campaigns this morning. cnn is going in-depth, taking a look at the jobs crisis in america. larry summers, chicago school board pesident david vitale, nfl stars brendan ayanbadejo and wade davis and "american idol" judge randy jackson. >> it is monday, september soth. "starting point" begins right now. we begin with breaking news. parents in scramble mode right now. a teacher strike shutting down the nation's third largest public school system this morning. late last night labor talks between the chicago teachers union and school officials broke off. the walkout this morning impacting 400,000 students in nearly 700 schools. >> we have failed to reach an agreement that will prevent a labor strike.

>> you know, this is not a small commitment we're making at a time when our fiscal responsibility, our fiscal situation, is really challenged. >> casey wian is live from chicago. casey, chicago hasn't seen a teachers strike in 25 years. what's actually holding up this deal? >> well, it's interesting, zoraida, because the teachers union says that they've come pretty close in these negotiations that have been going on for eight months, and intensified over the weekend, to reaching a deal on the financial aspects of this. the school district says it has offered over four years an average 16% raise for chicago teachers. doesn't seem to be a big sticking point. what the teachers union says they are concerned about, though, are job security issues and working conditions at the schools. they say that a new evaluation system for teachers that is being proposed could cost 6,000 teachers their jobs over the next year or two. they also say they want to maintain their existing health

benefits. now, some people, though, cannot believe that this strike actually happened. and one of them who says it's not necessary is chicago mayor rahm emanuel. >> i am disappointed that we have come to this point, given that even all the parties acknowledge how close we are. because this is a strike of choice. and because of how close we are, it is a strike that is unnecessary. and i believe that the parties at hand should do what they need to do to do right by our children. >> now, within the next half hour or so, teachers are supposed to show up on picket lines to begin the official action of that strike. also, parents who are working parents wondering what they're going to be doing with their children this morning, they do have an option that some of them say is not so great. schools like the one behind me are going to be open for four hours this morning starting at 8:30 local time to provide child care. not teaching to these students. what will be interesting to see is if parents -- teachers are

striking, and on the picket line out here, whether parents are actually going to be willing to allow their children to cross that picket line to go into these facilities. >> casey wian live for us in chicago. chicago school board president david vitale says they're close to an agreement. he's going to join us live in our next hour with an update on the talks. look at some other top for veries. new details on a tense situation unfolding right now near detroit. it's an armed standoff with an accused cop killer. the west bloomfield police department confirms to cnn that one of its officers, who was shot late last night, has died. they're not naming the officer, but we know he is a 12-year veteran of the police force. he was responding to reports of gunfire in a home when the suspect turned his gun on the police. the armed suspect is now barricaded in that home. power is starting to come back to millions of people who lost power in cuba. affected areas included all of havana, more than 2 million people there, cuba has an aging

power grid so brief oughtages aren't unprecedented, by following a big storm a massive outage on this scale is really rare there. the west side state run newspaper blames the outage on a transmission line that feeds the western tip of the island. president barack obama's numbers are looking up on two fronts this morning. his campaign says it raised more than mitt romney did in the month of august. a total of $114 million. compared to mitt romney's $111 million. more than half of that came from 1.1 million people who donated an average of $58 each. and the latest gallup daily tracking poll shows a post-convention bounce for the president. he leads mitt romney 49% to 44%. that is up one percentage point from before the democratic national convention. president obama's thoughts and prayers are with the family of a florida police officer who died in a crash during a presidential motorcade. jupiter police officer bruce st.

laurent was killed when a pickup truck hit his motorcycle on i-95 in west palm beach. office st. laurent was a 20-year veteran who spent 18 of those years on the motorcycle patrol. that accident is being investigated as vehicular homicide. it's too soon to tell whether tulane football player devon walker will be permanently paralyzed. he's in intensive care in an oklahoma hospital after doctors stabilized his fractured spine during a three-hour operation yesterday. walker was injured saturday during the last play of the first half in a game against tulsa. doctors say it could take up to 72 hours to determine the full extent of his injuries. >> wow. football is back and so is peyton manning. playing his first regular season game for the denver broncos. and first game in 20 months after four neck surgeries. he threw for 253 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-19 win over the steelers. tim tebow making his debut with the new york jets.

but for once he wasn't the story. tebow finished with five rushes for 11 yards, starting mark sanchez in total control. jets win 48-28 over buffalo. >> ouch. the u.s. open serena williams pushed to the limit on her way to a fourth title there. serena rallied to force a third set tiebreaker and beat top ranked victoria azarenka last night in new york city. she became the first 30-something woman to win a grand slam since 1987, and it is her 15th grand slam title overall. the men play today. novak djokovic and andy murray in their final. >> look at those arms. all right, so congress will be back at work today for an abbreviated pre-election session. we are expecting more of the same. which is. >> not much. >> yeah. a live picture now. >> beautiful. looks nice. their main focus will probably be the bare minimum, preventing

a full-on government shutdown later this month. >> also we're expecting illinois congressman jesse jackson jr. to return to the hill for the first time since may after he checked out of the mayo clinic where he was treated for depression. athena jones is following all of the developments from capitol hill. a busy monday morning for you. good morning, athena. >> good morning. well guys as you know this congress isn't really known for getting a whole lot done. and as you mentioned, the only must-pass legislation is a short term spending measure to fund the government through the end of the year. that has to get to the president's desk by the end of this month. and we can say with almost certainty that's going to happen. the house is expected to vote on that bill on thursday and we're told the senate will get to it next week. but beyond that, it's really a big question mark. a lot of things that they might pass or could past. one of those things is the farm bill. there's still some division, some differences between the house version and the senate

version. if they can reconcile those they can get that passed. if they can't we might see some drought assistance and aid to people hit hard by hurricane isaac. get put into that spending measure. but you know the fact that they haven't been able to get a whole lot done probably plays in to what their poll ratings are. 12% approval. 82% disapproval for congress as of right now in the recent poll. ali? >> wow. you would think that might prompt them to do something differently considering there's an election coming up. thanks very much. >> thanks. and coming up in about 20 minutes, illinois senator dick durbin is going to join us live. >> you've already had so much back and forth on the campaign trail one side says this, the other one says that, who are you supposed to believe with all the spin out there? so over the next three weeks cnn is going to size up exactly where barack obama and mitt romney stand on issue after issue so you can decide. today we're talking about jobs. this is the most important issue to most people in america.

