tv Starting Point CNN March 2, 2012 7:00am-9:00am EST
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seconds of landing. we'll tell you what the aftermath of that story is as well. "starting point" beginning right now. ♪ >> we're going at it this morning, this morning. rick lazio's play list. is that chellie rae? >> yes. >> i don't have that song. my ipad expands. he is a former dnc chairman. now the chairman of green tech automotive. and amy joins us, corporate media reporter for the "new york times." nice to have you all. we start with this morning with a sad story out of chardon, ohio, we're expecting probably about an hour and a half or so because of of course, an hour behind us, students are going to start returning to classes there.
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dons tons of grief to deal with and post traumatic stress. first time since monday's shooting that those students will all be coming together. alleged shooter, t.j. lane, now charged with three counts of aggravated murder. he's charged as a juvenile but they're expecting that he will be prosecuted as an adult. the football coach, frank hall, he is the guy who chased the gunman out of the school. we heard from him for the first time isn't the shooting yesterday. here's what he said. >> the families of danny, demetrius, and russell, i want you to know that i was with them. i prayed with them, i wiped their tears, i know god was with them. i don't know why this happened. i only wish i could have done more. i'm not a hero. i'm just a football coach and study hall teacher. the law enforcement, first
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responders, that came to our aid that day, they are the heros. >> i love that man. he is remarkable. i'm not a hero. cnn's ted rowlands is live in chardon, ohio. did i misspeak, i thought classes were going to start in an hour and a half. is it really in 30 minutes. >> 30 minutes, yeah, students are just starting to arrive at sdmool 30 minutes. it will be a difficult day, obviously, a regular day of classes, they're saying, but counselors will be there, grief counselors, it will be anything but a regular day. they were there yesterday for a short period of time with their parents. they've changed the school cafeteria around, soledad, where, of course, this shooting took place. they have painted it and they've changed the way that the cafeteria tables were arranged. they completely redid that. of course, four students were shot while sitting at a table in the cafeteria. they say they want a fresh start as this students come back. it was a very emotional skrin in the school yesterday. i suspect it will be same there
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today as well. >> it's got to be hard to imagine to get a fresh start when the funerals also start today, right? >> yes. we have a wake this afternoon for danny palmeteri, and then on tuesday, demetrius huln, another 16-year-old, will be laid to rest. >> hearing from demetrius' mother was so sad. they went on with the sporting event, though. they had one last night, right? >> yeah. and, boy, i tell you what, this was a great example of a community coming together. this was a playoff game, a sectional playoff game. chardon was playing another team at a different gym hosting this tournament. everybody in the stands were wearing the chardon red colors. even the other team wore chardon uniforms and chardon ended up winning the game by 20 points. it wasn't about the game. they said it was about getting these kids back to some sense of
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normalcy or just being a kid and the activity they had to get extra buses for the students. the whole student body showed up. it was an emotional evening. >> one has to imagine they're going to need that pulling together to really get on the path to healing. i know that they interviewed some folks at that game. i want to play a little bit, ted, of what some of the people were saying. let's listen. >> a feeling and helps us get through these times and trying to get things back to normal as quick as we can. >> everybody all wearing red or red and black to support us has been able to help us get through some of it. we take it one day at a time. >> it's got to be a tough day ahead. i know you're going to be covering it for us, ted. thank you for that update. other stories making headlines this morning. christine romans has those for us. good morning. >> good morning to you. new developments in that security scare at philadelphia international airport. a sharp eye at traffic
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controller, an unauthorized vehicle smashed through a fence and drove on to the runway. the controller spotted something on the radar but couldn't see the ground because of the fog. a plane that was just 100 feet above the runway was diverted seconds, seconds before landing. >> we've got a rogue vehicle driving around on the airport. we're not talking to him. we can catch him. >> hold short on the runway. >> this guy police arrested a suspect 24rks-year-old kenneth mazik, charged with driving under the influence, reckless endangerment, and criminal mischief. shots fired at the end of a bank hostage drama in california. a s.w.a.t. team moved in yesterday after the gunman refused to release a dozen hostages he was holding a a bank in buena park. the situation ended with a bank manager coming out and the suspect taken out on the stretcher with a gunshot wound. two more bodies now
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recovered from that coast guard helicopter crash earlier this week in alabama's mobile bay. the chopper was on a training mission when it went down and within crew member remains unaccounted for. the coast guard still doesn't know why it went down but it was quite foggy at the time of that crash. all right. mitt romney gaining momentum in the race for the republican nomination. the former massachusetts governor letting up on rival rick santorum to bash president obama during a campaign stop in idaho. here's why. romney opening up a commanding 11-point lead over san tor 11-point lead over san toum among republican voters in the latest gallop poll. 18-point swing in romney's favor in just the past week. santorum determined to stick around. >> this is an episode of survival. we need to stay on the island, not get voted off, stay on message and have hopefully the grass roots of conservative movements support us. i think you're see that now. washington state holds caucuses tomorrow with ten
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states up for grabs on super tuesday. the candidates are battling for more than 400 delegates in the next 4 days. meanwhile, newt gingrich campaigning in his home state of georgia yesterday. he says one thing has to happen on super tuesday in order for him to stay in the race. >> i have to win georgia, i think, to be credible in the race. if i win georgia, the following week we go to obamalabama and mississippi. i think i will win most of those. we have a good opportunity to win in kansas. >> the latest poll shows gingrich with a double digit lead in georgia. more dangerous weather on the way in many of the same areas hit earlier this week. high winds, hail, and more large and powerful tornadoes are possible. from new orleans all of the way through the ohio valley today. maybe only a tiny window to recover some valuable or memorable things for tornado victims who have already been hit once here. meteorologist rob marciano as more on the potential threat of severe weather today. good morning. >> good morning. quite a storm is taking shape
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and in some aspects it's stronger than the storm that rolled through two days ago. we've got a storm threat and moisture and humidity and heat and that's going to the to call point for storms this afternoon. we have two rounds of convection we anticipate what's happening right now in nashville, getting rough weather. st. louis as well. this cell has been producing in some cases baseball size hail. north of st. louis. getting damaging hail there. watch box, the threat for damaging winds and hail for the next several hours. around 2:00 this afternoon when the cold front starts to sweep through the potential for 70- 80-mile-an-hour gusts and strong tornadoes like we had two days ago in the red zone especially but the threat from the canadian border down to the gulf of mexico. cincinnati back through evansville, nashville, as far south as northern alabama, moderate risk for severe weather including the potential for strong tornadoes and it rockets up toward the north and east. christine? >> thanks, rob. let's get a quick check of
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business. stock futures lower. dow futures down 20 points. weak economic data and concerns about the debt crieses there in the u.s. this morning. of course, stocks would close, soled soledad, to the highest since 2000. hitting a wall and not a surprise here. >> christine, thank you. there's been a rebirth of the birther movement. the controversial arizona sheriff joe arpiao is known for stirring things up. i haven't talked about him since we started this show in ten weeks, 11 weeks. he's due to be on tv. he is now set his sights on the white house. he did his own investigation into the president's birth certificate. we had all moved on but not joe. here's what he said. >> my investigators believe that the long form birth certificate was manufactured electronically and that it did not originate in
