American Morning
We Listen – Your comments 7/6/09
Editor's Note: American Morning’s Monday audience focused on the political machinations of Governor Palin’s resignation, with many wondering hopefully if the 2012 presidential elections would be her next stop. Most were in agreement with the Republicans who called her a “quitter,” and saw her as “irrelevant.”
Pro-Sarah
- Tom: Sarah Palin is under fire from her own party, those conservative morons can't stand a women in power with Ideas of their own..
- Stephen: The press and cable news are trying to finish the book on Governor Palin when she has just started to write it. She is using her popularity to effect change to honesty, freedom, and prosperity. If you are for these values you should be for Governor Palin. The majority of the Congress men and women are corrupt. They and the special interest have created a corrupt government system by gerrymandering and pay to play politics. Governor Palin is putting herself on the front line of a conservative movement without the comfort or guarantees of personal reward. If she can effect the election of conservative Congress and Senate men and women she will also be earning the support of those for her and the possibility of a presidential bid. I have stopped supporting the Republican Party but am supporting conservative honest individuals where I can find them. I will support Governor Palin.
- Russell: Sarah Palin has garnered what the many have not. Wisdom.
Con-Sarah
- Susan: Sarah Palin is a dominating women who is out for her own ambitions. The thing, is she don't know how to go about them, because she isn't that smart. hahahahaha. She is out for her own gain. I don't feel she is honest. She can't speak. You don't know a word she is saying. She just rambles. Watch out for someone like that. As a matter of fact most America is sick and tired of hearing about arrogant dumb people.
- Tom: I think that Gov. Palin is hurting her chances of becoming a serious presidential candidate. This is basically a child having a tantrum because she can not get what she wants from her legislature. I would not cast a vote for her.
- Jim: Sarah has quit both government jobs she has held. She quit her position at AOGCC, and she has now quit as governor. She thinks she is doing well, but she preaches to the choir for good results. She is a QUITTER, among other things. Being a quitter may not be her worst quality. No credibility is her worst aspect.
Where do you stand on Governor Palin’s resignation? Are those who are calling her a “quitter” correct or is Governor Palin truly the one with “wisdom” here? What do you this is Governor Palin’s next move or “higher calling,” as she calls it? Is she still an important political figure or is she “irrelevant”?
"We could end up like Canada"
The Senate's top republican, Mitch McConnell is sounding a warning about a Democratic plan for government-run health insurance. He says "the U.S. could wind up like Canada." So is that so bad? CNN's Dana Bash traveled to Ontario, Canada to find out.
The Franken factor
After more than eight months the last Senate seat will finally be filled this week. Senator-elect Al Franken is heading to Capitol Hill, giving the Democratic caucus a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority. But that doesn't guarantee the beltway will be gridlock free. CNN's Jim Acosta reports.
LAPD gears up for a "well behaved crowd" at the Staples Center
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/06/intv.mcdonnell.art.jpg caption="The first assistant chief of the LAPD urges people to watch the Michael Jackson memorial at home if they do not have a ticket."]
Michael Jackson’s public memorial will take place Tuesday July 7th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The LAPD says if you don't have a ticket, don't come. Hundreds of thousands of fans could line the streets of downtown Los Angeles. How will police keep the situation under control?
First assistant chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, Jim McDonnell spoke with CNN’s Kiran Chetry Monday.
Kiran Chetry: I know the police force is used to dealing with crowds of epic proportions for various reasons. There are expectations of perhaps 100,000 people or more coming out there even though everyone has said if you don’t have a ticket, don't come out. What are you expecting and how are you looking to handle the situation?
Jim McDonnell: I guess the crowd estimate is the $64,000 question that everybody is wondering about and we are as well. We had the Lincoln parade about two weeks ago, we had about 250,000 people turn out for that. It was an overall, a very orderly crowd. A few incidents we dealt with quickly. I anticipate the crowd here will be well behaved. It will be a crowd that gathers for the right reasons and keeps the reason they’re there in mind. But as far as putting a number on it, we have reached out a number of times, every chance we get, actually, asking people to stay home if they don't have tickets enjoy it from the comfort of their own home with friends rather than coming out standing out on hot sun on the city street two or three blocks from the venue.
