclaimed. vets must apply by december 3rd. >> did you ever think it would be this hard to give away money? >> if you can imagine someone

coming to you and telling you without any strings attached that they're going to pay you thousands of dollars. >> reporter: the va did direct mailings and the pentagon advertised it on every website is could. even with all that outreach, mike pereira is rushing to finish his paperwork in time. >> i hope that i don't miss out on the opportunity. especially had i known sooner that i would have been able to prep better. >> reporter: in just a few weeks, it will be too late. >> if anybody even suspects they're eligible for this payment, apply. >> and, chris, we'll bring you in now. a point you had in that piece, trying to hurry and fill out the paperwork to get this done. do they have enough time with this december 3rd deadline coming? >> yeah. it's coming up. t.j., all they've got to do is go on defense.gov and get the application filed by december 3rd. you know, they've got a ton of people out there who will be all too happy to work out all the kinks with documentation and paperwork and all that stuff after the deadline.

they can continue to work the applications after december 3rd. but you've got to get the application in by that date. >> just have it in. even so, i mean, how many are we talking about out there that could be left out and how much money are we talking about could be left on the table? >> yeah, we did some digging on this. we found out that the pentagon has paid out about 67,000 claims so far. sounds like a lot until you realize that there is another potential 70 to 80,000 people out there who could get paid as well. i talked to the pentagon about -- this really is not a lottery ticket. these folks earned this money. i know congress is already pushing the date back from october to it december 3rd, but if you've got 50, 60,000 people out there when december 3rd hits, they said that congress is right now monitoring how this goes. so this could possibly be a decision for that lame duck congress, whether to perhaps

extend it a little bit more, but in today's climate of cutting budgets and watching every dollar, you've got to think while you've got the chance, you need to get in and get this money. >> yeah. that's a very good point to make. we talk about this is some lottery ticket, but these guys earned this money. they deserve this money. the folks you talk to, the pentagon, are they just desperate literally to get this money out and give -- not give it away, but are they desperate to get this money out of the

doors? >> it's given away. they're telling people even if you think it's only a 1% chance that you might be eligible, still fill out an application. we'll look it oever. we'll process it. we'll figure out if you're eligible or not. but don't let the chance slip by. if you think at all you might get some money coming to you, do it. >> all right. chris, this is a good -- good announcement. defens defense.gov. right? >> yep. >> that's it. all right. chris, appreciate you as always. coming up, wild turkey anybody? how about a few wild turkeys?

nine days after congressman john boehner won the right to become speaker of the house, he is making a promise to americans. he says he will forego something in particular when he takes the gavel, but is this a promise he is going to be able to keep? that's ahead. plus, some video we got to show you. a smokestack comes crashing down. not exactly though how it is supposed to. that is next. we will explain. ♪ [ upbeat instrumental ]

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all right. thanksgiving just around the corner. we have got less than two weeks to maybe candy those yams, pick out that bird, some turkeys, not going to end up on anybody's table, these birds, these turkeys in new york. they didn't get the memo. look at this. yeah. what is going on? not exactly attacking people but this could be some kind of thanksgiving version of the movie "the birds," y'all remember that movie? birds are crazy in that movie. turkeys crazy, too. native turkeys ruffled feathers of people in the neighborhood. folks in the neighborhood say they slow down traffic, stop traffic, they make a mess, full, on a loft cars. they have seen at least 100-plus

of these birds to out there at this crossing. they might ends up on somebody's table if they upset people enough. big rivalry games in ohio, bowling green university taking on mighty miami of ohio. this was a must-see game. the problem is you couldn't really see it you see the fog there, folks? people had a hard time watching this thing as the fog, the dense fog, rolled in. it made it hard to see. the athletes didn't have too much of a problem down there on the field though. turned out to be a competitive game. miami of ohio won it with a field goal, won 24-21. also, they say music soothes the savage beast. bob marley soothes the angry baby. listen to this. >> so, this demon child, as you can see, can only be soothed with one thing is it the power of jesus? no. the power of reggae. ♪

♪ buffalo soldier >> oh, man. he didn't have to call the child a demon child though, did he? kids love their musicful bob mar kwloirks know what to say about the kid, bob marley already a music of choice. see how that kid turns out in a few years. well, we got another day and another new problem for space shuttle "discovery." first, got the weather that kept the shuttle grounded, then we had mechanical issues that kept it from launching. what is it now? that is ahead. also, wolf blitzer is standing by for us. brand new information just in from the world of politics, the political ticker coming your way. stay with us. ♪ client comes in and they have a box. and inside that box is their financial life. people wake up and realize i better start doing something. we open up that box. we organize it.

and we make decisions. we really are here to help you. they look back and think, "wow. i never thought i could do this." but we've actually done it. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach.