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a paper format as claimed by the white house. >> they're back. the birthers are back. why? >> porque, why are we talking about this? >> people are talking about gas prices and things that matter. for them to be doing this -- >> are voters really concerned about this? there are so many problems impacting the country right now and real issues. i wonder, does it have an impact on voters? >> it's your party. >> it's really joe arpaoi. >> let's be clear about that. so this is -- yeah, this is going to be about jobs and economy. this is what people want the discussion to be about. this is what the candidates are going to be talking about. >> you don't think this is going to get any traction? >> i don't think it's going to get -- no, i don't think it's going to rise to become a big issue in the primaries, which is, you know, what's most newsworthy right now. i think people are focused on the state of the economy, growth, jobs, housing, bread and butter issues, standard of living, stagnant wages. that's where republicans will
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make their case against obama. president obama. >> do you think it's a mistake for rick csantorum to make thos issues? we will pick up the vicious cycle but it doesn't deliver 100% economy soeches. >> not related to the economic issues to some extent. you have to b to be able to put them together and people have got to be able to relate with them and understand. when you talk about education, parenting, you know, mental health, whatever the case is, those are important national issues. but primarily, voters are concerned ability cout can i ge, are my wages rising, can i keep my home, can i pay my bills? am i better off now? do i think i will be better off two or three years from now where i am now? i think that's where the battleground will be, over those issues. >> can those social issues alienate him in the general election? >> clearly will be -- i would
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imagine president obama and his democratic allies are going to try to wedge that. so i think if you, i'm a romney supporter so i think that you need to talk about social issues, i think you need to be aware of them, i think you need to provide leadership and have a philosophy on some of these issues. primarily this campaign has got to be waged on growth, opportunity, jobs, those issues. >> before we go to commercial break i was sort of surprised that we didn't see your guy, mitt romney, stand up and say why are we talking about jfk speech, why are we talking about separation of church and state. almost like this is a conversation that is taking us way off the main path. and even off the focus for voters who are going to head to the primaries. i was surprised. he has led leadership opportunities and i was surprised he didn't take them, talking about college degrees. no one stood up and said, why are we bashing and calling snob
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b y, people getting college degrees. >> i think, solesoledad, i thin has made very clear he's going to stay very focused on the economy, on jobs and the economy, 25 years in the private sector. he's got a great record with the olympics, bain, job creation, he's been very effective, very successful. if anything he's gotten criticized for not defending his success enough and defending sort of capitalism and growth and making the case for it. one thing he had found over the course of these primary season is that he is getting strong and stronger, more resilient and focused on these issues. i think through the campaign you're going to see mitt romney talking about his plans, differentiating himself from president obama, and his philosophy in terms of jobs and the economy. >> ahead on "starting point," we're going to talk about the tornado that blew through this one small block, the block only about 1,000 feet long. i was there yesterday. and at the end, five people were killed. the overwhelming number of
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deaths happened right on this one block. pretty amazing stories are emerging from brady street in harrisburg, illinois. i'm going to take you there live this morning. plus, president obama's $5 million fund-raiser in new york interrupted by a heckler. we'll hear what he said in response. and our "get real" this morning, u.s. soldier makes a two-minute call to his wife and charged $51. believe it or not it's happening to troops all the time. we're going to leave you with terry mcauliffe's play list, dave matthew's band "funny the way it is." sorry. sore knee. blast of cold feels nice. why don't you use bengay zero degrees? it's the one you store in the freezer. same medicated pain reliever used by physical therapists. that's chilly. [ male announcer ] new bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on. but my smile wasn't. [ female announcer ] new crest 3d white intensive professional effects whitestrips. it goes below he enamel surface to whiten as well as a five-hundred dollar professional treatment. wow, that's you?
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cfp. let's make a plan. i started to feel the trailer shaking. and that's all i can remember. next thing i knew, he was hol r hollering, i was hollering. some way or the other, i crawled out. >> today it's all about the clean-up happening across the hart land as you just heard from rob marciano. there may be a narrow window for people to get their stuff together, gather it and store it that way with more dangerous weather on the way. skies are threatening in the
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rubble over harrisburg, illinois. and we're hearing amazing survival stories. ashleigh banfield is live for news harrisburg this morning. >> hey, it's amazes that nobody died where i'm stand npg is the strip mall. let's not forget thank god the time was so early in the morning when people weren't working or visiting this strip mall. as people try to deal with the aftermath, they are coping with the oncoming weather and so far so good. we thought we were going to be in a deluge right now but we're not and the lightning ended some time ago. crossing our fingers. let's not forget about the scale of this damage. this is huge. this is just an absolute disaster. it takes some pretty heavy machinery to get this stuff out of here. so they are facing a massive, massive clean-up effort in this community. all of this has president obama has reached out to the governors of six states to lend his thoughts to what they've all suffered through. national guard is out in some places protecting. there's still a curfew in place in harrisburg. 6:00 a.m. it ends, 6:00 p.m. it
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begins. as you consider what it's going to take for these folks to try to recover things. in this mall there was a sports store 100 yards from here. there is expensive gear they may want to recover. if they're going to do that, some really dangerous things they've got to look out for. just behind kevin i want to back up a little bit. i want to show you what they're up against. everywhere you look, spiked nails. we are careful where we walk and if you're going to try and come through here and do any recovery, you have to be so incredibly careful. and then there are things like this, soledad. that is basically a spear that embedded itself in the wall of this store. this is everywhere. extraordinarily sharp giant shards. recovery of goods and clean-up are both a very dangerous prospect. that's what they're facing. of course, there's the healing of this community. they also 60s people here.
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13 died across the midwest and southern states in the series of storms. they lost the bumming of them in this town. they're dealing with the loss because in a turn of 9,000 everybody knows somebody who dieded. and then they're geeling with moving on and coming together as a community. i stress this every time i g k. get it out on the air. go to cnn .com/impact, you can donate blood, money, and time. that's what the red cross calls it. it's a good effort. >> so sad, especially with the storms coming in you really have a limited window to grab your stuff. i know people have been donating storage facilities so that people are able to at least get their things together and stash them because the minute another storm runs through, you know, everything that was salvageable will be ruined. ashleigh, thank you. appreciate the update. ahead this morning on "starting point," u.s. soldier gets a bill for a two-minute phone call to his wife. costs him $51. $51 for two minutes! we're going to tell you what he's doing about it.
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♪ very nice, very nice. that's off of a '80s play list, killers, "read my mind." clearly with this crowd i'm not going to get any gospel. i'm going to have to bring it myself. >> i've got a little country. >> it's time to get real. almost everyone has a cell phone. active duty soldiers usually do not get to carry their cell phone it is they are deployed in a war zone or over seas so they often have to rely on regular
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pay phones. so this is a story of one soldier. he was in a stop over in germany. his name is army sergeant richard quarter. he used the pay phone in a designated troop lounge. called his wife. left a four-second voice mail saying he had arrived safely, missed her and the kids. the bill for the four-second call was, i believe, $51. that's according to the "new york times." 51 dollars. sergeant quarter says there are no rates posted on the phones. you can't use a calling card. you have to use your debit card or credit card. the united states military estimates ten of thousands of troops pass through there each year during the refueling stops. he has filed a lawsuit. he's trying to get the fees down. and the company that does it in germany has been sued before but it's always been tossed for jurisdictional reasons. >> if i am a cell phone company i would volunteer to offer free for our men and women serving overseas, free calls. it doesn't cost them anything.
