tonight. most americans would say get the help. if you have cancer, get treated. because he has a mental illness as i do, myself, and is fighting for his recovery, it somehow sparks and interest. we have a fascination with mental illness. it's something we don't understand very much. >> kennedy says he expects jackson to make an announcement about his political future in a few weeks. thanks for starting your morning with us. the next hour of "cnn saturday morning" starts right now. good morning, everyone. i'm randi kaye. it is 7:00 a.m. on the east coast. 4:00 a.m. on the east coast. thanks for waking up with us. we begin with a huge blow for the syrian regime. there are conflicting reports about whether syria's vice president defected. a spokesman for the rebel free

syrian army says he left the regime and the opposition is trying to get him to neighboring jordan. according to syrian state tv they issued a statement saying he didn't think for one second to leave the homeland. the rebels say they are worried he may have been forced to surrender. we'll have a live report on the breaking story minutes away. turning to u.s. politics and the race for the white house. we are looking at paul ryan's finances now that he's released his tax returns. in 2011, ryan and his wife reported a total income of just over $323,000. of that, the ryans paid almost $65,000 in taxes. that amounts to 20%. that 20% that ryan paid, well, that is a higher tax rate than what presidential hopeful mitt romney says he paid over two years. romney continues to resist calls

to open up more of his books. that's leading the obama team to ramp up the pressure. dan lothian has more for us. >> reporter: democrats want to know more about romney's personal finances. they have been hitting him on news shows and political ads. now, the obama campaign says they will stop asking questions if he releases three more years of tax returns. it's the political version of let's make a deal. if he releases tax returns the obama campaign will stop ads like this one. did he pay 5%, 10%, zero? we don't know. >> reporter: the letter came from an election campaign manager. governor romney apparently fears the more he offers the more our campaign will demand he provide. i'm prepared to provide

assurances on that point. if the governor will release five years in taxes, we will not criticize him for not releasing more. romney has been under pressure from democrats to be more transparent on taxes after he insisted on releasing two years of returns. some republicans urged him to do more to make the issue go away. he counters his personal taxes are not what voters care about. >> given the challenges america faces, 23 million people out of work, iran about to become nuclear, one out of six americans in poverty, the fascination with the taxes i pay i find to be small minded. >> reporter: he revealed he's paid no less than 13% over the past decade. ann romney admits making more returns public is a bad political move. >> the more we release, the more

we get attacked. >> reporter: it brings us back to this offer. it's clear he wants nothing more than to talk about tax returns instead of the issues that matter to voters. he signs off, see you in denver. deputy white house spoksman was asked to defend this line of attack. >> the fact is, governor romney has it within his capacity to put the questions to rest by the end of the day today. i think the voters do have an expectation about transparency. that is important. >> reporter: republicans point out that here you have the white house talking about transparency when they charge the white house has not been transparent. employees using personal e-mail

accounts for business. you won't find a poll out there that shows americans care more about this than jobs in the economy. >> dan, thank you very much. new this morning, health officials are warning people to throw out cantaloupe from indiana because of a salmonella outbreak. two people are dead, 141 people sickened from the fruit. this is affecting 20 states seen highlights here on your screen. there you go. don't try to wash the fruit. the outside and the inside could be infected. last year, 29 people dieed from a listeria outbreak in cantaloupe. now to colorado. a 29-year-old hiker is expected to face animal cruelty charges after leaving his dog stranded. he left the dog after a storm rolled in. he was worried about his safety

and the dog's feet were injured. a group of hikers went up and rescued the dog later. he didn't make an attempt to go back and get the dog and assumed it was dead. we have a lot more ahead this hour. take a look. >> rich folks don't need governments. rich people take care of themselves. >> a new documentary sheds light on a financial crisis. the one document she says started it all. neonazis, white supremacists and kkk. they are not dying out. we are putting hate in the usa in focus. later, whitney houston's "sparkle" is out in theaters. it's a bittersweet celebration. ♪ [ slap! ] [ slap! slap! slap! slap! ] ow! [ male announcer ] when your favorite foods fight you, fight back fast with tums smoothies. so fast and smooth,

you'll forget you had heartburn. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums [ male announcer ] tums smoothies. but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. with snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. you're not filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today.

why not take a day to explore your own backyard? with two times the points on travel, you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. there's more to enjoy. and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning you can feel. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with a patented safety alert seat. when there's danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all-new cadillac xts has arrived, and it's bringing the future forward.