cnn's got all the latest political news with the best political team on television.

of course, cnn equals politics, we talk politics, talking wolf blitzer, cnnpolitics.com desk. wolf, always, always good to see you. talking so much about these cuts and what does not coming down the road with this debt commission but we still have this issue of these bush tax cuts on the table this congress has to deal with. >> that is the priority, top priority next week when the lame duck session of the house and senate begins what are they going to do with the bush tax cuts? if they do nothing, the tax rates increase they go back to where they were during the clinton administration and the white house says that's not acceptable for 98% of americans shall the middle class, but now they are going one step further, david axelrod telling huffington post in order to keep the tax rates for the middle class at the same level, they may have to do what they have previously rejected, accept the continuation of the current tax cuts for even the wealthy, those making more than $250,000 a year. the white house deputy kbhun cations director, jen psaki,

saying the president made it clear that extending tax cuts for middle class families is his top priority and open to compromise to get it done. that maybe the compromise axelrod is signaling. the spokesman for the incoming house speaker, john boehner, issued a statement saying republican bes made a pledge to america to permanently stop all the tax hikes scheduled for january 1st. we are glad to see the president's most trusted adviser now agrees with this course of action. i hope he and the president will show leadership by convincing speaker pelosi to stop these tax hikes permanently in the upcoming lame duck session. pelosi against allowing the tax rates to stay the same for richer american americans. a new poll out now shows they want the democrats, republicans, the president, leadership incoming in the house and new expanded republican minority in the senate to cooperate, new cbs

survey says 72% of americans say congressional republicans should make tradeoffs in order to get things don't. don't want to just see the republicans stand by and refuse to negotiate, refuse to compromise, including on some of their key principles. finally, the first lady, michelle obama, on this veterans day, surprised a lot of u.s. troops in ramstein, the air base in germany. she was there and she was serving them a meal. she surprised them, she spoke to the troops. the meal, let me give you the menu, tj, a meal of steaks, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, corn on the cob, garlic bread and lemon meringue pie. perfect meal for u.s. troops at ramstein in germany. served by the first lady of the united states. a cool veterans day. >> it is always nice to see those pictures of the president or first lady visiting troops. wolf we appreciate you, as always. we will see you back here in about an hour. >> thank you. >> thanks so much. and we got another political

ticker update your way in 30 minutes. get all the latest political news on cnnpolitics.com and on twitter at politicalticker. coming up here on the top of the hour here now, 4:00 eastern time. i want to welcome the men and women watching us right nowen at armed forces network around the world. thank you for what you do. thank you for being here with us as well. let's get started here this hour with what we've been watching throughout this day this veterans day. president obama in south korea for the g-20 economic summit. he marked this veterans day with a visit at a u.s. army base near seoul. he addressed military personnel and their families, praised american and south korean troops who fought in the korean war in the early 1950s and talk about the debt owed to u.s. troops once their service is over. >> so i want all of to you to know, when you come home, your country's going to be there for you. that is the commitment i make to you as commander in chief that is the sacred trust between the united states of america and all

who defend its ideals. >> meanwhile, here at home, thousands also paused to pay tribute to america's veterans. vice president joe biden led remembrances at arlington national cemetery and honored the more than 23 million surviving veterans. >> collectively, the generation of soldiers, sailors and airmen, marines, who have served and sacrificed for us are the heart and soul, the very spine of this nation. >> also it could be the last veterans day ceremony at a cemetery near chicago's o'hare airport. the airport is expanding and the graves are expected to be uprooted to make way for more runway space. some of the soldiers buried there range from the civil war up to the korean conflict. there's concern that older cassette deaths won't make it to a new site intact. the matter is now before the

illinois supreme court. also, it was eight months of bickering and political gridlock but iraqi leaders have finally reached a power sharing agreement, one that is expected to bring in a new government. the prime minister, nuri al malaki will remain in that post and a powerful new office will be headed by his old rival and former prime minister, allawi. it means the top three governmental positions will be filled by members of the country's largest ethnic groups, the shiites, the kurds and the sunni arabs. more trouble with the middle east peace negotiations. the secretary of state hillary clinton said the united states is deeply disappointed with israel's decision to build new housing units in sensitive areas of east jerusalem. >> this announcement was counterproductive to our efforts to resume negotiations between the parties. we have long urged both parties to avoid actions which could undermine trust, including in jerusalem. >> those remarks came at a news briefing where clinton announced