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they already own the pipe. i i understand why you can't have the cell phones because they become microphones. i understand that. but if you can't have your cell phones you ought to give an opportunity to call home. all the big companies out today, the ceo today ought to offer free. >> they can shoot it and make their ad showing the woman at home getting the call and then brought to you by phone -- >> you would like them to call their wives and call home and talk to their children. >> it's a central place, that's an advertising for skype. you know. >> go online for free and you can see each other. it really is. >> skype should -- >> exactly. >> we've solved this problem. call us. we've got to take a short break. ahead on "starting point," we're going to talk to carrie kennedy joining us live. looking back 47 years as they head to alabama to relive bloody sunday. she's going to tell us about why the new anti-immigration law is a violation of civil rights. plus, if you're having trouble sleeping, not me, i'm dieing to sleep, apparently the
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keeps you from getting soft. [ major nutrition ] ensure. nutrition in charge! ♪ when i see your face there's not a thing that i would change ♪ ♪ because you're amazing >> this is off of rick's play list. bruno mars. you are so much cooler -- >> than you thought. >> yeah, yeah, i like that. >> see, republicans can be cool. >> that was not a political statement at all. at all. but i like the way you take it there immediately. people say it all the time, you like that song? i actually like you now. let's get to the headlines. hi, christine.
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>> let's go to syria where food and medical supplies are getting in and the wounded are now getting out. the syrian government giving the red cross the green light to enter the besieged city of homs. trucks getting closer as we speak. meantime, the voice of the syrian uprising, an activist known as danny, was able to escape to lob non. he told cnn's anderson cooper about the regime's brutality in homs. >> i actually went back to join the army. they did not allow me to join. they say i have no army training. so they told me you've got good english, try and get the news out to the outside world. we want them to know the truth about what's going on. so i just -- i picked up the camera and started shooting me doing reports. most of the images i remember the first week because -- i wasn't used to seeing pieces of bodies in the street, seeing bodies that i can't say -- i can't even move because the sniper would shoot me if i tried to move the body. >> what do you think is going to lap now in baba amr?
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>> the army weent into baba amr. they will take out the revenge on the familiefamilies, torture, torture kids. they will every single thing they find in the houses. >> at an eu summit in brussels, british prime minister david cameron said syria must be held accountable for crimes against its people and warn for a day of reckoning for the assad regime. parliamentary elections are going under way in iran. they are eligible to vote and there's a power struggle emerging between iran's most powerful figure, supreme leader ayatoll ayatollah. global mounting pressure and sanctions over nuclear program. 290 parliament seats are up for grabs today in those elections. and on the subject of iran, president obama forced to deal with a heckler over his handling of iran's nuclear program during a fund-raising speech in new york last night.
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listen. >> none of this changed -- none of this -- nobody has announced a war, young lady. but we appreciate your sentiment. you're jumping the gun a little bit there. >> about 900 people paid up to $35 each to tend that event. meaning $5 million for the president's re-election campaign. the event was hosted by russell simmons and deepak chopra. today on "house call" you're not getting older, getting more sleep. contrary to popular opinion, older people do not suffer as many sleep problems as younger people. a telephone survey found that people in their 80s had the fewest complaints about their sleeping problems and the middle age, especially women, reported
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the most complaints. apple, it's now one of the most valuable companies at any point in history. apple cracked the rare $500 billion mark in market value this week. that's half a trillion dollars. only microsoft, exxonmobil, cisco, and ge have ever done it before. it's higher, look at it this way, it's higher than the gdp of poland, saudi arabia, taiwan. what else is apple worth more than? things apple is worth more than on tumbler, how about the entire u.s. aircraft carrier fleet, annual u.s. beef consumption, two entire apollo space programs, all the gold at the new york federal reserve, or maybe all the electricity consumed in the u.s. in a year. things that apple is worth. $544 a share for apple stock. wish i bought it at $2. >> i know. really. there's no would have, could have, should have window at the racetrack. >> nope. >> too bad now. let's talk this morning about the anniversary of the day that's known as bloody sunday. kind of a new fight they're looking at. 47 years ago a civil rights march happened across the
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bridge. it was a demand for fairness in voter registration and ended, as you recall, in violence. police in riot gear attacked the 600 or so marchers. dozens of people were injured. now the man who led the march, congressman john lewis, and 20 members of the kennedy family are going to do it again. they are challenging that state's controversial immigration law, as well. joining me this morning is carrie kennedy, daughter of robert f. kennedy, and president robert f. kennedy center for justice and human rights. also joining me is congressman lewis. congressman lewis, i'm going to start with you if i can. let's talk a little politics first before we get into the anniversary of bloody sunday. newt gingrich talked about the stakes coming up in super tuesday. here's what he said. >> i have to win georgia, i think, to be credible in the race. >> all right. that's a short version of a southern strategy. what do you make of this strategy? is he right?
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>> well, i think it's important that he be able to win that home state but i'm not going to get involved in the republican primary. it's their primary. as a democrat i wished him well. >> i wish them well and that's all i'm saying about it. we can talk a little bit about the anniversary and the bloody sunday march. in a way, you've said that the march is going to change this year because of the changing landscape. what exactly has changed, congressman? >> well, selma, the state of alabama, the south, and the nation, so different than 47 years ago. we got the voting rights act passed and hundreds and thousands and millions of people in the south can register and vote, but in many parts of america today people are passing voter id laws, making it
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difficult for many people to participate in a democratic process. the vernon center based in new york has reported that maybe more than 5 million people would be denied the right to participate in a democratic process. because of these voter ids, early voting, making it hard and difficult for young people, minority, seniors and others to vote on election day. >> carrie, explain a to me. i know there are two wrongs in this. one is voter id and immigration. let's vote on voter id which would require in the state of alabama, voter identification. you say it's disproportionally affecting poor people and people of color. why is that? >> well, you know, this was legislation passed in order to get people to self deport.
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and it's really to harass and terrify people into leaving the state of alabama and it's had terrible, terrible consequences. they are not only going to lose up to 6% of their gdp because of job loss. they're going to lose up to 140,000 jobs in alabama. this is legislation that's opposed by the homebuilders association, by the chamber of commerce, and by human rights groups. and it's had awful consequences to the people who live there. the southern poverty law center has set up a hot line to hear complaints about this legislation. already in the last five months they've already gotten 5,000 complaints and questions about it. the consequences are terrible. one family, for instance, was denied water into their house for 40 days because their papers
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weren't in order. at a local pep rally at a high school, a bunch of students were heckled and yelled at, mexicans to the back, mexicans to the back. and sadly, a group of young children got up and left the front of the room and went to the back. you know, rosa parks would not get to the back of the bus and this is going -- >> let me ask the last question of congressman lewis. >> go ahead. >> a lot of what carrie is describing sounds like to some degree with a different population, obviously 47 years ago you're focused on african-americans and now you're moving to a focus on latinos and people in poverty. do you feel sometimes like you're marching for the same thing all these many years ago? >> i feel like we're still marching and it's necessary to march again. it is not right. it's not fair. it's unjust to treat the latino
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population or any population the way people are being treated. in the state of alabama and in so many other states in america. his hispanics, latinos live in constant fear. these laws are bad. they are bad for our fellow human beings. i don't think there's any such thing as an illegal human being. we all are legal. people must be treated with a sense of dig gnatity. we must respect the dignity and worth of every human being. >> yes. anniversary of bloody sunday. thank you broet for joining me this morning. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> you bet. still ahead on "starting point," an american family that's living in syria says their 16-year-old son has been kidnapped. the young man's brother is going to join us live to talk about what they're hoping to do to rescue this young man. and game change. the movie comes out next week. it's about mccain and palin during the election of 2008.
