American Morning
We Listen – Your comments 7/15/09
Editor's Note: Thursday’s American Morning viewers expressed strong opinion regarding the discrimination lawsuit by the Creative Steps Day Care against the Pennsylvania Valley Swim Club, with the majority opposed to the suit. Those opposed did not “see how the lawsuit will bring about any positive change to this situation.” Those in favor of the suit noted “this is 2009 and a lesson needs to be learned by anyone discriminating against anyone.”
Against Lawsuit:
- Aisha: My name is Aisha and as an African American I understand what the Daycare center is going through at this difficult time. You hope through everything negative something positive happens. I really do not see how the lawsuit will bring about any positive change to this situation.
- Glen: Does anyone have the understanding that "private" means just that "private'. They own the pool and they have the right to choose. It did not take them long to fire out the "lets sue" slogan.
- Jeremy: I am so tried of this swimming case! It had no need to go to court and life goes on. This group is out to make a profit.
- Lee: Regarding the children being denied access to the swimming pool, I find it an awful thing. My goodness, I thought such racism was over with and I'm speaking as a Southerner who is quite familiar with racism, sexism and homophobia. The owners of the pool should be sued out of business to make an example to others that such behavior cannot and will not be tolerated.
- Stephanie: Do not sue over the swimming pool mess. It does not teach the kids to work things out peacefully. A court room is just another battle field. If it is done again, then go to court....but give peace a chance.
- Jay: The whole idea that a public pool in Philadelphia would kick children out for being black is ridiculous. It's ALWAYS about race. It would not matter if there are other valid reasons. They will MAKE it racial. Racism won't die because blacks won't LET it die. Just another excuse to sue someone. Same story, different day.
- Pat: White people get blamed for racism, at the drop of a hat. I have walked in black businesses, and did not even get a hello, I just left. This country is ok with reverse racism, I hear it on TV. every day. We have a black president, they need to get over it.
- Dan: The lady you had on this morning from the swim club where the kids were expelled based on race. I disagree with the kids not being allowed in to the club. Equal opportunity; however, the comment the director made about one of the kids now suffering migraines from this is way out there. That is a bunch of bologna. Just a way to try and beef up the lawsuit.
Is Secretary Clinton being back-benched?
By CNN's Jill Dougherty
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers a major foreign policy speech and some Washington political observers ask: "Is she trying to get back in the spotlight?"
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/15/art.clinton.getty.jpg caption="Supporters of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insist she is not being sidelined."]
Since she slipped and broke her elbow last month, the secretary has had to cancel an international trip, and some inside-the-Beltway types are reading the tea leaves. Is it another step in the process of keeping Secretary Clinton from the real foreign policy decision-making in the Obama administration?
"The Daily Beast's" Tina Brown writes: "Left behind on major presidential trips, overruled in choosing her own staff - Hillary Clinton is the invisible woman at State."
"It's time for Barack Obama to let Hillary Clinton take off her burqa," she said.
The Washington Post's Jim Hoagland said it's President Obama's inner circle, advisers such as chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and senior adviser David Axelrod, who are controlling the president's foreign policy message. He predicts "tensions will emerge instead between the close-in advisers and the Cabinet secretaries who have been chosen to sell and implement policies more than to decide them."
Clinton aides say charges that the secretary is being "back-benched" are "wholly false."
Dems may call Cheney to testify
Democrats in the House are raising the stakes to find out whether former Vice President Cheney did in fact order the CIA not to tell Congress about a counter-terrorism program. They just may ask Cheney to pay them a visit on Capitol Hill. CNN's Jim Acosta reports.
Teen pilot sets cross-country record
A 15-year-old Los Angeles girl has reason to brag today. She recently set an aviation record and is looking to do many more. Kimberly Anyadike is believed to be the youngest African-American girl to pilot a plane cross-country. She spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Wednesday.
Kiran Chetry: I was amazed when I read about your story. You flew 7,000 miles. You flew from Compton, California all the way to Newport News, Virginia, and back again all in 13 days. What was that like taking on such a huge undertaking in the sky?
Kimberly Anyadike: It was so amazing. All the people I met, all the people I got to socialize with. I even made a couple new friends – even meeting some of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen. It was such an exhilarating experience for me.