a digs of $150 million in aid to the palestinian authority. clinton is meeting with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu today in an effort to kick start negotiations between israelis and palestinians. take a look at this video out of indiana where fire crews battled a strip mall fire. they went at it for hours with this fire this massive fire started at a doughnut shop. nobody hurt here. investigators are focusing on the heating and electrical systems. and more trouble, more trouble for the shuttle "discovery" t is threatening now to delay it once again, the final lunch of the "discovery." nasa discovered cracks s is in "discovery's" fuel tank them hope to have it ready for the november 30th launch date. the final launch has been delayed by weather and other technical problems. nasa has problems with its new telescope, the one that is supposed to replace the hubble

telescope. this one, the james webb space telescope and it cost a whole lot of money. the costs have gone up, some can say galactic it is now $1.5 billion. it didn't cost $1.5 billion. it is $1.5 billion its $5 billion budget. nasa says design is not the problem. the project suffers from a badly flawed budget. the tell scone scope, also known as the jwsd is supposed to go where no telescope, not even hubble has gone before and beam back better pictures. house republican leader john boehner says he is going to take commercial flights, going to continue to take commercial flights even after he becomes house speaker in january. boehner won't be taking military flights to and from his ohio home, even though he would be second in line to the president. you might remember republicans criticized democrat nancy pelosi for taking military flights when she became speaker following a

practice by some of her predecess predecessors. now, take a look at this -- >> we believe it is illegal and it was unlawful for the coach to hit these students n this particular care the students had engaged in no misconduct. >> several parents say a high school basketball coach whipped their children. you're seeing video of it there. whipped the children. now, they are suing. gonna show you this video. you are going to hear more from the parents just ahead. also, the ship of spam is back. what do thousands of cruise passengers do for several days without power, without hot water, without finsing toilets? they are able to finally tell us now. going to hear their stories, next.

passengers are so happenthy this cruise is over, streaming now from the carnival "splendor" after a 7-day pleasure trip turned into a 3-day nightmare. no air conditioning no hot showers, no hot food, no running toilets. at some point, they had to eat spam, some pop-tarts. this disabled ship was towed into san diego this morning. this happened just a little bit ago. the cruise to the mexican riviera stalled early monday when an engine room fire knocked out power. paul vercammen is there greeting a lot of those folks getting off. how far through the process -- are all the passengers off just yet? >> i think they are down to just a few remaining passengers trickling off the ship, tj, looks like they got the bulk of them. imagine this, 3300 people off

the ship, walking through the vessel, which, of course is three football fields long, you can see how tall that ship is, in the dark, without the use of an elevator and without the use of any light to allow them to navigate the halls. they are indeed relieved, people we talked to coming off the ship to be become on shore and like the idea that maybe they can make a couple of selections and actually pick what they want to eat. it was slim pickings for a while there we had one man tell us he basically was down to mayo sandwiches at one point, tj. >> that's little nasty there. but their experience on the actual -- on that cruise liner, a lot of people said, you know what, we hunkered did down, we did what we had to do still it wasn't pleasant but i was surprised, you reported earlier people getting off, that weren't that well informed, at least about the engine fire itself and exactly what had happened to the ship. >> that was certainly a source of a lot of frustration, tj.

in fact, people were joking that they heard at one point there was a i guess a nonflammable fire, something of that nature and didn't get the details on the fact they had lost all engines, basically that there was a fire and they were hearing all the different reports, which was frustrating to them, that perhaps they would go to ensenada, they weren't sure about that and i witnessed this aboard the "uss reagan." at one point, one lonely tug boat out there straining against the current to bring this ship become to shore but other tug boats got involved it came back this morning, beating their prediction of midday, as some other tug boats got involved and first tug it had in and pushed it against the dock here in san diego harbor but, yes, the people were -- a lot in the dark about this just sort of confused about what was going on. they wished they had heard more. >> paul vercammen, we appreciate you being our guy out there greeting the folks as they get back. thank you so much. i want to turn now to katie koppelky, one of the passengers, one of the 3300 on board, she has gotten off that ship now and

katie, ma'am, do i have it right, you have made it to a hotel? >> yes, we are at the hotel now. >> what is the first thing you did once you actually got to a place where you could order your own food, find you some hot food and actually had access to hot water, what was the first thing you did? >> the first thing we did was plug in our cell phones, get those charging and call all of our loved ones and the second thing we did was to take a hot shower. >> all right. well, sounds like you are well on your way now, but ma'am, what was it like to actually finally start seeing land and to see san diego and know you were just a short time away from getting to hot food and a hot shower? >> it felt really great we could see all the lights, even in the night time we could see the lights on short and it felt great. every would be happening off the side of the boat when we knew we were starting to enter the port of san diego. >> ma'am, we got a lot of reports that a lot of people just kind of -- you know, they kind of banded together, they understood, okay, we have to go