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israeli prime minister benjamin nettanyahu is in can nada. there may not be many smiles. a showdown looming with the president over how to handle iran. at the two of the two leaders' agenda is iran's nuclear ambitions and whether israel would seek u.s. help in the event of a surprise attack on iran. britain's prince mharry has arrived in belize. it's first stop of his visit on behalf of his grandmother queen elizabeth's diamond jubilee. he will visit jamaica and brazil. soledad? as unrest rages in syria the american family of a teenager who is living there says that the 16-year-old boy has been kidnapped. they say he was taken by syrian
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military intelligence four days ago. his name is haddi el shama, american citizen living with his mother in damascus since he was 3 years owed and attending a private school there. the state department says they are aware of the situation and are working to confirm the report. joining me this morning from toledo, ohio, are haddi's brothers. nice to see you gentlemen. thank you for talking with us. why want dough begin with you, hamza, first. tell me about the details you know out of syria regarding your brother. >> okay. currently it's been really sketchy, the information. what we do know is on monday, the 27th, when he was walking with a couple of his friends to a cell phone store, he was basically abducted by -- by, you know, people in an unmarked vehicle, plain clothed individuals. and apparently they put him in the vehicle and just, you know, sped away.
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and that's all we know currently. it's just been -- >> hadnan, why do you think it's been syrian military intelligence that has grabbed your brother? >> based on the sources that we have in syria. that's where -- that's where we're getting out of our information at the time. because it's very difficult to actually contact syrian military, it's -- the sources we have there are the only things that are helping us at the time. >> you created a facebook page which has a petition on the page. i know that you've had a chance to talk to your congress person. what are you trying to get done? what do you want right now? >> awareness. i mean, that's our number one priority. before the awareness, his saf y safety. we'd like for him to be unharmed and return home safely. that's our number one priority.
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but through this petition and facebook page we're trying to create awareness so we can send it to the state department so that we can get this resolved as quickly as possible. >> he's 16 years old. he's a boy. have you had any word from him over the last four days, anything at all? >> no, not at all. that's what worries us. we're getting little information at this point. the uncertainty is just what is eating at us. we're just -- we're not sure how he's doing, where he is, and like i said, it's almost impossible to get any information on it. what we do want at this point is the state department to take a more active role in this situation to ensure that he, you know, he comes home safely. we need to find out exactly where he is, make sure that he is unharmed and that they are going to get him released from kcustody on an unconditional basis. >> how about in syria?
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what's his mom doing to try to reach out and help? obviously the violence is a story we report on every single day out of syria. >> yeah, at this point it's difficult. she's doing her best. she's trying to talk to people out there. but they can't giving any details presently. she was able to talk to security personnel that did admit that they do have him in custody. but they would not notify her of exactly where he was, whether he's been harmed or when they will actually release him. >> so you know that he is in custody, which i guess is a first confirmation. >> did you ever have conversations with his mom about having -- i know had been had been living in damascus since a baby, basically. any conversation with the violence spiraling out of control in syria about getting him out and sending him to his
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relatives in the united states since he's an american citizen? >> yeah, we talked about it. it just -- you know, she's very near and dear to him. and, you know, she wanted to keep him close by. i do live and work in kuwait currently, and i wanted to bring him there to visit for a few weeks, just until i thought things would settle down there. you know, we didn't anticipate it spiraling out of control so quickly. and so systematically, it's just -- i think it's reached a threshold of, you know, past the point of no return. >> well, we wish you the very best of luck with finding your brother and tracking down more information and getting him out. hamzah and adnan, thank you for being with us and being with us. we will follow it as well. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you for having us. still ahead this morning on "starting point," we're going to talk about a new movie, it's called "game change."
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getting lots of buzz. it chronicles really the arguments the arguments between pain and palin during the election of 2008. sarah palin is thinking out about what she thinks of this movie. we'll get to that straight ahead. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get free one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. ♪[music plays] ♪[music plays]
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s. it's base the on the book that chronicles the tension, some of it rumor, some of it very overt between john mccain and sarah palin in the 2008 election. this video is called fact change. listen. >> introducing you to the next vice president of the united states, governor sarah palin in the great state of alaska. >> this is sarah. >> well, i'm not a member of the permanent political
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establishment. >> a feisty, strong, tough, straight talking governor. >> that is their response to it. she obviously is not particularly happy about this movie. it's been very interesting to see though. have you seen the movie yet? >> yeah, i did. >> i have not seen it yet. >> julia moore is amazing. >> that's one of the biggest issues in combatting the movie is that julia moore is so dead on in the role because sometimes they do these made for tv movies and they actually -- you have to really imagine hard the character, but not in this case. >> yeah. i wonder if sarah palin has seen it. it's pretty damming just seeing the trailer. i wonder if she's seen the movie. >> i don't know. the people who did the movie said that they were able to really work off of her own book and every time that they had a conflict in terms of what the book said and then what aids were saying and then sort of what the record showed in terms of reporters who were following both mccain and palin around, they had to figure out how are they going to handle those discrepancies. >> right. in terms of reporters, the movie
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shows her not talking to them or them protecting her not wanting her to talk to them. there are some pretty explosive things in the movie. in the movie she doesn't know what the fed is. there's things like that that i'm sure she would disagree with. she thinks the queen is running england. >> it's not a flalerring -- to say it's not flattering is kind of a tremendously huge understatement. i wonder if she's used to it. you guys were at the point of barb. do you get used to it? >> i don't think i ever totally got used to it. your skin gets thick and you deal with it. i don't think you love it when someone is mischaracterizing you if you think that's what the case is. it's very difficult when somebody in the media is trying to create an image of you or has created an image of you to change it which is what she's doing with this other video combatting one hot medium video with another hot medium video. >> seems like people are doing that now more. they can really create their own movies and respond in a way that
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ten years ago, even five years ago you weren't able to do. >> we didn't have the channels before. right now with digital media you do have the ability in a relatively low cost way to get out and answer. >> i tell young people, go into politics, great profession, you can change things. you have to have a thick skin and you can't worry about what people say about you. now with the advent of so many bloggers and so much information, you can't react to it all. go out and do what you think is best. people may say things about you that may not be true. if it's going to bother you, this is not the business for you. >> that's like being a reporter at cnn. got to have thick skin. >> keep moving forward. here's my goal, here's what i'm going to do. >> rhinoceros skin, eleanor roosevelt. >> a lot of bows and arrows. >> it hasn't changed at all in some waste. next week the director of "game choing" will join us. ahead on "starting point," remember conservative blogger, andrew breitbart, how he spent
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the final hours of his life. his good friend ann coulter will talk to us. students are back in class at chardon high school. it's the first time since monday's shooting. you're watching "starting point." we have a short break and we're back in a moment. he wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever, it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. call now for our free guide and tips on planning for your retirement this tax season.
