our guests include michele flournoy, co-chair of the obama campaign nation security advisory committee. tiki barber, former player for the new york giants, rudy giuliani, former new york city mayor, ben cohen, co-founder of ben & jerry's ice cream and singer cyndi lauper. >> it is wednesday, september 26th. "starting point" beginning right now. first we have some news just in to cnn. two american soldiers in afghanistan were killed today in an attack by a suicide bomber. the attack happened in logar province just south of kabul, afghanistan's capital. a spokesman for the governor of logar said the suicide bomber detonated himself during a military operation. he also said one american soldier was injured. we will have more on this developing story as details come in. >>> a big day here in new york. iran's controversial leader will deliver his final address to the u.n. general assembly as president of that country. that address is today. mahmoud ahmadinejad is stirring up controversy before he even begins. he told reporters that israel will be eliminated from the middle east, and that th

we're going to talk to michele flournoy, co-chair of the national advisory committee and rudy giulianie and out. what does former new york giant great tiki barber think about the nfl replacement refs and their questionable calls? he'll be here with us live. that should be fun. as for fun, she just wants to have fun. lots of it. cyndi lauper reveals the pricing new details about her hit songs. she has a really interesting new memoir. that and much more coming up on "starting point" in just a few minutes. >> and the most incredible hair. >> i love cyndi lauper. looking forward to that. all right, she's a long way from "three's company" but she still has that star quality. we're very excited about having you here suzanne somers. she's here to talk about her brand-new show and much more. that's coming up. the wheels of progress. seems they haven't been moving much lately. but things are starting to turn around because of business people like you. and regions is here to help. with the experience and service to keep things rolling. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your p

next i want to introduce michele flournoy, she served as undersecretary of defense for policy from february '09 to february of this year. and prior to her confirmation, she helped lead president obama's transition team at the department of defense. in 2007 she cofounded the organization that doug just referred to, the nonpartisan think tank center for a new american security. republicans in states like virginia, notably, are using the impending sequesters as an issue against their democratic opponents. even though the republicans were part of the deal. i want to ask you, how serious should we take this sequester threat, and is there anything democrats can do in response? >> well, i think we do have to be worried about the prospect of sequestration not only because it would impose additional cuts across the board, but because of the mindless way in which the cuts would be imposed. across-the-board cuts, no opportunity to protect priorities, you know, choose where you're going to accept and manage risk. and so i think, um, were sequestration to take effect, it would be very devastating not on