through this, just hunker down for a few days no matter how deplorable the conditions were. did you get the sense, a lot of people were frustrated but they understood, we got to hunker down a little bit? >> oh, absolutely, we had no elevators so we had to take the stairs and everybody was helping everybody. there was a lot of elderly and disabled people on board, so we would actually help carry people up and down the stairs. a lot of the toilets still did not work so people were handing out their cabin numbers so people can come in and use their bathrooms. the inner cabins did not have any light at all, they were pitch black so we would -- on the balcony cabins, we would open doors to let lights in so they could actually see the light. i think everybody was great. >> did they keep you guys pretty well informed? we are getting some different reports about how much information the passengers h how well informed were you about the situation, whether it was the fire in the engine room or how long it would take you to finally get back to shore? >> um, they did keep us informed

of howl it was going to take to get us back to shore, we were surprised today when we heard that it was a fire. they kept telling us it was just flameless smoke, to keep us calm. i understand now why they were saying that just to keep everybody calm. i think they handled the situation really well but it is a shock to kind of learn that there was a big fire. >> it sounds like -- are you actually pleased that you didn't have so much information? >> i can see the positive side of them not telling us everything, you know there was -- you know, there wasn't -- everybody was pretty calm, there wasn't a lot of panic and i think they handled that very well. just kind of not letting us know everything. >> and ma'am, will a refund and a free cruise suffice? does that make up for what you just went through the past several days? >> um, absolutely. this was my first cruise and so i think we probably won't take

the free cruise for a while with, but what i wish they would do, and hopefully they will do this is for all the cabins that were the inside cabins, i hope they upgrade them to a balcony to actually give them some light then. >> that is a good point. ma'am, what was to occasion for you? just a vacation or why did you take a cruise? >> my friends, my best friends were actually supposed to be married yesterday in puerta vallarta. >> okay. >> the wedding party was all on board and heading there for the wedding, we had other people flying in there to meet us and so unfortunately, we weren't able to have the wedding. >> what are they going to do now, katie? >> they are -- we are still discussing it, but their family member actually were not contacted in time that we were canceled and so they actually flew down to puerta vallarta so now we are kind of figuring out what to do next and when they can have the wedding. >> katie, shout bride? i just have to ask that? >> she is devastated. >> oh, no. >> yes.

honestly, she is -- she is handling it well but you can tell she is brokenhearted, this was her dream wedding and we are excite we had get all the refundses and everything but this is really where they wanted to get married at. >> oh, katie that is horrible to hear, of course, as we know this situation could have turned out a lot worse, thank goodness everybody is okay and held together pretty well. glad you hopped on the phone with us, thank you for taking the time out. please, give our best to that bride, will ya? >> thank you. >> all right. take care now. and again, for the most part, everybody, again to our viewers here, from what we hear, no serious injuries or medical emergencies, everyone, the 1200 crew on board took care of the 3300 passengers who were on board as best they could and they did an outstanding job but still, a tough experience for a lot of people to go through and the bride didn't realize they were there for a wedding, wedding that did not make tank place in puerta vallarta a lot

of stories like that. yesterday, we reported google giving 10% raises to employees. apparently, we weren't supposed to know that. now we are learning somebody just got a pink slip. we will explain all this ahead. also, how will a high school basketball coach explain this video? take a look at this here. might need to kind of get a closer look to see exactly, make out what's happening. what you are seeing here is that it appears this coach is whipping a player. up next, you are going to hear from angry parents who say they are now taking action, legal action. [ commentator ] lindsey vonn! she stays tough!

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all right. we have been telling butthis

story and this piece of video. let's show it to you one more time and look closely and try to make out exactly what you see happening, then i will explain. all right, the video is kind of fuzzy, you can certainly hear it. this comes from a cell phone where this was taken. you can see -- make out this is clearly a gym, but you hear that crack? apparently that is the crack of a belt on somebody's backside. this is at a high school gym in mississippi. now, again, this is a belt, allegedly, hitting a student a group of parents claim that this video now is proof their kids' basketball coach whipped them. parents brought a lawsuit now against murrah high's coach and the school's assistant coach. take a listen to this parent. >> i was actually there on the 22nd of september in the practice and that was my first time observing the hits on the

whippings from the coach. and i immediately felt very bad and went home and told my wife about it and talked to her about it and she was upset and disappointed in that. and after that i went back to practice again sunday evening and didn't see anything 'cause i had stepped out of practice, but i saw it again on to monday evening, which gave me great concern for our boys. >> so, yeah, you hear the parent there saying that the coach was apparently doing this during practice and the parent witnessed this himself. now the basketball coach, marlon dorsey, has been on leave from the school since october. he did release this statement. i will read to you part of it. it says, "i took it upon myself to save these young men from the destruction of self and what society has accepted and become silent to the issues our students are facing on a daily basis. i am deeply remorseful of my actions to help our students."