and with us we've got larry summers. you know him, currently a professor at harvard university. former treasury secretary under president bill clinton. former director of the national economic council for president obama. and for better or for worse, mr. summers, you are the architect of many of the things that this administration has done. so you're a perfect person to talk to about this. welcome to the show. >> glad to be with you. >> all right. let's talk about the jobs numbers. came out on friday. by many -- by a lot of analysis a disappointment. although compared to august it wasn't all that bad. 96,000 jobs created. but here's where all the discussion is. the unemployment rate went from 8.3% down to 8.1%. because so many people left the workforce. 368,000 people left the workforce in august, and that has created a lot of speculation as to who those 368,000 people are. are they retirees? are they people who went to

school? or are they people who left the workforce because they were disillusioned? what's your take? >> no question some of them were people who were disillusioned. this number is in line with what we've been seeing for some time. the economy was in a very deep valley. three years ago. we are climbing out of that valley. but we're not climbing that fast and we're still not out of the valley. but at the same time, where other countries in the world are still going down, united states is climbing. frankly we have climbed faster if we'd been able to implement the full set of policies this president had wanted to and not been blocked by that congress with 12% approval that you were talking about a little earlier. >> the problem with this though is that as people go to the polls in 57 days they have to make a choice as to which president is going to do more for the economy. and if president barack obama is

re-elected, and you still have the intransigence in washington that we have seen for the last 3 1/2 years, nothing more is going to get done. so doesn't that auger for mitt romney being elected? because he'll have a friendlier congress? >> hardly. president obama wants to take us in the right direction. he wants to stop teachers from being laid off. he wants to take advantage of a moment with 2% interest rates, less than 2% interest rates, with construction unemployment in excess of 15% to fix the nation's schools, to build the nation's infrastructure. he wants to support the federal reserve in keeping interest rates down, not try to undermine the independence of the federal reserve. he wants to facilitate for all the people who can meet their obligations, bringing down the mortgage rates by making available refinancing. candidate romney has resisted that. and president obama wants to maintain low taxes for people who are about to spend the money

and inject it back into the economy, and governor romney wants to go in the opposite direction. i think if there's a clear mandate in this election for the approach we're taking, that there will be a recognition in congress of the need to take further steps, and president obama has shown with the last year, with the measures he's taken with respect to housing, with the measures he's taken to support small businesses, that he is able to act, even in a difficult political environment. but most important, president obama is taking the country in the right direction. he's recognizing that this is a moment when we need to put construction workers back to work. this is a moment when it is madness in the short run, and in the long run, to be doing nothing and sitting by while hundreds of thousands of teachers and first responders are laid off. >> let me ask you about this, mitt romney and then paul ryan

made a statement that they can create 12 million jobs over four years in their first term, that's 250,000 jobs a month on average, for four years. now, i'm going to talk to you about whether that's possible or not in a second, but very shortly thereafter, it sounded like a strange offer to me, but stephanie cutter, who works for the obama campaign said this shortly thereafter. listen. >> economic forecasters already said over the course of the next four years, if we stay on the president's plan, we'll create 12 million jobs. >> larry summers, you are not a party hack, you are an economist, a very accomplished economist. listen to this, this has only happened three times in the history of the world. in america. the first time was under fdr where growth was 8.4%. the second time was under ronald reagan where economic growth was 3.4%. the third time was under bill clinton where the economic growth was 3.9%. right now it's 1.7%.

that's the latest reading we have. next year is estimated to be 2.3%. it is just not feasible that over the course of four years starting from the next presidential term that 12 million jobs are going to be created. why did the democrats get on that bandwagon? >> well, i'm afraid you're not right. >> about what? >> i think stephanie cutter was accurately quoting what the consensus of expert economists -- >> that's not what i asked you. that's not what i asked you. >> half of them are democrats. there will be -- my expectation is that 12 million plus or minus a bit, one never knows precisely, is a reasonable forecast, and i think what you're not recognizing when you're so pessimistic is that the fact that we are in this valley means we have much more room to climb, and there's much more room for jobs to expand -- increase, and expand, than would normally be -- >> so do you --

>> and that's why it is reasonable over the next four years. >> do you doubt the consensus estimate that the u.s. will grow by under 2.5% in 2013? because we're going to go gang busters in 2014 and 2015. i'll back up the truck and buy u.s. equities, invest in everything u.s. something's going to happen that is somehow going to make the u.s. one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, possibly growing as fast as india? >> well, india's slowed -- india's -- india's slowed way down. you don't need 7%, 8%, growth rates you're seeing in asia to produce that kind of job creation. but the fundamental point is there are a set of dynamics that are coming into play, most important of which is that we've been creating close to 1 million households each year, and we've been building far fewer number of houses because of the excess inventories. those inventories are now most of them worked off and so most economists expect housing construction to pick up, and if we give it that final boost by carrying through on the

president's housing plan, as will happen if he is re-elected, then we'll be in a position to reap that kind of benefit. we're seeing a set of adjustments that are -- that are in place. so i have to tell you that i do think that the forecast of 250,000 jobs a month, which is what's implicit in the 12 million job figure, is a reasonable estimate over the four-year period if the president is re-elected. and is able to carry through on his programs. >> so you've talked about what can be done domestically. we have intransigence in washington which stands in the way of that kind of growth number that you're suggesting will be higher than mine. you haven't put one out there. what about europe? i mean europe is certainly a headwind, it's got to be responsible for at least some of the loss of jobs that we -- or the lack of growth in jobs, the loss of those manufacturing jobs. you have -- you're that optimistic despite the fact that europe hasn't quite got its act together yet?

>> i'm -- i'm encouraged. i'm encouraged by what mario draghi did last week. the set of commitments he made to support the nations that are in the most difficulty on the basis of rigorous conditions, yeah, i think that is a sign that the european situation may be coming under some control. and that, by the way, is a credit to the international pressure that has been brought on to europe. europe has moved too slowly. but it has moved, and that's a reflection of the enormous effort secretary geithner has put in to supporting europe. the enormous effort that the president personally has put in to conversations with chancellor merkel, president hollande and the other european leaders. >> do you think the fed should do something this week in terms

of qe-3? >> you know old treasury secretary habits die hard. so i'm not going to prescribe or predict what the fed does. i have to say, i have to say that i have been really disturbed by the rhetoric on the republican side, which has at some junctures come close to threatening. the federal reserve and suggesting that somehow this is a moment when more austerity from the fed to do something for the economy. that's not what small business owners who need to finance their inventories across this country think. that's not what homeowners who are having a very difficult time but the one silver lining in it is low mortgage rates. that's not what they think. i certainly don't think this is the time to be attacking the fed on the side of austerity. >> larry summers, pleasure to talk to you. thanks very much for being with us. >> thank you. >> all right. if you've got a personal

economic story you'd like to share visit the cnn ireport website. check out our assignment page and let us know, simple question. are you better off now than you were four years ago? >> and ahead on "starting point," mixing politics and religion. the family research council trying to motivate christians to pray for the presidential election, vote, rc president tony perkins joins us live next. >> and teaching kids how to pole dance? parents are outraged at one dance studio's new gimmick. wait till you hear this. you're watching "starting point." [ male announcer ] now you can swipe... scroll... tap... pinch... and zoom... in your car. introducing the all-new cadillac xts with cue.