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good morning. welcome back, everybody. our "starting point" this morning are the folks who are still reeling from the deaths of three classmates. those are the students returning to school in chardon, ohio. this morning we'll talk to the principal of columbine high school about how they handled the reopening of their school all those many years ago and advice they may have for the folks at chardon. also bracing for another big hit from mother nature. threats for another severe storm and in the same exact path. we'll talk about that. plus remembering andrew breitbart. his life and his political legacy. his friends, a conservative commentator ann colt ter will be joining us this morning. "starting point" begins now. "starting point" begins now. ♪ -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com
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i like it. i like it. that's from rick's play list. you're beautiful. he is one of our panelists. a former new york congressman. also joining us this morning is terry mccullough. he's the former dnc chairman. amy chosic. i mangled your name. >> every opportunity i've had this morning. he has three counts of aggravated murder. he's charge the as a juvenile but it is expected that he's going to be prosecuted as an adult. the death toll though might have been worse if not for this man, football coach frank hall chased the gunman out of the school and he made his first public comments about the shooting
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yesterday. >> the families of danny, did he meet try us, and russell, i want you to know i was with them. i prayed with them. i wiped their tears. and i know god was with them. i don't know why this happened, i only wish i could have done more. i'm not a hero. just a football coach and study hall teacher. the law enforcement, first responders that came to our aid that day, they are the heroes. >> oh, my gosh. cnn's ted rowlands is in chardon, ohio. i'm not a hero, i'm a football coach and study hall teacher. everybody in that community would disagree strongly. he was a hero, wasn't he? >> oh, absolutely. because of what he did, he literally pushed this kid who had a loaded weapon out of the
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school and ran him out of the school when everybody was petrified. he was the guy that everybody wanted to hear from and, you know, everybody thought he was going to talk about specifically what happened and then yesterday he came out with that statement and we liked him not meeting him. after hearing that i think everybody in america who saw that absolutely loved this guy. he's the real deal. >> talk to me about what the school's doing to kind of move things forward and start the healing. >> well, students are back today, as you said. they will have a couple different things going on. classes technically have resumed but they are going very slowly. there will be grief counselors at the school, and the cafeteria where the shooting took place is different. they've painted it and they moved the tables around in the cafeteria to give it a new look because, of course, that will be the most difficult part for a lot of the students, to go into the cafeteria where four of those young men were shot. >> i imagine it will be a very,
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very tough day for the students, and the teachers and staff. ted rowlands, thank you. appreciate the update. let's go to frank deang lis. he was the principal of columbine high school 13 years ago this april when 12 students were killed and a teacher but two suicidal students. frank, it's great to chat with you. chardon's back today and in columbine you had to rebuild a lot of the school. you took months and you didn't go back until the fall. there are some areas emotionally that were very similar. what can folks there expect today, the first day back? >> i think the most difficult thing is going to be that people are in different places. you're going to have people that want to resume activities, immediately go back to where they were prior to monday. you're going to have others that are going to grieve differently. i think one of the most difficult things are the teachers are not really sure
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what to expect, that each classroom can take on a whole different environment. i think the most important thing is they do have grief counselors there to help teachers work with the students because they're not sure what the students are going to be feeling at that point. the things that we did -- i'm sorry. >> i was going to ask you -- go ahead. >> one of the things that we did -- sure. we did not return back to columbine because it was really a crime scene. we did not have access to the building until july and then construction took place and then the students actually came back in august. but we did have to return to chatfield high school, which is a school within our community about six miles from us. but one of the things that we did is we reunited our students with the teachers that they had when shootings occurred just to put some bonding there, to talk because there's that special bond and they will remember that when they walk into the
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classroom. some students may be retraumatized and it's going to vary. that's the most difficult thing. there's not one plan that'll meet the needs of everyone. so you really have to be flexible. i know they'll do a great job there. >> we heard from ted rowlands. they've painted the cafeteria and changed all of the furniture, the tables in the cafeteria so when students walk in it's not sort of reliving the moment that the shooting began. everything's a little bit different. do you think that's a good idea? >> yes, it is. one of the things -- one of the toughest decisions we had to make is what were we going to do. as far as our building, there was so much damage done by gunfire when the swat teams entered the building, we had to replace all of the flooring in the school because of bombs that were exploding, pipe bombs exploding in the building. one of the things that we felt was instrumental in changing the environment at columbine high school was really not to go back into the library.
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originally there was discussion about changing the makeup of the library, but we just felt we needed to change that whole setup and so basically what we did is the library was off limits. that's where most of the students were killed on that day and most of the students were injured. we did have others that lost their lives outside of the building. but one of the things that we did the following april when students were released, we actually removed the floor of the library and it was the ceiling for the cafeteria. we created an atrium. about 1.5 years later we built a new library. that was very important. it was difficult when the students did enter columbine in august for students to walk down that hallway. many students had a difficult time walking by where the library was located. so it was a difficult time. on a personal note, it was very difficult -- >> go ahead, sir.
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i'm he sorry. >> it was very difficult for me. what i experienced that day when i came out of my office, i know it took me several weeks just to be able to walk out of my office where i wasn't feeling some type of physical trauma or emotional trauma. >> that's because when you walked out of your office you walked into basically a glun and the only reason you were probably not killed was because they shot someone else who had just happened to walk up the stairs behind you? >> yeah. that was very difficult for me. when i came out, there was gunfire occurring and fortunately my attention was drawn to about 20 girls that were leaving the gymnasium area. they were going to be right in the cross fire and i was able to get them into a gymnasium area, but what i found out later is the reason that i'm probably alive is because my best friend was coming up the stairs at that time, dave sanders, and he was shot and died a few hours later.
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>> this is going to be a long haul for these folks. i know it's been a long haul for the folks at columbine to recover. thank you for talking with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. let's get right to christine for some other headlines making news. >> thank you, soledad. new developments this morning in that security scare at philadelphia international airport. an air traffic controller with his eye on the ball being credited with helping prevent a disaster when an an unauthorized vehicle smashed through a fence and drove onto the runway. the controller spotted something on the radar but couldn't see the ground because of fog. a plane that was just 100 feet above the runway was diverted seconds before landing. >> we've got a rogue vehicle driving around on the airport. we're not talking to him. >> hold short. we're not moving anybody until we find this guy. >> police arrested kenneth mazik, 24 years old. charged him with criminal
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mischief, reckless endangerment. dangerous weather on the way. high winds, hail, and more large and powerful tornadoes possible from new orleans all the way up through the ohio valley today. maybe only a tiny window to recover some valuable or memorable things for tornado victims. new developments this morning in the federal investigation into the child sex scandal at penn state. former assistant coach jerry sandusky is facing more than 50 state charges that he assaulted young boys. the federal probe seems to be focusing on whether school officials tried to cover up the abuse with bribes to victims or misuse of federal education funds. investigators have subpoenaed computer hard drives and financial records of sandusky's charity. watching your money this morning, gas prices keep rising. the national average rising another fraction of a cent, $3.74 a gallon now inches closer to the $4 mark. high oil prices have driven
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gasoline prices up more than 14% since the start of the year. now let's check in on the markets. u.s. stock futures, dow, nasdaq, s&p 500, they suggest a lower stock market open at 9:30 a.m. eastern. weak economic reports get the blame. eu leaders are meeting in brussels on the debt crisis. dow futures down about 35 points right now. remember, a pull back from the highest level since 2008 that stocks reached this year wouldn't be really that much out of the cards here. now at&t putting a limit on its unlimited users. customers with unlimited data plans will now see service slowed after using up to three gigabytes in data in one pay cycle. that's about ten hours of high definition video. it's a little bit of clarity for outraged users who have been complaining that at&t was slowing their data service for the top 5% of users. soledad? >> little tease. christine, thank you. ahead on "starting point,"
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we'll take alike at andrew breitba breitbart's life. we'll talk to his friend this morning. you've probably seen the show, "jersey shore." admit it, admit it, admit it. there is an official pole about what people in new jersey really think about "jersey shore." no more political polls. we're just going to do polls around the "jersey shore." we'll play you out with lady gaga. ♪ one chance to hunt down the right insurance at the right price.