the lawyer, lisa ross, filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of three players. >> we believe it's illegal and it was unlawful for the coach to hit these students. in this particular case, the student also engaged in no misconduct. they had done absolutely nothing wrong except run a basketball play incorrectly. and we believe that it is unlawful for any teacher to hit a student merely because this -- the student ran a play wrong. >> practice for the murrah high school basketball team on hold right now until school officials decide whether or not they are going to keep the coach. it is very bittersweet. i mean, it is such a huge honor. it is a great thing, but it is a great thing that has come out of personal loss to myself and so many other families. >> okay. you need to hear what this man did. he did it in one of the most

dangerous sections of afghanistan. brave enough, daring enough and selfless enough to earn him one of the country's top military honors. that's next. [ advisor 1 ] what do you see yourself doing one week, one month, five years after you do retire? ♪ client comes in and they have a box. and inside that box is their financial life. people wake up and realize i better start doing something. we open up that box. we organize it. and we make decisions. we really are here to help you. they look back and think, "wow. i never thought i could do this." but we've actually done it. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. i worry about my son playing football. which is why i'm really excited. because toyota developed this software that can simulate head injuries and helps make people safer.

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on this veterans day, barbara starr has a story for you how sergeant sal giunta became the first living american soldier to receive the medal of honor since vietnam. story began three years ago to the day in a deadly area of

afghanistan near the pakistani border in late october 2007. he is set to receive the medal of honor next tuesday at a white house ceremony. >> the whole timeframe maybe lasted anywhere between, like, two minutes, three minutes and five or six lifetimes. i don't know. >> reporter: but in those two, three minutes, army staff sergeant sal giunta went from a self-described mediocre soldier to a hero. that october night, giunta was walking along a ridgeline with other members of his unit assigned to protect other soldiers as they were walking back to their base. >> and a single shot rang out. everybody started getting down behind cover. >> there's not just one of them, not two of them and not ten of them it is probably more than ten and they are really not that far away. >> actually watch the guy pull the trigger who was aiming at you. >> it seems like your world is exploding in bullets and rpgs and everything. we have looked, it was along the

whole side. >> reporter: hit was the man in front, walking the frank, as the military says, sergeant josh brennan of mcfar lan, which is, which he had talked to his dad, mike, to only a few days before. >> actually, he had volunteered for that mission that day. >> reporter: on the ridge line, josh brennan was down, severely wounded. sal giunta raced ahead into the face of taliban fire. >> he got to the front, he killed one of the guys that was dragging my team leader away, sergeant brennan, wounded another one with, recovered sergeant brennan, brought him back to an area where we could secure him and continue the fight, started the aid on him. for all intent he is and purposes, the amount of fire that was still going on in the conflict at the time, he shouldn't be alive right now. >> reporter: sal giunta keeps insisting he doesn't deserve the nation's highest military award for heroism. >> when i first heard that they are putting me in for the medal

of honor, i was -- i felt lost, i felt kind of angry. it came at such a price. it is very bittersweet. i mean, it is such a huge honor. it's a great thing, but it is a great thing that has come at a personal loss to myself and so many other families. >> and that is what you want people to know? >> absolutely. >> reporter: barbara starr, cnn, afghanistan.

well, your latest political news here on cnn, one of our members, jessica yellin, she is out of d.c., she has had enough, she has relocated to los angeles, not permanently, hello to you once again, jessica.

what you got crossing? >> hey, tj, a little bit of news about christine o'donnell, you remember the former republican senate candidate from delaware. what will she do next? she was on the jay leno show last night and she said, no, a fox news show is not in the works, nor a pundit for them. she says she has gotten plenty of offers but doesn't want to do reality tv and might consider running for office again. she did say that if her had republican opponent, mike castle, her opponent from the primary, endorsed her, she thinks that could have made a huge difference. latest from christine o'donnell, i have a feeling we will be hearing more from her from the time to come. political news in alaska, day two of their count of those write-in ballots. remember 92,000 ballots to count. they have gotten through a little more than 20% of them. and so far, about 90% of those, 9-0, clearly for lisa murkowski you can the former republican turned independent who ranz a write-in candidate.

about 8 1/2 of those so far are apparently possibly for murkowski but being challenged and very, very few, .01%, joe miller, of course the republican on the ballot. now, tj, big picture here if these numbers hold up as they continue to count, lisa murkowskis, looks like they could be the winner in the end, republican joe miller has vowed to challenge all of this with lawsuits so this one could drag on for a long time. and finally, here in california where with i am, there are two house races that remain unresolved, be only in both of those races, the democrats have now claimed victory. they both say that they have insurmountable leads. both of the candidates, they are saying the winners are in the central valley of california but cnn has not called those races. we still say they are unresolved n all there are seven unresolved races across this country, house races, boy cnn's count. that is the latest political news, tj? >> seven unresolved, boy, a doozy going on in alaska right now. see how that plays out.

jessica, enjoy los angeles. good to see you as always. another political update next hour here on cnn. the fda has been warning smokers about smoking for a long time. they got something new for you. are you seeing this? a new type of warning. they beefed up their campaign, the ones you are seeing here, you can consider these tame, we will show you some more of the hard-core images that could be on that pack of cigarettes, that's coming up next and that is trending. also, there's a tweet i just can't wait to show you. it has to do with what they served on board that crippled cruise ship that just got back. you got to see this. it's next.