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welcome back. it is 22 minutes past the hour. just two days after democrats pulled up stakes and left charlotte after their convention, two conservative groups held an event there. encouraging christians to get out to the polls. it was called i pledge. and simulcast to churches across the country, headliners included actor kirk cameron. >> one of our political parties right now is wondering if the name god should be in the platform. according to our forefathers god is the platform. >> tony perkins is the president of the family research council. he hosted the i pledge event and his group claims 500,000 members throughout the country, there's a strong voice for many conservatives. thank you for being with us this

morning. we appreciate it. >> good morning, zoraida, how are you? >> i'm doing well. thank you for being with us. so same-sex marriage is in the democrats 2012 platform but they had to especially add back in a reference to god during their convention. the democrats say it was simply an oversight. what is your reaction to that? >> well, you know, i said it gets kind of -- when you supersize government with cradle-to-grave programs, i guess it's kind of a challenge to make room for god on the tray. you know the fact it was an oversight, they say it's an oversight, okay. oversight. but nobody, you know, two days into the convention, oh, mr. president, by the way, we didn't, we forgot to put in that we support unlimited access to taxpayer funding of abortion, or oh, mr. president we forgot to put in that we support the redefinition of marriage. i think that a lot of people question whether or not it was oversight or whether it's a reflection of the president and his party and this call for the separation of church and state. i think this is really the

outcome. it's not a separation of church and state. it ultimately is a separation of god from government. i think that's what we saw in the democrats original platform. >> it was president obama who called to add it back in, saying he'd like it to reflect the 2008 platform. the family research council co-hosted the event this weekend, and it was called i pledge sunday. what was the goal of that event? >> well, zoraida, it was designed to reach, as you mentioned, churches across the nation. we had over 2500 locations, every state was represented, either in church or a small group home setting. and it was a call to faith, family and freedom. and it was a recognition of the issues facing our nation, whether it's the economy of the $16 trillion in debt that we have. which is a moral issue. or it was the issue of marriage, or life, or religious liberties which we find under attack today. and it was a call for them to pray for our nation, pray for our leaders, pray for the upcoming election, to prepare by registering and registering two or more friends to vote, and

then taking the pledge to actually vote on november the 6th. and what we ask people to do was go to i pledge to vote the number two, vote dot org and take the pledge to vote. we had a great event. >> i'd like to turn to the shooting. how is leo johnson? he was the man who was wounded in that attack. >> zoraida, thank you for asking about leo. he's doing much better. he had a little setback, had to go back into the hospital. but he's back out. we expect him to make a full recovery and we're very grateful for the concern that people across not only this nation but literally around the world. i was just amazed how many people see what took place at frc and leo and our staff. he's going to make a full recovery. this raises concerns that many have in this arena that we're in as we discuss issues, and we are going to continue to discuss these issues from a fact-based position. but we do think that the

rhetoric has gotten out of hand, where people are labeling organizations in an effort to marginalize them. >> i'd actually like to talk about that. first of all, we're very happy that leo is doing well and wish him well in his continued recovery. so you have a press conference right after that shooting and said this about the suspect. >> corkins was given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the southern poverty law center that have been reckless in labeling organizations hate groups because they disagree with them on public policy. >> and you blame the southern poverty law center in part for that shooting because it labels you as a hate group. saying, on its website that quote, this is what they say, the family research council builds itself as a leading voice for the family in our nation's halls of power but its real specialty is defaming gays and lesbians. do you think that that is an unjust assessment that they make of your organization?

>> without question. and what really has transpired here is that the southern poverty law center is working with homosexual groups that will trying to redefine marriage and they're going in like they did in minnesota, actually, where there was a school that had a policy that was neutral on, you know, homosexuality. and a parents group was supportive of that policy, the splc went in to that district to try to enforce a pro-homosexual policy and labeled the parents group as a hate group. just like they're doing to pro-marriage groups across the country. and look, we can differ on policies, and we can have -- we can have a debate about what is the best direction for the nation to go. and that's healthy. that's how our policies are made. so it's always been that way. we come with different views and we arrive at a consensus. but when you start using these packed and loaded words that are

designed to incite and entice people that becomes very destructive. and that's what the southern poverty law center is doing. so we're calling on people, look, let's have the debate. but bring the facts to the table. let's arrive at a consensus. but let's stop inciting what literally is at the point of taking lives of people. that's wrong. that has to stop. and we're not going to tolerate that at all. >> i know that your organization does not condone violence. tony perkins, president of the family research council. we certainly appreciate your time this morning. >> thank you, zoraida. have a great day. >> you, too. >> all right. just ahead on "starting point," a dance studio offering pole dancing classes to kids as young as 5. >> how do you feel about this? >> look at this. it's weird. the owner says parents are asking for the classes themselves. details next. g. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada...

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as we know it is very hard getting kids off the couch. we have an opinion on this. and off their phones, but i bet you've never thought of this activity for your preteen daughter. pole dancing. >> so let's show you the flyer. this is from a dance studio in canada, over on the far west coast in british columbia, called twisted grip, offering what they call, quote, little spinner pole dancing classes for kids as young as 5. their words, not ours. while this may sound totally inappropriate the dance class instructor says there's nothing wrong with it at all. >> there's nothing provocative. there's nothing -- nothing sexual about it. it's pure fitness, and strength, and fun. i mean, kids love climbing trees. they'll climb anything. >> did you hear what she just said? kids climb trees. they would have a ball doing this. so -- >> sure. pole dancing. for little kids. >> we want to know what you think. >> $70, by the way. >> i think it's a great idea.

it's really good for the core and something the kids can do with their moms. >> i've been working on the core a lot. i'm engaging it rye now and i don't even have to have a pole. >> ahead on "starting point," the money race is on. president obama announces a huge cash grab and mitch romney is not going to like it. >> illinois senator dick durbin joins us next. you are watching "starting point."

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welcome back to "starting point." let's take a quick look at your top stories. for the first time in 25 years, chicago teachers are on strike. contract talks broke down late last night. even though school officials insist they offered everything they could in a four-year contract that included a 16% pay raise over the life of the deal. 30,000 teachers and aides in the nation's third largest public school system set to walk picket lines this morning.

you're taking a live look there in chicago. this impacts 400,000 students in nearly 700 schools. all right going to the other side of the world, quote our fighters are coming to get you. that is a warning from a jordanian militant with links to al qaeda to syria's president bashar al assad. abu sayaff making that threat in a speech yesterday saying his group will launch deadly attacks inside syria to help topple assad. security officials say abu say ef is the head of a group that has produced several al qaeda linked militants who have fought u.s. forces in iraq and afghanistan over the past ten years. new developments, and major worries, about iraq's fragile government this morning after the country's fugitive vice president was sentenced to death. vice president tariq al hashemi, iraq's top sunni politician, who fled the country months ago, was sentenced to hang for killing two people. he was also accused of running a death squad. al hashemi says the charges were

politically motivated. a president pumping pizza parlor owner is the talk of the campaign trail this morning. the owner of big apple pizza in melbourne, florida, got a little closer to the president than most voters will ever get. and probably a little closer than the secret service enjoyed. look at this. >> good to see you. >> look at that. look at that. >> i'm so excited. >> the owner is scott von deucer, stands 6'3", weighs 260 pounds and is able to bench 350 pounds, which is basically more than two of the president. >> by the way a registered republican who voted for obama back in 2008. the so obama campaign getting a big fund-raising boost for august. the campaign says it pulled in $114 million last month. >> now this is the first time in four months that the president has outraised mitt romney. romney campaign says it raised $111 million in august.