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he died an hour later at the age of 43. he was a very influential voice on the internet. he was often criticized for stories and nonstories. >> i'm so sick of having to be apologetic for who i am. i'm so sick of people in middle america being called flyover country or slope headed. ann colter is a conservative commentator and friend of andrew breitbart. thanks for talking with us. it's interesting, people keep having conversations about his passionate, sometimes angry voice and his talks about conservatism but very rarely have i heard people talk about his family. when i saw him at cpac, because he did our show, we both have four kids. one of his boys is named charlie, my son's named charlie too. that's really what we talked about. talk to me a little bit about andrew breitbart as a father who leaves four small children behind. >> well, it's very sad. it's got to be very quiet in the
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breitbart household these days. he was, from what i saw, a fantastic father. he was a kid himself. i remember when he was showing me his kids, two boys shared a room, it was sort of a trundle bed. and normally parents are trying to get the kids to stop jumping on the bed and andrew ran into the room and showed me, look, you can jump from the top bed down to this bed. he used to do it with them. suzy had five children. >> four plus one big one. he was talking reportedly about the gop slate in a bar right before he died suddenly, and he had a tremendous passion for politics, a passion like people often agreed with strongly or disagreed with just as strongly, right? >> oh, yes. the other part i love about that story from the hollywood reporter, and this was so andrew, was that it was just a complete stranger he started
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talking to in a bar. he was like that. if you were within 50 yards of him he had a gravitational force that people wanted to be with him. he was such a great guy. he ended up with crowds around him. he'd leave with 20 friends. >> let's talk about his impact. i want to play a little bit of what some people say the impact of his death is going to be. listen. >> anybody out there who has more energy out there constantly driving and pushing. >> he definitely inspired me to really look at journalism with new eyes, to think of it as citizens being their own watchdogs. >> you've got controversy going because often the mainstream media would look the other way when there was a story they didn't want to report. >> he changed the conversation, i think it's fair to say, in the conservative movement. what do you think the impact will be as people assess his legacy? >> it was so huge. there is no one like andrew breitbart. when mat drudge first got a
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computer, andrew at some point, you know, was helping him see how to use it. well, there's the drudge report. drudge did it, but there's the famous story of his father driving him to the airport and saying, let me get you a computer and him saying, what do i need the computer for? then andrew goes on to start up the "huffington post." he found greg gustfelled and kind of pushed him on fox news for the great show red eye now. he has big web page, big hollywood, media, so on. he's been very involved in a secret hollywood right wing group, mostly led by gary sanese. secret right wingers in hollywood can get together. he had a way of putting people together, finding native talent. pushing people to be their best. he never needed credit to himself. the james owe keefe story, andrew breitbart got acorn funded.
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andrew breitbart got anthony weiner to resign. he did have some big stories that wouldn't have come out otherwise. had enormous influence, but mostly -- i mean, the influence he had on friends and connecting people, seeing connections. he was the glue and the energy behind so much of the right wing. there is just no one like andrew breitbart. >> we'll leave it at that. ann coulter is in l.a. thank you for sharing. still ahead this morning on "starting point", we showed you yesterday a tornado ravaged town in harrisburg, illinois. now they're bracing again for more severe weather. we'll check back live in that town. see how they're doing today. her departure is a big blow for republicans. we're hoping to take back the senate. olympia snowe is speaking about exactly why she's leaving washington, d.c. that's ahead. we leave you with amy's play list. "cold play." amy, amy, amy. ♪
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sounded like a train. she headed to the basement. i headed to grab our daughter who was in bed. she's handicapped. >> i was down in the basement and i'm screaming at him, grab her, grab her, just grab her. >> we went down in the basement and all the water starts flooding the basement. we came up out through the cellar door and noticed the church was gone. >> i started to cry. i was just so thankful. >> thankful but for these folks they lost absolutely everything. the tough kleinup begins across the hartland today. might only be a short window for people to get in and grab their
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stuff because more bad weather is on the way. ashleigh banfield is live for us in harrisburg, illinois. >> soledad, i'm not sure we're going to have that much of a window. when you see a debris pile in a field like this that spans as long as it does and you hear what iimabout to tell you, i spoke with bob from hln, he told me the bad news is in about two hours we are expecting some of those straight line winds about 40 miles an hour, hail, torrential downpour. 40 miles an hour is nothing like the 180 miles an hour that caused this disaster, but you don't want to be near any of this stuff when those kinds of winds come through. so to that end this community has called off all the volunteers. they've said don't come out. we need to get out of the woods. here's something else, they are not out of the woods yet for the tornadoes. not expecting anything like the f 4 that did this path, but they are not out of the woodwork yet in terms of possible tornadoes. i want to take you on the path
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that was a giant blender for this strip mall that ended up in this lake here and dumped a lot of its mess, trash, shards into the lake but kept on going across the lake, soledad, to where you and i were broadcasting live yesterday where the majority of the deaths in this community occurred. five out of the six deaths in harrisburg occurred across that lake over there. but here's the thing, while that did happen, there are good stories. there are miraculous stories, stories of people who described this kind of unbelievable physical carnage and were able to somehow come out relatively unscathed. janice souzier with a cut, bruised lip. she stood amidst the wreckage of her home and told me she got sucked out of her home. >> i closed the door and was holding it. that door pushed back so fast and i think that's what happened to my hand and my lip. i think the door hit me. all of a sudden i was just
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absolutely out flying around. >> sucked out through the roof? >> sucked out through the roof. i don't know where. i guess, the roof. >> you ended up over here by the dishwasher. >> yes. >> reporter: soledad, i just want to mention that across the street we went to go grab some coffee in the mcdonald's. we happened upon a spontaneous prayer session. six men were praying, deep in prayer for a solid 20 minutes. four of them were pastors, two of them were professionals praying for this community. it was quite heartwarming to see this kind of, i don't know, just commitment to the love of god that maybe they can get through all of this. president obama has already called six governors to lend his thoughts and prayers to those governors. with this weather still coming, let's hope he doesn't have to call anymore governors after today's potential tornadoes rip through more states. >> thank you for that update. still ahead on "starting point," mitt romney getting his group back. maybe in time before he heads to the gop's final four on super
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tuesday. why ohio might be the most important state of all that day. what do new jersey residents think of the injuries yes shore. there's a poll that does all the political polling, a little free time, they decided to poll about the "jersey shore." we'll tell you what they found. we'll leave you with amy's play list yet again. it's pit bull. ♪
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medical supplies to people in the besieged city of homs right now, and they're evacuating the wounded. meanwhile, the voice of the syrian uprising. an activist known as danny was able to escape to lebanon. he told cnn's anderson cooper last night that he's dreading the regime's next move in baba amr. >> i know what's going to happen in baba amr. they will have revenge on the families that live there. they will take out the revenge on families. they will torture women and kids. they will steal every single thing they find in the houses. >> british prime minister david cameron said the assad regime must be held accountable for crimes against its people. french president niklas sarkozy says they're closing their embassy in damascus. >> iranians heading to the polls for the first time since 2009. 48 million iranians are eligible