more now on a breaking story we are following this morning. syrian rebels claim they are trying to get the vice president to a safe house in neighboring jordan. the vice president has left the regime. he tells cnn he fears the government may have intercepted his family forcing him to surrender. adding to the confusion, the state tv issuing a statement denying he intended to leave syria. we'll continue to follow this breaking story with a live report in minutes. a man accused of shooting a man will not be released on bond. instead, a mental health evaluation. there's an interesting debate going on right now, who is to blame for the shooting. here is what tony perkins said. >> perkins was given a license

to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the southern poverty law center that have been reckless in organizing hate groups because they disagree with them. >> they call the accusation outrageous. the group released a statement saying this, in part, the splc listed the frc as a hate group since 2010 because they knowingly spread false propaganda about lesbian and gays not because of same-sex marriage. the attack wasn't a random act of violence. two weeks ago, a lone gunman went on a shooting spree killing six. that gunman was a white supremacist. statistics show hate groups are on the rise in this country. they counted more than 1,000 known hate groups operating in the u.s. last year.

the fbi reports 7,000 hate crimes. look at this chart here. it shows hate groups in america in the last decade. it's certainly a disturbing trend. it's why we are putting hate in the usa in focus this morning. this hour, we want to discuss the presence of white supremacy groups. some say it's more prominent than you think. chris lawrence explains. the military has strict rules saying troops cannot be a member of a white power group or have any sort of racist tattoos on their body. there are a small number of believers in the ranks. they are everywhere from boot camp all the way up to special operations forces. wade michael page's belief was tattooed all over his body. back at fort bragg you wouldn't tell by looking at it.

>> he didn't have the tattoos in the army. >> page wasn't shy about sharing his views and ranted against non-white people. >> he often mentioned the racial holy war that was coming. >> a criminologist said he identified with the movement while in the army. he thought african-american soldiers got preferential treatment. >> what he told me is if you join the military and you are not a racist then you certainly will be by the time you leave. >> pictures like this were posted on facebook. the fbi identified hundreds of veterans involved. federal investigators say small numbers of white supremacists infiltrated the military. while page was at fort bragg in 1995 three soldiers were kougt murdering a black soldier. they were neonazi skin heads.

they kicked out dozens of soldiers. the problem goes beyond one base. >> every military installation you have two or three active neonazi organizations. he's a former marine and skin head who says some military units ignore overt racism. >> i hung a swastika flag on my wall locker. the only time they asked me to take it down is when the commanding general came through so they wouldn't get in trouble. >> that's not to say that's the case across the board. in his brother's unit, his brother's commander took an extremely hard line on why power and any sort of racist propaganda and would crack down on it immediately. the military has strict rules in this regard. sometimes it comes down to how much the individual commander is going to enforce them.

>> chris lawrence, thank you for that report. as chris mentioned, the pentagon has a zero tolerance policy for racist hate groups. it doesn't mean individuals are slipping in. should the military do more to present it. retired general, thanks for being here. an army spokesman admitted to cnn there are concerns about extremists in the ranks. he added this, however the numbers i understand kated are an extremely small about linked to gang or hate group-type crimes. how widespread is it in the military as a whole? do we know? >> it is outside the norms that the military accepts. can individuals hold these ideas? can they try to practice according to what their bizarre

or distorted view is? yeah, they can. it goes back to one fundamental point. what do leaders do about it when they observe and can they observe this behavior? the f the individual commander or leader does something about it, you are going to correct the problem. my view of that and all military leaders view of this is that is the fundamental responsibility of the leader. it's not optional to exercise your control to ensure regulations and the consideration of others are foremost in terms of the development of the soldiers. from day one, all members of the military are trained to respect others, consider others, to practice their craft in a self-less way.

>> walk us through the process, then, of recruitment. what are the guidelines and steps. how could someone like wade michael page slip through? >> keep it in context as well. he joined the military in the early '90s. the access of information, the ability to google to get online and have a retrieval of information was difficult to do and had to be done in a gum shoe way. very analog. it still could be done and was done. you have, at a minimal step, a national agency check. what that means is they check with the fbi to see if there's an indicator or problem in his past. also, you have the irs to see if this guy is above board and doing what he needs to do as a citizen. then, when the individual walks into the recruiting station, this is the point of sale. this is where the interaction occurs. if the guy has tattoos, you get

an opportunity to look at the tattoos and bring an expert in to see what they mean. i may look at a tattoo and have no clue what it says. body art, this is a bad thing. >> it could be telling. we heard in the report, it's not unheard of for some soldiers or marines to hang swastika flags on their lockers. it's up to individual commanders to monitor. why isn't there a top down policy banning this type of behavior? >> it is banned. the fact that marine said everybody in his command accept the portrayal of the hanging of the swastika in his locker is unacceptable. i would challenge that man to say is that a truthful representation of what occurred.