$3 million less than the obama team did. illinois senator dick durbin, the number two democrat in the united states senate, is here with us. good morning, senator. good to see you. >> i'm buying that guy's pizza. >> yeah, no kidding. under any circumstances. senator, thank you for being with us. this convention bounce, let's just talk about this for a second. gallup has a daily tracking poll and it shows that the choice for president obama right now is 49%, versus last tuesday, which is 47%. mitt romney has gone from 46% down to 44%. a two-point switch over to president obama. is that a convention bounce or is it something else? >> well, i think it could be partially the convention. somewhat the economic news. it's been a positive experience. you know, some of the speeches there, michelle's speech i think was the most-watched speech as of that point from both conventions. and then bill clinton's speech, which for many of us who are political animals, was a tour de force for the whole campaign to end on a positive, forward thrust. and the president hit it out of

the park. so we felt it was a great convention. very little dissension. everybody together. a lot of energy coming out of it. >> let's go back to talking about the fund-raising. the money at hand. what do these numbers tell you? because it is the first time that president obama has raised more money than mitt romney. and it takes a lot of money to make a campaign successful. >> well, remember the super pac world is raising millions and millions of dollars in support of romney. 17 angry old white men are coming up with millions of dollars to try to, of course, push for their candidates. but if you happen to own a cell phone and you ever gave a nickel to a candidate, you're being inundated every day by requests for money. on our side, on the obama said, five, six, eight different solicitations every day. we're getting this basic support of individuals across america. we believe they have to ral little for the president at this point, otherwise the super pacs are going to own the television stations. >> senator, we were talking to larry summers this morning about unemployment, and about the economy and the united states.

one of the big issues we're facing is this fiscal flip. a lot of people carry on about it a lot and a lot of people say you're overreacting, congress will ultimately in the 11th hour get down to it. you know there are real reasons why you can't wait until the last minute on this, particularly companies that need to warn their employees that they're going to get laid off if they don't get their government contracts renewed. this is a real problem for an economy that is not growing quickly enough. you have a particular plan to get this off the table, at least for the short term. >> i do. and of course, it's contingent on a president who will work with you, and it's based on the re-election of president obama, to be very open with you about it. i don't know what would happen with a president romney because as bill clinton said the arithmetic doesn't work for what he has proposed. but with president obama i think we need in a lame duck session to move toward a plan with certainty. that we're going to resolve this, bring down the deficit, follow the lines of the simpson-bowles commission, give the committees jurisdiction and my plan six months to get this job done, and in the meantime, show good faith by reducing

deficit, reducing spending during that six-month period. i think there's a sentiment for that in the senate. i can't speak for the house. the tea party people there are pretty hard to deal with. but when it comes to the senate, i think there's a bipartisan sentiment to have that happen in the lame duck. otherwise the uncertainty doesn't help anyone. >> i think a lot of people are concerned about that right. they're worried that congress will not act, that they won't do anything on behalf of the american people. >> it would be a disaster. if you take a look at everything that's going to happen at the end of the year it's going to affect everyone. not just the wealthiest. it will affect every family. the reason we've set up this so-called cliff or steep slope is to force congress to act. to come together on a bipartisan basis. and people say well that's harsh medicine. that's strong medicine. it's the only way. it'sed only way to get a responsible reaction -- >> but it hasn't worked. the debt ceiling debate took us right to the edge and beyond the edge. isn't that dangerous? because now it becomes clear, or at least it's starting to become clear, that this wasn't a congressional threat, this was from the white house to say look you guys better work, you better

do something or the country's going to stand in peril. guess what? the country is in peril. >> i think what the president and congress agreed to is harsh medicine of this fiscal cliff was an understanding without this there are always excuses. put it off till tomorrow. don't do it. but simpson-bowles said over a ten-year period of time let's honestly, responsibly reduce this deficit and in the meantime not kill the recovery. now we have a chance to do that. and i think we can. and the american people will -- i think they'll buy it if you put everything on the table, treat it fairly, starting with revenue, making sure that everyone pays their fair share of taxes. then we can get down to the basics. making sure medicare survives this, and doesn't, you know, end up being lost in the sauce when it's all over. >> senator durbin i can't let you go without asking you about the schools in chicago. you know, they're on strike. this is the first time in 5 years. and there's an impasse. do you have any idea how to get beyond that impasse? >> well, i don't have the durbin plan for solving this. but i'll tell you, more than 1,000 kids, 200,000-plus

families this morning, had the harsh reality of no place to go. what are these families going to do? i mean you've got to find a place, are you going to stay home from work today because of this? what's going to happen to your son or daughter? both sides need to get back to the table as quickly as possible and really stay and negotiate through the night if necessary, get it over with quickly so that we can get these kids back in school. >> all right. thank you so much senator dick durbin. appreciate you stopping by this morning. ahead on "starting point" clint eastwood speaking out about his now empty chair. the famous one next to him at the republican convention. we'll tell you about that. >> announcer: with nothing but his computer, an identity thief is able to use your information to open a bank account in order to make your money his money. [whoosh, clang] you need lifelock, the only identity theft protection company that now monitors bank accounts for takeover fraud. lifelock: relentlessly protecting your identity. call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today.

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welcome back to "starting point." it is one of the most memorable moments from the rnc after clint eastwood's improvised remarks

featuring that empty chair. >> what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him to do that. can't do that to himself. you're -- you're crazy. you're -- you're absolutely crazy. you're getting as bad as biden. >> eastwood is now speaking out for the first time since that speech. the actor and director tells the publisher of his hometown paper "the carmel pine cone" that his speech was unscripted, and spontaneous. >> eastwood says, quote, there was a stool there, and some fellows kept asking me if i wanted to sit down. when i saw the stool sitting there it gave me the idea. i'll just put the stool out there and i'll talk to mr. obama and ask him why he didn't keep all of the promises he made to everybody. >> that's a better line of reasoning than, i thought about that for a long time and planned it that way. if i were clint eastwood i would

also say that i just made that up. >> all right. 49 minutes past the hour. ahead on "starting point," is he or isn't he? rumors swirling that "american idol" star randy jackson will be the next to leave the judge's table. we're going to ask him about that coming up next. you're watching "starting point." >> there he is. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy. lending more so companies and communities can expand, grow stronger and get back to work. everyday you see all of us serving you, around the country, around the corner. us bank.

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welcome back to "starting point." it's made stars out of virtual unknowns. but "american idol" will look very different when the new season debuts in january, right? >> yeah. jennifer lopez, steven tyler are out. now rumors grammy award winning producer randy jackson may be leaving as well. there's no point to continue with these rumors.

because here's the man. right here in our studio. we can talk about anything you want after you answer that question. are you staying or are you going? >> listen, i'm telling you something. "american idol" is an amazing show. >> come on. are you staying? >> that sounds like going. come on. >> it's an amazing show. >> nobody says anything they're actually doing is amazing. they always talk about stuff they did. >> just don't believe everything you hear. that's all i'll tell you. >> you're not going to confirm reports you're the next one to leave? >> listen, i will confirm this. you guys ready? >> yep. >> i was, believe it or not, a -- listen. people find this -- but it's true. look at me. i'm representing. it's fashion week. >> you look good. >> you are looking good. let's talk about what you can tell us. mariah carey confirmed as a new judge. >> she's definitely there. >> what else can you tell us about the new judges? >> i think the weather here is better than i've seen it in a while.