Chetry: With you on that flight was your instructor, Levi Thornhill. He's 87-years-old. He was one of the Tuskegee Airmen. How did you get to know him? What was your connection and why was it so important to you have to him there? And, as I understand it, 50 other Tuskegee Airmen signed your plane.
Anyadike: Well, I had a safety pilot, his name is Ronell Normal. But Mr. Thornhill sat behind me and he never complained once. But he was such a motivational person. He's a mentor to me. I met him after I joined the program about two years ago and the plane that I flew is dedicated to him. So I thought it was a good chance to give honor directly to him.
Economist: Obama's stimulus doomed to fail
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/15/morici.peter.art.jpg caption="Peter Morici of the University of Maryland says President Obama's economic stimulus plan is doomed to fail."]
It's been five months since President Obama signed his stimulus plan in to law. It includes more than $250 billion of government spending and tax breaks meant to create jobs. Yesterday, the president said unemployment may get worse before things turn around.
Peter Morici is a professor of international business at the University of Maryland and former economic director for the United States International Trade Commission. He says President Obama’s stimulus plan is doomed to fail. He spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Wednesday.
Kiran Chetry: The nation’s unemployment rate hit 9.5% last month. There's debate on whether the stimulus is working and if it's working quickly enough. The White House says we are on target. But a lot of people are asking when are we going to see the effects? You, though, say it's doomed to fail. Why?
Peter Morici: The stimulus money is very badly spent. We knew the tax cuts from the Bush stimulus don't work. People are simply saving it. If you wanted stimulus to work, spend it mostly on shovel-ready projects, infrastructure, schools, hospitals, etc. But only $100 billion of the $800 billion is spent there.
Chetry: When you say shovel-ready – they found it a challenge within the administration to find shovel-ready projects, at least that’s what many are saying, in these various states. How do you get that better organized so indeed if the money is there, only 10% has gone out, they can get it to projects that are ready to go?
Morici: I'm no Republican, but what President Obama is discovering is how slow the bureaucracy moves. It's very hard to push this kind of money through the system. Also, all of the red tape that the government has created doing construction has made it very difficult. I could get the money out there. But Obama doesn't seem to be capable of getting it done. The advisers don't seem to be able to get it done. What you got to do is just hand it to the mayors and county executives and say, “You got to spend x by the end of this year.” Then give them another chunk for next year – “You got to spend that by the end of the year and so forth or you don't get to keep the money.” Most municipalities and counties have a long list of renovation projects they’re holding in abeyance because they don’t have enough cash. That’s the way to get it out. President Obama is not thinking in those terms. Instead, he beefs up the Department of Education.
Small drinks promise big energy, but experts say effects unclear
By Danielle Dellorto, CNN Medical Producer
(CNN) - From supermarkets to the office supply store, it's hard to miss those tiny bottles of 5-hour Energy.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/15/art.energy.drink.ad.ho.jpg caption="The makers of 5-hour Energy call it a 'no-nonsense drink.'"]
"It would be easier for me to tell you where we didn't sell them in the U.S. than list all the places we do," said Carl Sperber, spokesman for Living Essentials, the Detroit, Michigan-based manufacturer of 5-hour Energy shot.
The small, shot-glass size bottles promise to provide energy and alertness without jitters to fatigued Americans. Unlike other popular energy drinks that market to college students, 5-Hour Energy's audience is multitasking, working professionals. The market demand has skyrocketed since the product hit store shelves in 2004. The company expects to move more than 350 million shots this year, Sperber said, up from 174 million in 2008.
"This is a no-nonsense drink," Sperber said. "It is not a fashion statement. It doesn't have a cool name; it is just a simple grab-and-go product to help busy adults when they can't afford a letdown."
Each 2-ounce bottle contains zero grams of sugar, 4 calories and about the same amount of caffeine as a small coffee. It also contains about a dozen ingredients that are broken down into B vitamins (B3, B6, B9, B12) and what the manufacturer lists as an "energy blend."
But don't expect superhuman results, one expert said.
"The B vitamins are given at extraordinarily high levels, and people need to know they are not some magic potion that's going to immediately raise your energy level," said Dr. Brent Bauer, Mayo Clinic director of complementary and integrative medicine. "There is no data that show that."
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