when you see that, when you see the body art, it's a flag of indicator of behavior, you remove the individual and go after it quickly. you take it down immediately. it's what leaders do. what commanders do. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. coming up in the next hour, meet a man who lived a life of hate as a white supremacist for years but turned his life around. what made him change his ways? >> new video released of a man shot to death in a police car. they hope to put to rest a question of whether it was suicide or homicide. you get a chance to weigh in in moments. [ male announcer ] imagine facing the day with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain.

imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes. tell your doctor about all your medicines, including those for migraine and while on cymbalta, call right away if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles or serious allergic skin reactions like blisters, peeling rash, hives, or mouth sores to address possible life-threatening conditions. talk about your alcohol use, liver disease and before you reduce or stop cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. ask your doctor about cymbalta.

imagine you with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer. now the mystery surrounding a young man shot in the back of a police car while he was handcuffed. he died that night on july 29th. police say it was suicide. others aren't sure. police released this dashcam video. you can see carter by the side of the pick-up truck. two other men were in the truck. carter is patted down. the officer doesn't find a gun and he's not handcuffed. he was led to the police car. he was put in the backseat,

again, not handcuffed. here's another part of the video. they patted him down a second time after finding drugs in the truck. they put him back in the same squad car in the backseat, handcuffed this time. >> i patted him down. we were talking about to get back into the car we thought we heard a finny noise. we heard a pop and he was leaned over. he was handcuffed behind him. >> carter's mom doesn't buy that her son shot himself. police say it is possible. look at this re-enactment video. the officer is pulling a gun out from behind him and putting it to his head showing how it might have happened. now police say they are waiting on a complete autopsy and forensics report while they work on the investigation. so you have seen the re-enactment and heard what the

police say. people in the community are skeptical. what do you think happened the night he died? tweet me. we'll read your responses on air later this morning. a battle is brewing over the future of medicare. paul ryan finds himself at the center of it all. how his budget proposal could shape the debate in the 2012 campaign. iness people like you, things are beginning to get rolling. and regions is here to help. making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together.

the conversation is turning serious on the campaign trail where a battle is brewing. joining me is politics.com brian monroe. good morning. paul ryan says, quote, this is a

debate we want to have. it is a debate we will win. are republicans trying to define this issue, do you think in the cuts in the program on their turns rather than let the democrats do all the talking on this one? >> randi, i think you are right. this has been controversial from the time mitt romney picked paul ryan. the democrats have wanted to go after ryan because he is the author of the republican plan that would change dramatically, some people say, medicare as we know it. what's happening lately is romney has been on the attack saying the obama plan will cut 700 plus billion out of medicare but the obama campaign is saying that's not true. it's not factual. if you look at the ind pendaepe budget, they show how much they are spending by reducing payments to doctors, big

pharmaceutical companies, equipment manufacturers, reducing the cost of medicare instead of taking money out and services out. there's a big debate there. >> certainly. the obama team broke out a white board with an ad to rebut romney's claims. let's listen to the ad. >> i'm barack obama and i approve this message. >> now romney is attacking the president on medicare. the aarp says obama care cracks down on medicare, fraud, waste and abuse and strengthens guaranteed benefits. the ryan plan says it would underline medicare and higher costs for seniors. the voucher plan could raise future retirees 6, $000. get the facts. >> what do you say about that one? >> that's why you have paul ryan

in florida today. he'll be in orlando trying to shore up his plan, the romney plan. his mother is going to tour around florida with him. it's all to go after the older vote, making sure they don't feel they are going to be undercut and lose their benefits and services. the ryan plan only goes after those under 55, you and me. >> exactly. seniors are paying close attention to this one. nice to see you. thank you. >> thanks a lot. as a member of the syrian regime's inner circle fled the country? there are reports about the where abouts about the senior vice president. we have a live report, straight ahead. with the spark miles card from capital one,

thor's couture gets the most rewards of any small business credit card. your boa! [ garth ] thor's small business earns double miles on every purchase, every day! ahh, the new fabrics, put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? the spiked heels are working. wait! [ garth ] great businesses deserve the most rewards! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? [ cheers and applause ] what's in your wallet? it's time to live... wider awake. only the beautyrest recharge sleep system combines the comfort of aircool memory foam layered on top of beautyrest pocketed coils to promote proper sleeping posture all night long.