i'm so happy for serena williams. i love her. serena, if you're watching wherever you are, big props. go djokovic tonight. >> have you spent a lot of time with mariah carey as you're planning for the new season? >> i work with her. so i know her pretty well, yes, yes. >> let's talk about the evolution of the show. it spawned all sorts of copy cats. how do you feel about where the show is now compared to where it was in its hayday, if you want to call it that. how has it evolved? what do you like? what do you not like? >> as i said before, "american idol" is one of the best shows ever. there are a lot of shows that have copied, that have borrowed. but i still think that it is the best. it's the number one. you know, it's the picasso, not the copy of the picasso. but speaking of picassos, taking diabetes to heart, i'm suffering with type 2 diabetes. merck and i have teamed up to

get the word out. great educational awareness program about type 2 diabetes and the risk -- i should say the risks. because, you know, people with type 2 diabetes at two to four times higher risk of developing stroke or heart disease. it's a very, very serious disease. when i was diagnosed back in 2003, i didn't know i had it. a lot of people out there walking around with it today don't know they have it. i wound up in the emergency room. thinking i had a cold, the flu. doctor said, listen, come in, i want to run some tests. found out i had type 2 diabetes which is a serious disease. i had to go through a very serious life change. i'm really happy about this taking diabetes to heart campaign that we're doing. i stress people to go and see your doctor often. i think men are worse than women about seeing the doctor often. >> what's the effect of the campaign? what do you want men to do? go and talk to their doctor? >> i want men, women, everyone. about 26 million people in the

country living with diabetes. 90% of those are type 2. the statistics are just amazing. the fact that it's -- you know, you've got a good chance of developing heart it is or stroke should be maybe stop you in your tracks and fwo and visit your tr. we've got a thing we call the abcs. blood sugar test. blood pressure and cholesterol. get with your doctor. come up with the right treatment plan that's right for you. go often. i would go every two years if i felt something was drastically wrong. i know you're supposed to go every year. no one really wants to visit the doctor. this is something that's kind of near and dear to my heart, this campaign. we've got an amazing website. taking te inin takingdiabetestoheart.com. insights, tips, questions to ask the doctor, recipes. an amazing campaign. that's the real reason i'm here. what "idol" has given me is a platform to really talk about things that are really near and

dear to my heart that i think can actually help people. >> i always wonder what takes you from that diagnosis to sharing so many personal details about your health. >> i live with it. i always wanted to pay it forward. i didn't know i had it. i'm sure there's a lot of people like me. there's never enough information out there to help people. sometimes -- my dad would always say, this is not what you hear sometimes, it's who you hear it from. listen to the dog, baby. >> i do agree with that. congratulations for that. we're very proud of that. randy jackson, thank you for joining us. even though we tried to get the info out of you. >> go, jets and giants. and january yankees. next on "starting point," happening right now in chicago, the nation's third largest public school system teachers on strike this morning. 400,000 students with nowhere to go. why have the talks failed? the school board president, david vitale, joins us live.

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exclusive to the military, and commitment is not limited to one's military oath. the same set of values that drive our nation's military are the ones we used to build usaa bank. with our award winning apps that allow you to transfer funds, pay bills or manage your finances anywhere, anytime. so that wherever your duty takes you, usaa bank goes with you. visit us online to learn what makes our bank so different. good morning to you. welcome to "starting point." soledad o'brien is off this week. i'm zoraida sambolin. >> a week. she's off only for today. >> i'm sorry. you're absolutely right. i just gave her a full week of vacation. soledad, if you're watching, you don't have to come in. >> i've got late night plans the

rest of the week. come on back. i'm ali velshi, by the way. the other guy. on "starting point," breaking news. teachers are on strike. tens of thousands in chicago hit the picket line instead of the classroom. 400,000 students out of school this morning. where do the intense negotiations stand if they stand anywhere at all? we are going to talk to the school board president coming up. back in session. lawmakers return to capitol hill. 57 days until the election. a massive fiscal cliff looming. will they actually tackle the issues or will they punt? >> i wonder. firsthand account of the navy s.e.a.l.s who helped kill osama bin laden. revealing new details of the raid. the guy who wrote the book in his first tv interview. lots to talk about this morning. we are joined by chicago school board president david vitale, former "newsweek" revolutionary lynn povich, nfl linebacker brendan ayanbadejo and wade davis. covert affairs fan favorite actor chris gorham. >> monday, september 10th.

"starting point" begins right "starting point" begins right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com all right. let me introduce today's team to you. charles blow is here. a "new york times" columnist. richard socarides former clinton white house special assistant and senior adviser. will cain, con seservative columnist with theblaze.com. developing story in chicago where nearly 30,000 teachers and aides are on strike this morning. >> this is the first time in 25 years teachers in the nation's third largest public school system have walked off the job. labor talks broke off late last night, having an impact on 400,000 students in nearly 700 schools. casey wian is live from chicago.

school officials say they made a very competitive offer. clearly not enough. >> reporter: clearly not enough for the teachers you see behind me. normally these teachers would be reporting to their school, getting ready for the school day on a normal monday morning. this is by far from any normal monday morning. they started showing up about a-hour ago to man these picket lines after talks broke down last night. it certainly appeared all weekend that they were progressing -- both sides were progressing towards an agreement. these negotiations have been going on for eight months. the talks were described as intense over the weekend. as you mentioned, late last night the talks did break down. the teacher -- says they are not that far apart in terms of the salary that has been negotiated between the two sides. but there are other issues they are concerned about. the school board says they've gone about as far as they can go. >> i would point out that this financial package over the next four years will cost the system

somewhere in the vicinity of $400 million over the four years. i would also point out that the average teacher would get another 16% raise over that four-year period. i mean, this is -- this is not a small commitment we're making at a time when our fiscal responsibility -- our fiscal situation is really challenged. >> reporter: so as the teachers say, if it's not the financial offer that the school board president there just mentioned, what is it? they say a couple of things. job security is a big issue. they say that under some new teacher evaluation programs that are going to be implemented, but up to 6,000 teachers could lose their job over the next year or two. they're also very concerned about health benefits. teachers say they want to maintain their existing health benefits. what'll be interesting to see, in the next hour and a half or so, this is one of the schools that the school district has set up as a place where parents can drop off their kids. working parents who have no

other child care arrangements. for four hours this morning, these schools will be open. also there'll be some parks open and churches open throughout the city. what will be interesting to see is if parents are actually willing to drop off their kids and have them cross the picket line. >> these places open for kids are open for four hours, not the full day? >> reporter: there's some churches that are actually open for the full day. the 144 schools and the parks that are being made available, only open for four hours. 8:30 to 12:30. obviously that's not a full school day. very difficult situation for many parents. >> sure. absolutely. casey, we'll stay on top of it with you. thanks very much. casey wian in chicago. what a thing. >> they just found out last night. trying to make the arrangements at the 11th hour. coming up in a few minutes we'll talk to chicago school board president david vitale. to washington now where congress will be back at work today for an abbreviated pre-election session. you're looking at a live picture of a beautiful capitol hill,

beautiful washington, d.c., where lawmakers are expected to take a pass on the big issues of spending cuts and taxes. in fact, it's expected they'll focus on the absolute bare minimum they can do. that is preventing a full-on government shutdown later this month. athena jones is following all the developments from capitol hill. there was a day, athena, when we used to think about these impending shutdowns as a big deal. now the threat of them is so common place we assume they're going to go in and avert a shutdown. but this is what government has come to. we avert shutdowns. we don't actually deal with big issues these days. >> reporter: yeah. you know, as you mentioned, this congress is not really known for getting a whole lot done. that really is the only must pass bit of legislation, a short-term measure to keep the government running through the end of the month. it has to get to president obama's desk by the end of the month. the house is expected to vote on that bill on thursday. we're told the senate should get to it next week. really, ali, beyond that there's a whole long list of bills that are in the works. some of them could get passed. we don't really know what's going to happen. the farm bill is one of those

bills that could get passed. there's still differing versions in the house and senate. if they can reconcile those, it can go forward. if they can't, we could see some of the assistance for the people struck by the drought and hit by hurricane isaac, that could go into the spending measure. but all of this kind of points to these latest numbers we've seen in terms of congress's approval rating. i could say disapproval rating. 12% approve of the job that congress is doing. 82% disapprove. that certainly has to do with the fact they really have not been getting that much done. ali? >> athena, we will follow with interest whether congress can manage to get itself together and keep the government running. athena jones in washington, thanks very much. a look at some of the other top stories this morning. new details on a tense situation unfolding right now in detroit. near detroit. an armed standoff with an accused cop killer. the west bloomfield police department confirms to cnn one of its officers shot late last night has died.