Chetry: How are you guys communicating with organizers of the event? How are you all coordinating to make sure you know what's going on and they’ve made their decisions final as we get closer and closer to this happening.
McDonnell: We have point of contact with the family. We’re working very closely with AEG, the company that is putting on the event at Staples, the people who own the Staples Center. We've had contact from the beginning so we’re working through all the complexities of this. I think it's running as smoothly as possible given the circumstances.
Chetry: Speaking of the Staples Center, so that is a venue that holds 20,000. There are many other venues in Los Angeles that would hold many more. Was this intentional to keep this to a smaller group of people actually invited to this event or did that have to do with some of the connections with AEG and Michael Jackson?
Two Michael Jackson fans beat the 1-in-182 odds
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/06/intv.mj.tix.winners.montanya.maousos.art.jpg caption="Montanya (left) couldn't believe her luck after winning the coveted Michael Jackson memorial tickets."]
More than a million people signed up online to say good-bye to the king of pop. One-point-six million fans thought they hey had no shot. Late last night close to 9,000 die hard Michael Jackson fans got the e-mail they were hoping for, saying they'd won two tickets to the star-studded tribute at the Staples Center in Los Angeles tomorrow.
Two fans who beat the one-in-182 odds, Deka Montanya and Nick Manousos spoke with CNN’s Alina Cho and Kiran Chetry Monday.
Alina Cho: I should mention, Deka that you are the lucky winner and Nick is the boyfriend of the lucky winner so you get to go Nick. I just want to say, Deka I read your twitter post here, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG I got tickets to the Michael Jackson memorial service. Does that pretty much sum up how you feel about this?
Deka Montanya: Yeah, I didn't quite know what to think. I opened the e-mail, I showed it to Nick and I was like is this real? We just stared at it for a minute. And then Nick’s like oh my gosh. I twittered it because I couldn't believe it. I didn't know what else to say. Just oh m gosh oh my gosh I got it. It wasn't expected. It was completely unexpected.
Chetry: So now you guys have to kick it into high gear, make your plans, figure out how to get down there. You're in San Francisco; you've got to get down to LA. I’m sure flights aren’t easy t o come by. There's going to be a lot of people flying into LAX. How are you planning on get there?
Commentary: "Ahmadinejad likes the foreign policy theatrics"
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/06/intv.molavi.art.jpg caption="Middle East expert, Afshin Molavi does not take Iran’s President Ahmadinejad seriously."]
There is major dissension in the ranks within Iran. A group of clerics in Iran is declaring the country's recent presidential election invalid. Also, Vice President Joe Bidden made comments signaling the White House may be changing its position on the possibility of Israel taking military action against Iran.
Middle East expert and author of the new book "The soul of Iran." Afshin Molavi spoke to CNN’s Alina Cho Monday.
Alina Cho: An influential group of clerics declaring Iran’s presidential election illegitimate, invalid. Why is this significant and what should we take from this?
Afshin Molavi: In many ways the Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he derives his legitimacy from clerical unity. Any time you see this kind of clerical dissention in the ranks, it's a chink in his armor it’s a chink in the armor of the entire Islamic republic. But the important point to remember however is the clerics are not as powerful as they were 10, 15, 20 years ago. What we've been seeing over the past ten years is the gradual security militarization of Iran. And once we saw cracks in armor of the security, once we see factualism among them then I think that will be much more serious for the republic.
Cho: I want to turn to two conflicting statements by vice president Joe Biden on Israel and Iran. I'll get your reaction on the other side. The first one is from April 2009 he said “I don't believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu would do that. I think it was ill-advised to do that. The second statement is from yesterday on ABC's this week saying “Israel can determine for itself the sovereign nation what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran or anyone else.” Is this Biden just being Biden or is there something deeper going on here? Does this reflect a possible shift in U.S. policy?
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