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all right. welcome back. we have told you after that carnival cruise ship, "blender," has made it back to san diego. of course it left on sunday from long beach, supposed to be going on a seven-day cruise of the mexican riviera, had an engine fire on monday, it was crippled, lost electricity, at some point they didn't have hot water, didn't have functioning toilets at one point as well. well, a lot of people have been reporting a lot about the folks were out there eating spam or had to be, some air drops, got spam and other food, they didn't have hot food. well, carnival cruise line has felt that they need to come out and respond to those reports of people eating spam. i'm going to share with you a tweet now, again, coming from carnival cruise line. "despite media reports to the contrary, carnival "splendor" guests were never served spam." now, that was a couple of hours ago. then 30 minutes later they came out, carnival, with this one, saying, "in regards to our last

post, we wanted to clarify that while some spam was delivered, it was never served to our guests." want to make sure they clear up that, but spam and some other things were dropped off, they did do air drops and folks able to get some food. let me show you a picture now, a tw twit pick that came in. i don't know who this is, you about this picture came in you can see she is wearing a shirt that said "i survived the 2010 carnival cruise spamcation." who knows what the shirt is about but appears she has other shirts were her hands are, sitting in a cart or something so it is possible someone decided to take advantage of this situation and start selling shirts out there. we don't know for sure. somebody could have photo shopped that, we don't know, but it's funny. we want to turn to what's trending today, topping the list once again, goggle, not one but two stories about google. first, firing the employee who

leaked information about those google raises we have been hearing about also, google's street view helps bust an alleged drug deal. also trending, the fda's graphic anti-smoking warnings that could show up on cigarette packs. let bring in poppy harlow, good to see you as always. you are in new york for us. we got two google story, start with the employee being fired. >> sure. any time we bring up the name google it is always trending, people always interested in this tech company, always making new moves but this is very interesting. in what looks like an apparent move to try to keep some of their top talent or maybe not what we do know is that google has offered, tj, a 10% raise across-the-board for next year for employees this went out in a memo from ceo eric schmitt to all employees on tuesday. well that memo was leak and sources tell cnn money the person that leaked that memo, they got the axe, they were terminated within hours of that leak. now, this was first leaked to business insider. they broke the news and then for the chun, our sister company got

a copy of it. i want to read you a statement from google because they almost never really comment on these kinds of things i and this is what google did say. they said while we don't dip typically comment on internal matter wes do believe competitive compensation plans are important to the future of the company. now, they are talking about there are a lot of top people that have left google, one being cheryl sandburg, the c to oo of facebook, she went to facebook, they are commenting on that interesting news from google. and another very interesting story centered around something that happened here in new york, tj this is about google's street view, go online, look up your home and see it on street view, you see it right there on the screen. well, they recorded some of the car cameras recorded images that helped cops in brooklyn complete a drug bust. apparently, google street view showed three alleged heroin dealers, alleged heroin dealers, i will be clear on that on the

corner. cops were able then, tj to use those images to identify them. they have been arrest aid long with four other suspects, so that was a big help to kboups i have got to say the fcc has been looking into google street view and now investigated them, they have launched an investigation into google street view, tj, as to whether or not it violates pry vassly laws for clear reason here, as you can see, right? >> we don't mind. we hear this story, okay, somebody might think, okay, maybe they did some good here and busted someone who was doing something illegal, allegedly, how would you feel about google able to pick up your image of doing whatever it may be out on the street one day? >> that is the big concern. again, google is the leader here in this technology, the argument is do we want this technology or does it infringe too much on privacy rightses? sort of similar to what we have seen in the controversy over privacy rights and facebook so two very interesting, trending things about google. yeah, tj? >> and pop pick, the other thing, the last one here, is anything ever gonna get people

to stop smoking? don't we know the stuff is bad for you, no matter what the if fda does, people will keep smoking. >> you walk by someone and you sort of inhale t no, i don't know what is going to get people to stop smoking, i wish they all would. take a look at these picture, i have to warn you what you are going to see in a minute is pretty graphic on the screen. the images that the fda has proposed. they are going to be on all cigarette labels in the united states by 20126789 now there, is 36 proposed images, again, cigarettes cause stroke he is and heart disease, pretty disturbing images, look at that the hole in the throat saying cigarettes are adicktive. they are taking comment on these, going to end up with nine final ones that will be on all cigarette packs in the u.s. by october 2012. they are taking comments also from smokers because they want to know what smokers think are the most effective labels. so if that can't get to you stop, i don't know what can. >> how much is a pack of cigarettes in new york these