they're not naming the officer. we know he's a 12-year veteran of the force. responding to reports of gunfire in a home when the suspect turned his gun on the police. the armed suspect now barricaded inside that home. the white house says president obama's thoughts and prayers are with the family of a florida police officer who died in a crash during a presidential motorcade. jupiter police officer bruce st. laurent was killed when a pickup truck hit his motorcycle on i-95 in west palm beach. he was a 20-year veteran who spent 18 of those years on the motorcycle patrol. that accident is being investigated as vehicular homicide. tulane football player devonn walker is in stable condition this morning. too late to tell if he's permanently paralyze. he's in in tensive care. injured on saturday night during the last play of the first half in a game against tulsa.

doctors say it could take up to 72 hours to determine the full extent of his injury. back to our top story now. tens of thousands of teachers are striking in chicago, the nation's third largest public school system. i want to bring in david vitale. he is the president of the chicago board of education and was present during yesterday's negotiations. thank you so much. i know the negotiations went very late last night, so we appreciate your time this morning. what is the impasse at this hour? >> well, as best as we can tell, it revolves around two issues. one in respect to recall and job security for teachers. and the implementation of a new evaluation system which is, in fact, mandated by a new state law in illinois. >> what is the situation this morning with the children and with the parents that are trying to figure out what to do with their kids? >> well, in anticipation, we had set up a plan where we would open 144 schools to help take

care of and feed our kids to the extent that their parents were unable to take care of them. i would also point out that the faith-based community here in chicago, sister agencies, public libraries, park district, police department as well as a variety of not for profits are also providing a variety of activities for our kids while this goes on. >> i want to put this in perspective for folks. this is the first time in 25 years that this has happened. it was back in 1987, ronald reagan was president. harold washington was the mayor of the city of chicago. i want to talk about the specifics here on the offer so the folks can really wrap their brain around this. the offer here, the chicago public schools' officer is a 16% salary increase to happen over four years. laid-off teachers are eligible in the event of job openings to apply for them. student performance, as you said, plays a role in the evaluations. i believe that you said this deal would cost about $400 million. what the union had demanded was

30% increase over two years. and initially i understand you offered 2% per year for four years. but i believe now what you have determined, it is a 16% raise over four years. plus benefit proposals. my question becomes, if you cannot meet the demands of the union at this stage of the game, and we just had senator dick durbin on a little while ago. he says he does not know how you can fiscally raise that kind of money in order to pay the teachers, what do you do? >> well, senator durbin is correct. we are fiscally challenged here in the chicago public school system. we have pointed that out. i believe that the union recognizes that. we have no more flexibility when it comes to finance. and i think they have said, you know, we have come close on the financial package. they're claiming that it's these other issues that i raised previously. >> karen lewis who is the head of the chicago teachers' union

had this to say. i want to listen to this. then we can talk about it. >> right now what we have is work that is extremely difficult. and what we see as a lack of support throughout and a demonizing of a population of people that all of a sudden teachers are bad guys everywhere you look. >> karen lewis also called rahm emanuel a liar and a bully at a rally in chicago's daley plaza. this was on monday. what is mayor emanuel's reaction to all of this? >> the mayor said last night that this was a strike of choice. choice by the teachers. teachers' union. that it was avoidable. and it was. for the last several days we have been negotiating intensely. we've made over 20 proposals to improve this offer. apparently we were making proposals at the time they were out walking out on strike. so the mayor believes that this

was totally unavoidable. that this can, in fact, be concluded. because we are very close. and he has been intimately involved in our negotiations through me. >> do you have any skother skej yummed meeting on the table? >> we will meet this morning. >> one last point that senator durbin had pointed out. all of the charter schools are in session. is that correct? >> that is correct. approximately 50,000 of our 405,000 students will be in school today in charter schools. >> all right. david vitale, president of the chicago board of education, thank you for spending time with us this morning. >> thank you for having me. >> these concepts of debt, deficit, what the school board president referred to as fiscally challenged often are abstract. they're hard for us to identify with. this morning several hundred thousand chicago parents will wake up and realize the practical implications of not dealing with your problems. >> let me ask you this, richard. we just showed on there $62,000, roughly, for a primary

schoolteacher. $69,000. i think teachers in the country should get paid much more money. they do work nine months out of the year. state average is probably around the countries, state average under $50,000 a year median income. it does seem a little out of sync, does it not? >> it's hard to know what's actually going on here, right? the offer seems very generous. they haven't been able to come to an agreement. rahm emanuel, mayor of chicago, generally speaking is a big supporter of teachers. i saw the teachers' union called him a bully. i'm sure that's not the first time he's been calm edcalled a >> no. repeatedly. >> they want job protections. and they want health care benefits. and they want a pullback on the evaluations. this does for everybody in this country who loves teachers, if you don't love teachers you

probably don't like children and puppy dogs either, it just seems weird. we all get job evaluations. >> i don't know if it seems weird. i don't think they're rebelling against the idea of job evaluations in general. you say they work nine months out of the year. my mother was a teacher for 30-plus years. that's a misnomer. your kids may go to school nine months out of the year. that doesn't mean teachers work nine months out of the year. >> if they work a 12-month year they still earn a lot more than a median salary. >> let me point this out as well. this idea that -- that -- kind of like the firing line here with teachers is to what degree do you judge their performance by students' performance? and what -- what comes -- you know, the kids come into those classrooms in all kinds of different levels of preparation. and in places like chicago,

which you're getting increasingly violent, we have a staggering level of childhood poverty in this country now. you have to incorporate some of these kind of things that the kids are bringing into the classroom into classroom performance. what i think the teachers say, not just in this case but in most cases, is when you look at what we're doing, please take into account that it is not simply our doing. that whatever comes out on a test score -- >> all these societal things. >> all these societal issues. what we're doing is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into this testing apparatus that could be going into more services. >> it's often that a small increase in testing results represents a heroic performance by a teacher, given the circumstances that the teacher finds the child. but i will say to you, it is hard to know what is going on here in chicago. because these guys are trying to

get an agreement. hopefully they'll get an agreement soon. >> could there be a wholistic approach, also, where they deal with all of the issues and violence. the pentagon doesn't like it. but his book is a best seller. hear from the former navy s.e.a.l. about the exact moment when osama bin laden was shot in his first television interview. you're watching "starting point." [ female announcer ] quaker yogurt granola bars. they're whole grain good... and yummy good. real fruit pieces. 12 grams of whole grains and a creamy yogurt flavored coating. quaker yogurt granola bars. treat yourself good. quaker yogurt granola bars. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies,