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to vote. the supreme leader ayatollah khamenei and mahmoud ahmadinejad. senator robert maine then dez on the foreign relations committee telling erin burnett the u.s. would know if iran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon. >> that uranium that needs to be enriched is under the international atomic administration's supervision and so we would have a pretty good sense between our intelligence and the intelligence of our allies that the iranians are headed in that direction. and that would evoke the opportunity for us to act. >> 290 parliament seats are up for grabs today in those elections. republican senator olympia snowe is offering more insight into why she won't seek another term. in an op ed in the washington post today the moderate republican from maine quotes founding father james madison's notes on the role of the senate. she follows that by saying,
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quote, yet more than 200 years later the greatest deliberative body of human history is not living up to its billing. she cites last year's budget battle and the debacle over raising the debt ceiling limit. breaking weather news to get to. some potentially bad news for people already hit hard in the midwest this week. let's get straight to meteorologist rob marciano. >> the storm's prediction center has upgraded the risk for severe weather with tornadoes to high today. that is their highest ranking. in this pink area there is basically a 30% chance of a tornado touching down. that's an extremely high probability. from nashville up to louisville, lexington, north towards cincinnati, south into parts of northern alabama is where we'll see the storms fire. two rounds of convection. one round happening around the southeast. a warm front is coming on board. these storms have wind and in some cases golf ball and baseball size hail. dangerous storms. the real show will be later on
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this afternoon and tonight. these will be in some cases dangerous, strong, and long track tornadoes much like what we saw just two days ago. christine? >> thanks, rob. even real new jersey residents don't like the reality show "jersey shore." a new poll finds just 9% of new jersey residents had a favorable view of snookie and the snitch and everybody else. 69% said the show is bad for the garden state's image. even bigger majority agree with governor chris christie's decision to block a state tax credit of more than $400,000 towards the show's production. soledad? >> i'm not surprised. what would they like about the show? state of new jersey, it's not like everyone's like, wow, i want to visit there. that show is making it look good. >> people are watching. >> people who live there are like, we don't look good. with two fresh primary wins and a caucus victory under his belt mitt romney is gaining grounds in the polls once again. the latest gallop shows mitt
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romney now up by 11 points even though rick santorum had a very strong lead. we're seeing the race narrow in oh ohio. it's' a crucial state. santorum going from a seven point lead a week ago to a four point lead. technically that is all a statistical tie. kevin dewine is the chairman of the ohio republican party. thanks for joining us. nice to see you this morning. welcome to the panel. let's look at this a little more closely at the national polls. really it's showing momentum. when you look at something like that and you see mitt romney winning by 11 points and really gaining eight points and at the same time rick santorum is losing ten points, what do you credit these changes to? >> well, i think it's -- let's talk about what's going on in ohio. what you're seeing is a very fluid race. in michigan last week governor romney was down by double digits and yet he pulled out a three point win tuesday night. i think you're seeing the same sort of thing going on here in
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ohio. senator santorum had a significant lead. that is closing as the campaigns have focused their time and energy on the great buckeye state. i have told people for the past few days don't pay any attention to any of the polls that came out earlier in the week. this thing is going to be a dead heat. this will be a two-man race. it will be very, very close in ohio over the course of the next few days. it's going to be because of two things. you're seeing all the candidates in here spending time and energy putting campaign ads on tv and doing radio ads but you're also, the buckeye voters are getting a great opportunity to see the candidates up close and personal doing real retail politicking. i think that's having an impact as we roll into super tuesday here in the buckeye state. >> congressman lazi oe. >> hi, chairman. i wanted to ask you, mitt romney has arguably the most popular politician in ohio. what kind of af difference do you think that's making and is this focus on the economy
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talking about 20% across the board tax cuts, job creations record as an entrepreneur and job creator? >> well, first of all, we love rob portman. if there's a way for him to serve this country, we'd be happy to see that. we don't have to hog him and be selfish. >> i get that message. >> we're fine with that. >> he'd be a great vice president. >> look, rick, you know the most important issue on the hearts and minds of not just republicans but independents and democrats in the state of ohio is still the economy. my advice to both candidates, to all the candidates, has been to focus on the five or six words that voters care about. the economy, jobs, debt, deficit, taxes and spending. if we're not talking about those issues, both in the primary and in the general election, we're going to have a difficult time winning here in ohio, but i don't see that being the case.
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the things that talk from senator santorum even when he says he's sick of everybody talking about him on social issues, he then delivers speeches that are really overwhelmingly about social issues. how is that resonating with the folks in ohio? >> well, it's -- we can talk about both. we don't have a problem talking about both. it's an important part of the base of our party. so our presidential candidates need to be able to communicate on all those various issues, but i will tell you for whoever's -- winning ohio is a very symbolic win. it is a battleground state in the primary. as you all know, it's a battleground state in the general election as well. really of the 16 states, ohio and florida are probably going to play a pivotal role for both the republican and democrat strategy to carry the white house. that being said, the candidate that can come in here and best articulate a message about jobs in the economy, turning the economy around, getting people back to, would, bringing about economic prosperity i think will have the best shot of winning not just on tuesday but i think
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will have the best shot of carrying the buckeye state this fall. >> kevin dewooin joining us. >> i think mitt romney has to win ohio. if he doesn't win ohio, rick santorum beats him, his campaign is on a death spiral. i think he has to show he can win in a southern state outside of virginia. >> have i heard that now, ten times? >> i was with you on election night when hillary clinton won ohio. huge win for her. we were all celebrating that night with her and then she went on to lose the election. >> first of all, very close election. >> ohio is important, but it's not -- >> santorum, if he wins in ohio, it is a stall for romney that shows he can't close the deal. he can't get over 25%. he can't close the deal with conservatives. that's why i think winning a southern state, he can put a nail in the coffin if he wins ohio and then wins in oklahoma, maybe a georgia, upset newt gingrich down there. romney has to have a game
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changing event on tuesday. ohio is a big piece of it. winning a southern state, otherwise he'll limp in. >> i totally disagree with that. i think people keep raising the standard here. he wins arizona by 20 plus percent. he wins across all demographic groups. he wins tea party people in michigan. 12 points behind. he ends up oning it by 3. he's won in florida by a large margin. he's won in large states with big cities and diverse demographics. there is no one state that mitt romney needs to win from here until he secures the nomination. it's just a matter of building, building, building. >> the biggest problem mitt romney has is these debates have been horrible for the republican candidates. his unfavorables with independents now are over 50%. >> there's a long time. >> it's hard to change unfavorables. not been helpful. >> maybe. >> our primary in '08 was a long, tough one. you did not have these candidates with divisive rhetor rhetoric. if you remember back in 2008 --
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>> when you enter a general election and when everybody starts focusing on broemp, i thi barack obama, i think the tenor will change. you have candidates with many fronts so they'll do a little answering. when you get a coherent message, those numbers are very fungible. november is a long way away. we've got to go to commercial break. still ahead, going to talk about rising gas prices. president obama's energy speech has republicans laughing back at him. we'll talk about energy. growing up and breaking free. this is a story of a jewish woman who has a tell all. it's called unorthodox. absolutely fascinating read. we'll have that as well.
