American Morning
What’s on Tap – Thursday May 7, 2009
Here are the big stories on the agenda today:
Santa Barbara burning. Big, expensive homes being reduced to ashes. Red Cross shelters filling up and nature stacking the deck against firefighters, with 100 degree temperatures and 60 mile an hour winds.
The Obama Administration announcing $17 billion in budget cuts today. That's only a tiny fraction of next year's almost $3.5 trillion dollar spending plan. The cuts would trim or end 121 government programs. Republican leaders are already saying it's not enough. It's only half of what President Bush wanted last year. It could be a tough sell on Capitol Hill.
Your money on the line today, as we find out results of the bank stress tests. The government says some banks still need billions more to outlast the recession, but there are plenty of positive signs too. Bottom line – will you be asked to cut another check? The CNN Money Team breaks it down.
Bye bye Viagra? Rep. Jim Moran, a Democrat from Virginia, is taking aim at all those "erectile dysfunction" ads running on television at all hours of the day. He has said in the past that "they just push the envelope too far. There's just too much sexual innuendo." So Moran has reintroduced legislation (he tried before in 2005) to treat Viagra and other similar drugs as indecent, which means the FCC would have to ban such ads on broadcast television between 6am and 10pm.
We Listen!
On Wednesday, American Morning viewers angrily responded to the White House decision to keep the New York flyover photos “classified.” Many demanded financial compensation by President Obama for the ill-fated photo op, chastising the Obama administration for being “totally clueless and just plain stupid.”
- Stephen: I have the solution concerning these private Air Force One pix–let the prez pay for them out of HIS pockets! Ridiculous....1st, he scares the life out of already sensitized New Yorkers...now, he is so embarrassed [apparently]–he decides to keep these private. Well then,,,like someone else has said; he could have Photo-Shopped an image of the plane over NYC at a cost of @ $3.00....That's why we have to fire all the politicians....the regard they have for money is crazy! Can you imagine how much that 300, 000 would mean to a low-income family?
- Claire: Regarding the Air Force One incident, I seriously doubt President Bush would have been so ignorant or insensitive to have it fly over New York City, considering what happened on 9-11 and he saw the destruction first hand. Obama and his "Barackateers" are proving more and more each day they are totally clueless and just plain stupid.
- Cch4m: The White House refuses to release the photos of the President's Airplane scaring the hell out of New Yorkers? Transparent? Who was on the plane? Transparent? Everything about this President's past and present has been locked away NEVER to be seen....Transparent? What are they hiding? Why won't they release the photos and the passenger list? Transparent? And the useful idiots in the so-called "mainstream" press just gives him a pass as usual....NOW if George Bush would have done this hearings and investigations would go on forever........without end...and it would be above the fold news for weeks......but Obama gets a pass.....
Talk radio's Michael Savage on AM
Conservative and often controversial talk radio show Michael Savage is planning to file suit against Britain's Home Secretary Jacqui Smith after she added him to a list banning his entrance into the U.K. for allegedy fostering extremism or hatred. The list also includes a white supremacist and a member of Hamas. Read more
Smith said that the radio host was “someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country.”
I spoke with Savage earlier today about the issue. He calls the ban an outrage and is planning to fight back.
I also challenged him about some of the things he's said about Islam, homosexuality and illegal immigration.
Be sure to watch "American Morning" tomorrow to watch the full interview and hear from Michael Savage himself at 7:15am ET.
And we'd love to hear your thoughts on the controversy.
Follow us on Twitter @amFIX and @kiranchetrycnn
See you in the morning,
Kiran
Star power for education reform
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/05/06/costello.garner.art.jpg caption= "Actress Jennifer Garner is an artist ambassador for Save the Children."]
From CNN's Bob Ruff
There’s so much money in the Federal budget you’d think it would be easy for a worthy group such as “Save the Children” to get a chunk of it for early childhood education. But just three huge and growing entitlement programs eat up roughly half of what Congress spends. That would be Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Add in Defense and the latest bank bailouts and, well, you get the picture.
So what’s a worthy cause to do? The U.S. Branch of “Save the Children” thought a little star power would help. So they hired Hollywood TV and film actress Jennifer Garner, who’s starring in the current box office hit “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past”, to serve as it’s “Artist Ambassador.”
Garner, who is the mother of two young girls (her husband is actor Ben Affleck) was taken by “Save the Children” last month to an impoverished part of California to see up close what she and and the country are up against. One in six American children live in poverty, and that severely hurts their chances of getting a good education.
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