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tells the remarkable story behind the magazine's iconic march 1970 cover. women in revolt. it sparked a complaint with the equal employment opportunity commission from 46 women on the "newsweek" staff who demanded equal hiring rights for women. >> lynn povich is with us this morning. thank you so much for joining us. it was 45 women that announced the suit. it was the day after "newsweek" actually published the story on feminism that was called "women in revolt." tell us about the timing and how you were able to organize those women. >> we started organizing in the fall. when "newsweek" decided to write this cover story, they had no women on staff to write the story. i was a junior writer. really not experienced to write a cover story. so they went outside for the first time in their history and hired a freelance woman to write the story. so we decided the day "newsweek" appeared on the stands we would announce our suit. because we knew the publicity would get the editors more, in

fact, than the discrimination. we were all researchers. we couldn't get promoted out of the research category. all the men were writers and reporters. >> how were you able to organize all these women while you all worked there? >> we would actually fwo ingo ie ladies room. the famous organizing place for women. look under the stalls. see who was there. if they responded, we'd say, we're thinking of doing something to change this. then we would start reeling people in one by one. >> you've come full circle here. what do you think has changed and what do you think hasn't changed? >> i think there's been enormous progress. women, as you can see, are everywhere. certainly in the media as well. they're covering wars, they're covering the white house. they're certainly editors. if you look at the very top, there's still very few women at the top. in media companies and also in corporations in general.

>> 43 -- so in 1970 25% of "newsweek's" masthead was female. in 2010, 39%. close tore the balance in society. in 2009, 43 of the 49 covers for the whole year were written by men. does that tell you there's imbalance or that was luck of the draw? >> if you look at by lines across the industry, you'll find in thought magazines women are still about 30%-some of the by lines in editorial pages and things like that. i do think there's still an imbalance even within the media. >> there is an imbalance. the question is why? is it because of sexual discrimination? >> i think corporate culture comes from the top. if you have a man who's comfortable with women and enjoys women and respects them, he promotes them. if you find a man who's comfortable and knows mostly guys, that's what happens. i think also that women probably

need to push themselves forward more. there's a lot of training now for women to learn to write op-eds and get on television and get on radio and become commentators. so i do think that there is a question about how much is discrimination and how much do women still need to have the confidence to go forward. they certainly have the skills and they certainly have the talents. >> ambition is something you talk about in your book as well. it's a great read for young girls everywhere. you identify quite a bit with everything that happened to you and currently happens as well. "the good girls revolt." lynn povich. >> a lovely picture, too. >> there we have it. >> in that picture you were secretary? >> i was a secretary in the "newsweek" bureau in paris. >> that's one of the best things in the book. you have a lot of pictures that you share with everybody who's reading. thank you. >> good to see you, lynn. coming ahead on "starting point," the navy s.e.a.l. who helped kill osama bin laden

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what do you want to do now? >> read the tease. >> coming up, much more ahead on "starting point." when football, same-sex marriage and politics collide. brendan ayanbodejo speaks out in favor of gay marriage and was stunned when a politician tried to silence him. the story doesn't end there. he's going to join us live. from the deliciously intense spy series covert affairs, star christopher gorham sitti ins do with us. "starting point," back in a moment. [ owner ] i need to expand

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welcome back to "starting point." football, same-sex marriage and politics colliding in one. a maryland politician getting national attention for attempting to silence baltimore ravens linebacker brendanon ayanbadejo for speaking out in support of same-sex marriage. >> now maryland state delegate emmitt burns jr. has dialed back his position telling the baltimore sun, quote, upon reflection he has his first amendment rights and i have my first amendment rights. each of us has the right to speak our opinions. the football player and i have a right to speak our minds. brendon joins us now along with former professional football player wade davis who came out after retiring from the nfl and now works with lgbt youth. thank you, gentlemen, both for joining us. wade, i wanted to start with you. why are you supporting this? you are a straight man. >> you mean brendon?

sf >> i'm sorry, brendon. i'm sorry. i have wade sitting right next to me. >> i was like, whoa. >> brendon, i'm going to begin with you. >> i merely see it as an equality issue. there was a time where women didn't have equal rights. african-americans didn't have equal rights. now it's the lgbt community that doesn't have equal rights as the rest of the 90% of america. i see it as an equality issue. and we have to treat everybody equal. and if two people love each other, we shouldn't be able to tell them who they're allowed to marry and who they're not allowed to marry. so i just see it purely from an equality standpoint. >> what do you think about emmitt burns getting up in your grill about this? that's just an unusual development. >> well, more than anything i'd have to thank him for bringing national recognition to the cause and the effects worldwide. i've received e-mails from all over the world. more than anything he's brought attention to the cause. it's something we need to take care of.

luckily it's starting here in maryland. there's four other states voting on this in november for marriage equality. he really just made it a national issue. now it's on the front pages of all the papers and all the media. if he wouldn't have wrote his letter i don't think we would have received this type of attention. >> wade, you're not straight. >> no, i'm not. >> you're gay. there's plenty of questions to ask about why it didn't happen during your playing days. i think we can guess some of the answers. tell me what you expect from brendon. i can only imagine the locker room is a hard place to have these kind of conversations. >> i'm impressed by brendon. i think the work that brendon's doing is even more important than the work i did. i think when you have a straight ally who comes out and saying they're for same-sex marriage and equality, it's much bigger than anything a gay athlete can do. >> i just want to say, i want to thank both of you so much for all the work you've done and to say to brendon that it's so amazing the response you've

gotten. what has the response been from other players in the locker room and other nfl players that you work with? >> it's been amazing. back in 2009 i wrote an article for the huffington post. if you talk to people about this issue, people made fun of me. brendon's coming out. i'd hear snickering in the background. now i talk to my teammates. whereas 95% of the people were against it, now it seems like 95% of the people are for it. there's still some issues that people don't understand, some fundamental issues when it comes to marriage equality. i think the most problem that players have is the tie between religion and equal rights. you have to make it, you know, not a religious issue. it's really just an equal rights issue. we're just trying to get approval from every state for each person to marry and not in a church. we're not going to change anything religiously. people have their rights religiously and religious

freedom as well. we're trying to get letters from every state that people can have a marriage document and that's recognized in every state. once you get over that barrier, guys say, hey, love is love and you should be able to marry who you love. it's really a changing of the guard in the football community. because this even 12 months ago when i was doing op-eds for marriage equality, i would still hear certain snickering in the background. i think we've changed the tide and come a long way in a short period of time. i'm really excited that my cohorts and my teammates and my team, the baltimore ravens, and the city and everybody is really supporting and gathering behind me in the cause to treat people fairly all in the name of love. >> first of all, i love that upon further reflection. what is that? anyway, the idea that people are opposed, i've never quite gotten this. if you don't want, you know, to be -- like gay marriage, don't get married to a gay person. other than that, what is your

problem? if you believe that even religiously that it violates your religious tenets, do not get married to a gay person. nobody else is saying it's going to get you to heaven or send you to hell. this idea we have to mettle in other people's business, whatever that business may be, as long as they are doing something that they personally agree with and that doesn't bother anyone else, it doesn't infringe upon my rights, whatever someone else does. >> let me answer a quick question before we lose this. do you think -- no active player has come out yet. >> that's what i was going to ask. >> do you think the locker room is getting ready for that moment? >> i think we're definitely ready. the nfl as a whole has made so many great steps and strides. we have players like brendon coming out and the e-mail chris sent as well. i think the tide is changing. i think we're making such great strides. the nfl brings in players now to

do, like, town hall meetings, to talk to other players. the tide is definitely changing. >> are there gay players now that you know? >> i can't answer that question. sorry. >> i'd say that's a yes. >> i can answer that. i'd say that's a yes. >> not to name the person. it's interesting people feel like they have to be in the closet. >> yes, definitely. >> brendon, we want to wish you luck. you have a game tonight? >> tonight. >> don't tell brendon's boss he was on cnn. good to see you guys. thanks so much. >> thanks so much for having me. coming up next on "starting point," hear the former navy s.e.a.l. who helped kill osama bin laden in his first television interview. you're watching "starting point." are we there yet? are we there yet? are we there yet?