days? >> i don't smoke but i think it is $ed, i have to tell you, i was walking home from the subwait other day and this guy goes, hey, dude, can i bum a cigarette and the other guy goes, sorry it is too expensive that really happened. that really happened. >> they are precious. they are precious. raised the price, you put those labels on them, people will keep on smoking. >> yeah and my producer is telling me $12, by the way. >> $12 for a pack of cigarettes? that won't get people to stop, image not going to stop them either. poppy, good to see you as always. >> you got it. we have a picture for you, you see people driving down the road, sometimes a dog in the back seat with their head out the window what is a horse doing in the back seat? >> okay there is a car here and in the back of this car, there's a horse.

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all right. testimony licks is an exact science, all right? people take months of planning to put explosive in the right place, whether it is to bring down a building or maybe a smokestack, like this? oh, oh, oh. >> get out of there! >> oh. yeah. streams are not supposed to follow a demolition. smokestack didn't got direction it was supposed to go it came down, yeah, sure they got that part out of the way but it came down the wrong direction, took out power lines, took out a generator and so, as a result, 3500 people in dayton, ohio, don't have any power. months of planning, should have take an couple more months to plan that one. road trips, i spy game, remember this game kids would play. can you spy this one?

take a look. stay with me. stay with me. >> smile, horsie. >> what do you see? >> is there a horse in the car. >> sticks its head out the window. now, we don't have any explanation for this. we don't know what that exactly was, where it is going but you don't see that on the road every day. so we just wanted to share that with you. let's see if we can hold on -- we will move on. you can hear the voice of the ireporter there it is a horse. coming up next, wolf blitzer, he has a look at what is ahead on the sit room. stay with us.

getting close to the top of the hour, wolf blitzer coming up here in just a moment, keep you updated on what a lot of people were fascinated by, a human interest story, a lot of people concerned about these 3300 passengers aboard this "splendor," carnival cruise ship "splendor," they left on sunday from long beach, expected to go

on a seven-day mexican riviera tour it got cut short and they are glad it did, because on monday, a fire in one of the engine rooms caused them to lose power, for the most part, on that ship. they were without hot water, without hot food. a lot of people some point or another were without toilets that were functioning appropriately. we have reports of people of long lines to try to get cold, bad food in some cases, but again, all the reports say essentially that everybody held together, helped each other out and made it through this, but again they made it to san diego, the most part, all the people made it off that ship. they are in hotel rooms, getting warm showers and hot foot food right now. again this was something that could have ended much differently and much worse, but people happy to be become on dry land and got a story to tell at this point. we will continue to keep an eye on them. there is also some pushback today from the white house over a story in the huffington post. the story claims the president's top adviser, david axelrod, is

sending signals the white house might be willing to temporarily extend all the bush tax cuts. bring in wolf blitzer once again in washington. wolf, hello once again. the white house was quick to come out and respond to that and stepped back a little bit from what seemed to be reporting in the huffington post. they are suggesting that what david axelrod actually said was very similar to what the president said on the day after the election results came in that big one-hour news conference at the white house much the president signaled he was ready to compromise on this issue and didn't give any details or anything like that so they are pushing back a little bit saying axelrod didn't go a whole lot further than what the president himself said, but, look, this is a really sensitive subject and it is going to be issue number one when the lame duck congress comes back next week f they do nothing, all taxes -- tax rates for everyone, middle class and wealthy, will revert back to the tax rates that existed during the clinton administration, which were higher than existed during the

bush administration, bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 brought down the rates somewhat, but only a ten-year period and about to expire this year. they are going to have to do something. yet is will the tax rate remain the same for everyone or come one some sort of other compromise allowing the middle class to get the same tax rate bus a have a higher rate of disqualification for a lower taxes for those making let's say half a million or a million dollars a year or whatever. this is still an issue that has to be resolved. >> it has to be. it seems like both sides have stood firm in their position. this seemed like an opening, wolf, has there been another opening or where do we start with this negotiation now? >> i think in the end, if they want to see the tax rates for 98% of americans, the middle class, people making under $250,000 a year for joint filers, under $200,000 a year for single filers, if we want to see the tax rates stay the same, they have to do something and republicans are saying they are not going to budge on this and