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>> talking about that $4 billion in energy subsidies for the oil and gas companies. the price of gas in nashua, where he was, was $3.75 a gallon which is expensive. people there are feeling it. obviously the white house, and i think across the board people would agree, an individual in the white house does not set the gas prices. clearly there has to be a long range solution. >> we're building electric cars. that's the answer. it's much bigger than that. it's not a partisan issue. we have a problem with issues in the middle east today. we also have china, india, brazil that are rapidly consuming more energy. this is a long-term problem. the president, we're drilling more than we've ever drilled before. he's approved more pipe lines. we're doing all of the above. we have huge problems in this nation about our consumption. we spend a billion dollars a day shipping money over to the middle east to buy oil to bring back to the united states. >> what's this car called? >> it's called my car green
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tech. >> do we have a picture? can you pop a picture up. my kids call this a cheese car. >> it's a good, little story. we went to china, bought one of their biggest car companies. it's all made in the united states of america. our production line has started. first week of july, july 4th, we're going to roll these cars out. we've sold a bunch to denmark. >> they can't go on the highway. >> they're called nevs. we're selling them for $15,000. our goal is it's not green unless it's affordably green. people have anxiety about buying electric cars. we're trying to build a vehicle that everybody can afford. it will get you 100 miles to a charge. 1.2 cents a mile. >> have you sold any in the united states? >> we sold the first one to denmark. they've purchased it because they're going very green over there. >> europe they have a lot of those cars. here in the united states you don't see them. >> go to green tech for america and sign up now. we've already sold out. >> how am i going to put my four kids in that car. >> we sold out the first year of
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production. we have great workers in mississippi. we've a uns noed a new factory in tunica. chinese company brought to america now made by u.s. workers and selling around the world. great american success story. we need to go electric. just remember, 80% of americans drive less than 25 miles a day. average is 17 miles. we waste one person one car driving to work inefficient use of energy. let's get electric. plug in at home, drive it, it's spectacular. national security. environment. it's creating u.s. workers. >> we'll continue this conversation about energy later. still ahead, a woman rejecting her roots as a hacidic jew. it's called unorthodox. it's a memoir. we'll talk to her straight ahead. it bother you that no one notices you?" and i'm like, "doesn't it bother you you're not reliable?" and they say, "shut up!" and i'm like, "you shut up." in business, it's all about reliability. 'cause these guys aren't just hitting "print." they're hitting "dream."
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people get to see from the inside. had a sid hasidic jews are silent. she was raced in williamsburg, brooklyn. her memoir describes an oppressive community. she was taught to believe that outsiders hated her. she entered into an arranged marriage at the age of 17 having only met her husband once. then on the eve of her 23rd birthday she left her husband and the community behind taking with her her 3-year-old son. the book is called "unorthodox, the scandal louse rejection of my hasidic roots."
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. deborah feldman joins me. we're talking about williamsburg, brooklyn. it does seem like it's another country. >> certainly it seemed for me. like for a long time i didn't really know that the sort of outside world existed. >> you were part of a sect called thatmar. it has the roots in hungary. what does that mean? >> what it means today is that the satmar rabbi who came over to the u.s. after the war because he survived the holocaust, he started a community that was sort of rooted in the belief that zionism was wrong and that the holocaust was a punishment for a sim mill lags and enlightenment. his idea was let's create an extreme community, an idealized ghetto, a place where we'll go back to our roots and start living like our ancestors did.
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>> which meant what specifically? >> which meant taking all the old ancient jewish traditions to an extreme. he introduced a lot of new customs and revived some old ones, including the shaving of women's heads after marriage. he decided to make that common practice. he asked the women to cover their shaved heads with scarves, wigs, hats and so on. >> what was the point behind all of that? it was to really hide most of your body to a large degree, long skirts? >> yeah. modesty for women has always been a part of the jewish tradition, it's part of our society, but his idea was if we can keep women very modest, then we can keep the men sin free. and we can keep our community holy. so he did everything he could to keep us as modest as possible. >> you write about your arranged marriage when you were 17 years old. you said you met your husband to be for 30 minutes. >> 30 minutes, yeah.
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i actually read the part of the book where i write about where we first met. it's funny. what can you talk about to a person that you're going to mary in 30 minutes? we talked about nothing whatsoever. i barely even remembered it afterwards. it was just silly, meaningless conversation. >> at the time did you think, this is so strange or is this just how you were brought up so, of course, this was so normal. >> normal to me. i did not think it was strange at all. no, it was what i expected my whole life. i knew it was going to happen. >> why did you rebell? how did you rebell? >> i rebelled because of my son mostly, because i don't think -- up until i had him i don't think i would have had the courage to leave. then he came into the world and i felt an enormous accepts of responsibility because if he had stayed, he would have gone to yashiba from 9:00 to 5:00 every day, he would have never gotten to go to college and have a future and enjoy life. i wanted him to have happiness. i didn't think it was fair to force the life i was living on to him.
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>> what was the backlash? >> they were just so angry. >> your mother had left? >> my mother left when i was very young. my mom is my trail blazer. she is very inspiring to me. she's brilliant. she's got a career that she loves. she's openly gay and i'm very proud of her for having the courage to come out. the community has a lot of condemnation for gay rights and gay people and when i was young they told me she was mentally ill because they see that as a mental illness. i love my mom. i'm so proud of her. >> what happens now? people are angry about the book. you give out a lot of secrets about a sect that most people don't know about and that the sect wants to keep it that way. >> i want to help others. i want to help women get out if they want to. i've gotten letters, so many letters from women who are trapped inside who say they're too scared to speak out but i'm speaking out and they want help. >> you're a writer. >> the thing about this book is
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i started writing it the day i left and i finished it nine months later. i think a lot of people feel the ending is so unsatisfying. what happened next? >> you built in a sequel. you are a good writer. >> thank you. >> thanks for coming in. >> thank you so much. >> the book is the end point here. we're going to take a short break. back in just a moment. re than you're supposed to and the clothes still weren't as clean as with tide. so we're back to tide. they're cuter in clean clothes. thanks, honey. yeah. you suck at folding. [ laughs ] [ female announcer ] just one dose of tide original liquid helps remove food stains better than an entire 40 load bottle of the leading liquid bargain brand. that's my tide. what's yours? my mom got a new car, so they stored her old car in a barn until i was old enough to drive. my parents put mothballs in the trunk to keep the critters out. they didn't realize that the smell would never leave the car.
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♪ amy and i have come together. this is from both of our play list. this is rhianna and jay-z. it's time for "end point" which is a summation of our thoughts today. who wants to start? >> "end point", we have to stop the disenfranchisement of voters. what happened 47 years ago, we have to make sure we're not denying people the right to vote. buy electric cars and mitt romney h to win ohio on a key southern state.
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>> you're covering all the ground. no one else has anything to add. >> i think the media reporter, i think of andrew breitbart. love him or hate him, you have to give him credit for being a pioneer of new media. how he invented himself on the web and incite people is pretty amazing. i think that's something to think about. i also think ohio isn't as important. >> you respectfully disagree. congressman? >> i think it's the incredible capacity for courage and people that rally to win another. the people that don't necessarily make the headlines and are just among us. it's the coach in ohio -- >> yeah, chardon, ohio. >> just doing something that is so exceptional and remarkable and not wanting credit for it. i think it's a common story that the people that are the most courageous, most -- should most likely be held up to our kids as role models are the ones that least want to be thought of as a hero. >> never get the time. we're talking a lot about snookie and not as much about the co
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