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welcome back to "starting point." the former navy s.e.a.l. who wrote the best-selling book about the raid that killed osama bin laden is speaking out in his first television interview. matt bisonet who used the pen name mark owen to write "no easy day" sells cbs the book is not political. and the pentagon is wrong that he compromised national security by writing it. >> listen to him describe the chopper flight he and his fellow s.e.a.l.s took. take note, cbs disguised his appearance and voice during this interview. >> roughly an hour and a half. i remember we took off. shut the doors. and the radio call i heard was, you know, hey, we're over the border. we're crossing the border into pakistan. i remember thinking, wow, okay, this is happening.

i swear i glanced around the helicopter and half the guys were sitting there asleep on the ride in. half hour ride. guys got to catch a few zs on the way in. >> wait a minute. your team is flying into osama bin laden's compound, and they're asleep. >> yeah, no. it's your time to just kind of shut your eyes, relax. you know, mentally walk through whatever you need to walk through. >> wow. >> where's the disguise? >> he's totally made up. >> is that like some eddie murphy movie? >> that's what it's like. i was up all night preparing for this show. i would not have been able to get any sleep thinking i was going into osama bin laden's compound. what do we think about the fact that he did this? pentagon says it shouldn't be allowed. he shouldn't be able to talk about it. >> we call this segment tough call. it really is. i don't know. i read a website called -- he

had a need for money. he got paid a lot. indeed, he really divulged classified information. so many different factors that come in. i don't know. in the end i don't know what the right answer on this one is. >> i mean, i just think that, you know, in this day and age when everybody talks about anything, nothing is private. everybody writes about their own personal experiences. it's hard to say. >> should they be allowed to? >> should it be against the law? what's the punishment? it's probably not a good idea. what are you going to do? put this guy in jail? fine him? >> against the law is maybe a separate issue. whether or not he violated the law, i don't know. it'll be interesting to see if there are any charges brought in this particular case. but did he violate kind of a code of conduct or even -- whether written or unwritten. >> that seems clear. >> that seems very clear. in the 50-plus year history of the s.e.a.l.s, there's not a lot of this sort of thing happening. what you don't want to do is to create a culture -- kind of a

bragadociuos culture where people do things in hope of one capitalizing on them. >> also the threat. >> they know who he is. >> there has been a -- >> this is is not what i look like, by the way. >> that's four hours of makeup? >> this is four hours of makeup. i look like will cain. >> everybody is changing identity on this show this morning. >> if you missed the previous segment, you would now understand that will did not mean that the way it sounded. >> i am never going to live that down. that's all i have to say. >> like the guy who wrote that book, we, too -- coming up next, intense action packed spy series "covert affairs" known for unexpected twists and turns. what can we expect this season?

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. welcome back to "starting point." tv audiences love a good spy story. usa tv's hit show "covert affairs" delivers in spades. >> it's in its third season and stars christopher gorham as blind tech ops expert oggie henderson. >> you don't get eyes on him in the first 15 minutes you pull the plug. >> we are good to go. >> whoever's going to relay the audio speedback to the dpd. >> don't ever do that again.

>> christopher gorham is here. thank you so much for being with us. >> it's a pleasure. thanks for having me. >> so a lot of realism here. i know that valerie plame actually consults on this. how is that? >> it's fantastic. we're able to sit down with her for hours when we were starting to rehearse the pilot and had a lot of conversations. annie walker is the main character of the show. that role is really based on the inspiration from valerie blame. our producer is from the "bourne" movies. he was doing a movie about valuerer and her husband. he had access to lamely. piper was able to go into lamely and meet with cia agents. writers go every year to brush up and get a tour around the building and talk to the officers. this show is fictional. but we try to at least base some of the reality of the interoffice dynamics on the stories that they hear from the

real cia officers. >> do you think it's as much fun to be a real cia officer. >> oh, god, no. no, no, no. much more fun to be on the show. >> a lot more paperwork involved. >> our offices are much nicer than the real cia. >> not as dangerous either, right? >> definitely safer to be on the show as well, yeah. >> you play a blind character, right? >> yeah. >> i read something you talked abilit about. the difference between how sighted people look each other in the face versus someone who's blind. literally how you stare in their eyes. >> a guy like oggie. he had his sight up until he was injured serving in iraq. for guys like him, they're actually very good at making eye contact even after they've lost their sight. there's a muscle memory there where you just -- they're really good at it. we have to make him worse at it on the show so it's not confusing for the audience. where it became really interesting for me is -- are you all right?

put the coffee down, man. in the first season, we had an episode where oggie was reunited with a girlfriend he had before he lost his sight. i found it unexpectedly really frustrating in the scenes to not be able to make eye contact. to have someone who your whole relationship is based on being able to see each other, having that unspoken communication, and suddenly when that's gone it can be really, really frustrating. >> i think we're seeing you there directing. is that right? >> there you go. yeah, yeah, yeah. i'm in the middle of directing an episode right now. we're four days into a seven-day episode. we usually take eight days to shoot an episode. since this is my first episode they decided to give me one less day to shoot it. >> does the government ever tell you you can't use something because it's secret? >> do they ever say to you you can't portray that because it's secret? >> not as far as i know. i mean, our storylines are -- are pretty fictional.

the stuff -- the kind of danger that we deal with on the show is very real. some of the topics that we deal with on the show are very real. but how we do it is always fictional. we don't run into any problems. >> christopher gorham, you say this is a good week to watch. >> a great episode this week. >> would you say that if it wasn't? >> exactly. >> what i would say, this is a solid episode. >> all right. thanks for being with us this morning. appreciate it. the end point is next. acks . creamy spinach artichoke dip, crispy garlic chicken spring rolls. they're this season's must-have accessory. lean cuisine. be culinary chic.

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all right. ali velshi had to go to another show. yes, he left me. empty here. time for our end point, gentlemen. i'm going to begin with will. >> i want to go back to the conversation with christopher gorham. people who look at each, sighted versus blind. he talked about also instructing other actors. two sighted people make limited contact. when you're talking to a blind person, he said, many people just stare. they feel liberated to just stare. >> almost more focused. >> fascinating. >> i thought the most interesting thing, i think what's happening in the nfl with the changes -- the changing way the nfl players are viewing gay people and gays in sports is really remarkable. i think it's another example of a real turning point we're seeing in this country. the way gay people are viewed. >> i'll go back to teachers. >>