the democrats are going to need the republican it is they want to see that middle class tax rate repaint same. the president in the last several days has repeatedly said he does not want to see any tax increases for the middle class so they are going to have to work out a deal. >> last thing, here, wolf great to have you in atlanta, i didn't get to hang out with you, folks did you want to tell folks why you were in atlanta? you can tell them but they will be seeing a lot more of it the next week or so? >> yeah, i was over at the b.e.t. soul train awards in atlanta last night, the cobb energy center, it was a lot of fun. you know who is going to be joining me in the situation room, our good friend tony harry, he was there and the two of us will reminisce a little bit about what it was like and there were some fun things that we did including the dougy. >> you know how to do the dougy? >> i want you to teach me how to

do the dougy. >> dougy fresh was teaching me. >> i heard, wolf, people need to see this, this event, you turned it out, by all accounts, you stole this show. i know you're not going to say it. >> i'm going to tell our viewers if they want to see the whole thing, november 28th, it will air on b.e.t. and centric, they are going to see about a 2 1/2-hour extravaganza, great music, lots of fun and see me doing the dougy. >> wolf, i love it my man, good to see you, see you here in five minutes for "the situation room." thanks so much. all right, quick break. who knew, wolf blitzer teaching me how to dougy. quick break. we will be right back. [ woman ] alright, so this tylenol 8 hour lasts 8 hours. but aleve can last 12 hours. and aleve was proven to work better on pain than tylenol 8 hour. so why am i still thinking about this?

how are you? good, how are you? [ male announcer ] aleve. proven better on pain. ♪ my country ♪ 'tis of thee ♪ sweet land ♪ of liberty ♪ of thee i sing [ laughs ] ♪ oh, land ♪ where my fathers died ♪ land of the pilgrims' pride ♪ from every mountainside ♪ let freedom ring ♪ as a part time sales associate with walmart. when william came in i knew he had everything he needed to be a leader in this company. [ william ] after a couple of months, i was promoted to department manager. like, wow, really? me? a year later, i was promoted again. walmart even gave me a grant for my education. recently, he told me he turned down a job at one of the biggest banks in the country. this is where i want to be. i fully expect william will be my boss one day.

my name is william and i work at walmart. ♪ all right, got some video i want to show you now, this cruise ship, the first look inside really from a passenger. taking a look at this. list look and listen to this video for just a second. [ beeping ]

all right, you are seeing inside one of these hallways on one of the decks and you're hearing this tone. apparently, you see the emergency lights as well, kind of the first signals people were getting that something was going on, but this video coming to us from one of the passengers. i want to head back out to our paul vercammen at san diego harbor where the ship came in a bit ago. paul, you have the guy that took that video. do i have that right? >> reporter: that is correct, tj. it was marquis horace, one of the first passengers off the ship. and that video that you took, what was going through your mind when you heard first, you need to evacuate, that is the way they worded it, and second, the pings and having to navigate through the hallways? >> actually, accident know what to think. office little bit in shock they first told us it wasn't serious and went announcer came on the p.a. system, it seemed like it wases more serious. i didn't know what was going to happen. i just -- i don't know, i thought maybe my phone would survive, i wanted to get a video exactly what was going on and hopefully, if somebody did see the video and i didn't make it

some house, accident know what was going to happen, maybe my phone possibly survived. i didn't know. i wanted to get a record of it so people knew what i went through. >> how did that evacuation go at that point? was it orderly? was it kay antibioticic? you talked there were a lot of seniors on this ship, people that couldn't exactly sprint. what was that like? >> i think since carnival didn't tell us it was so serious, i'm not sure if people really took it how they took it. so it wasn't really orderly, it was more like -- a little chaotic but not like -- how can i say it? it was not -- nobody was really scared, they didn't seem scared until they started, you know earthquake the smoke started to fill the hallways and things like that and then people started to chatter and run and scatter and that sort of thing. >> because at this point, all you know is you're supposed to do something and you have not been told, nor really ever clearly told that there was one serious engine room fire that had knocked out this ship's ability to continue to steam ahead. >> that's right. they didn't tell us that exactly what happened them kept saying

it was a flameless fire and it was minor and i think about, i don't know it could have been a half hour to an hour later, they started giving us more information and ultimately, they said once the power went out, they said they were not going to be able to recover it and maybe a few hours later, they said that this cruise is now terminated and at that point, the bottom dropped out. there was no power. that's went toilets stopped and i guess the second engine, said they would have to cut it off it would probably cause more of an issue, i guess, they turned it off. that is what they told us. >> quickly, when you heard "terminated" what went through your mind? it was your birthday cruise, after all? >> i was completely disappointed. on top of that i didn't know what terminated meant, i had never been on a cruz before, a lot of passengers were asking me what does that mean? i don't know. the cruise was going to end and we are dead in the water is what -- they said the normal term that they said over the p.a. is we are dead in the water. that is what they told us. that means we have no power no where