Hypocrisy on the Campaign Trail: Join the Live Chat
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Tonight on 360°, politicians who rail against government spending, but who also want their share of the very stimulus plan they're attacking. We're keeping them honest. Plus, more than 100 people killed in Haiti. Deaths that didn't have to happen after January's earthquake.
Want more details on what covering? Read EVENING BUZZ
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Evening Buzz: WikiLeaks Releases Secret Iraq War Documents
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/US/10/22/wikileaks.iraq/story.wikileaks.page.gi.jpg caption="Department of Defense experts are poring over reports that have been released on the WikiLeaks website." width=300 height=169]
Maureen Miller
AC360° Writer
We're following breaking news on a move that the Pentagon says puts U.S. troops in Iraq in "even greater danger."
U.S. military leaders are furious over the release of 400,000 classified war documents on the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.
The documents, from 2004 to 2009, show most civilians were killed by other Iraqis and give insight on the role that Iran played in helping Iraqi militants, according to the New York Times, which was one of a handful of news organizations that got early access to the papers.
The Pentagon says 300 Iraqis are named in the documents who could be in danger due to WikiLeaks actions.
"We have notified Centcom and U.S. forces in Iraq so that they could then be in touch with those Iraqis and take measures to try to safeguard them in the wake of this exposure," said Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell.
Chris Lawrence is at the Pentagon for us looking through the documents. He'll have the latest on the fallout tonight on 360°.
We'll also take you inside the fight over foreclosures. A Florida law firm is accused of submitting false documents to speed up the foreclosure process. The state attorney general calls the law firm the largest foreclosure mill in the state. The law firm denies the accusation. But wait to you hear what the employees admitted, under oath.
Plus, more of Anderson's exclusive one-on-one interview with Yoko Ono. She talks more about her murdered husband John Lennon, including what life was like with the other Beatles.
Join us for these stories and much more at 10 p.m. ET. See you then.
Beat 360° 10/22/10
Ready for today's Beat 360°? Everyday we post a picture you provide the caption and our staff will join in too. Tune in tonight at 10pm to see if you are our favorite! Here is the 'Beat 360°' pic:
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks during his "Jobs Here, Jobs Now" tour at the JW Marriott Las Vegas October 21, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Have fun with it. We're looking forward to your captions! Make sure to include your name, city, state (or country) so we can post your comment.
Update: Beat 360° Winners:
Staff
Ben Finley
“Newt Gingrich tries helping Christine O’Donnell out during last week’s debate”
Viewer
John Crawford
"... And this? Another Outrageous LIE by the Obama administration!"
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Center for Public Integrity: Scores of Recovery Act opponents sought money out of public view
The Center for Public Integrity
Rep. Pete Sessions, the firebrand conservative from Dallas, Texas, has relentlessly assailed the Democratic-passed stimulus law as a wasteful "trillion dollar spending spree" that was "more about stimulating the government and rewarding political allies than growing the economy and creating jobs."
But that didn’t stop the Republican lawmaker from reaching his hand out behind the scenes to seek stimulus money for the suburb of Carrollton after the camera lights went dark and the GOP campaign against the 2009 stimulus law quieted down.
The affluent city’s rail project is “shovel-ready,” Sessions wrote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in February, urging his cabinet agency to give “full and fair consideration” to the city’s request for $81 million in stimulus money, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Center for Public Integrity. Ironically, his letter suggested the project would create jobs, undercutting the very public argument he has made against the stimulus.
“Carrollton’s project will create jobs, stimulate the economy, improve regional mobility and reduce pollution,” the lawmaker wrote.
When asked about the letter, Sessions suggested to the Center that he did not want his “strong, principled objection to the bill to prevent me” from getting his congressional district its share of the massive spending pot.
Sessions was hardly alone.
With 138 dead, official says Haiti cholera outbreak will likely worsen
Greg Botelho
CNN
(CNN) - Chaos reigned north of Haiti's capital Friday as hospitals overflowed with people rushing to get help from a fast-moving cholera outbreak that has killed at least 138 people.
World health authorities warned that the situation could worsen, with more people showing symptoms, seeking care and fighting dehydration in scorching heat.
"This outbreak is likely to get much larger, given our experience with cholera in the past," said Dr. Jon K. Andrus, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization.
Eric Lotz, Haiti's national director for the nonprofit Operation Blessing, described a "horrific" scene outside St. Nicolas hospital, the main medical facility in the city of St. Marc, as patients and their family members fought to get care.
"There was bedlam outside the gate," said Lotz. "Inside (the hospital), every square inch is covered with people."
Some people waited 24 hours or more to get help outside the hospital, many of them on stretchers, said Terry Snow, Haiti director for the nonprofit Youth With a Mission.
Snow said he tried to take one man with cholera to various clinics, only to end up at St. Nicolas hospital and be told that it was full. The man died soon thereafter in the back of his truck, he said.
"It's very chaotic," Snow said of the scene in St. Marc and more rural agricultural areas nearby. "People are trying to figure out what to do. People are lost."
Letters to the President: #641 'When in India'
Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent
Reporter's Note: President Obama is going to India next month. I went to Indiana last winter, so…well, I guess there is really no connection. Here is today’s letter.
Dear Mr. President,
We’ve chatted here before about your religion and I’ve made it clear that I trust you when you say you’re Christian. I do not really understand why so many people think you are a secret-ninja-Muslim, or whatever it is they think.
After all, I know plenty of people for whom the only evidence of their faith is what they say about it, or their once a year visit to church on Christmas to mumble during the prayers and look at their shoes a lot. Despite that, I don’t see the neighbors organizing an Inquisition.
So with all of that said, I want to believe your staff when they suggest your schedule of stops in India will be dictated entirely by your work, not some political fear of visiting a Sikh holy site where you’d be forced to where a head-covering. I want to think that as President of the United States you would be both strong and principled enough to call such crass political worries nonsense and beneath the dignity of the office.
Report: Obama to skip Sikh Temple in India partly out of head covering concern
Now, considering the accusations that are continually lobbed at you over your faith, I can also understand that you would not want to unnecessarily pour more gasoline onto that barbeque. But sometimes I think the appearance of running from something is actually more damning than standing and addressing it.
FULL POST
Obama tapes anti-bullying message
Ric Ward
CNN
Washington (CNN) - An anti-bullying video message from President Barack Obama is symbolic, the founder of the "It Gets Better" project said Friday, but the president "has the power to do more."
"The administration does say all the right things, but we don't see the action to back up these words," Dan Savage told CNN's "American Morning."
Obama taped the message in the wake of several recent suicides by young people who were being bullied or taunted for being gay. The White House released the video, which appears on the website itgetsbetterproject.com, late Thursday night.
"We've got to dispel this myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage, that it's some inevitable part of growing up. It's not," Obama says.
Related video: Mother takes bullying fears to Obama
Savage, who's also a nationally syndicated columnist, said he hopes the message "serves as a wake-up call" to bullies.
"We finally have a reckoning about the hate rhetoric that sloshes around the culture directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender adults and children," Savage added.
"You are not alone," the president says in the taped message. "You did not do anything wrong. You didn't do anything to deserve being bullied and there is a whole world waiting for you filled with possibilities. If you ever feel like, because of bullying, because of what people are saying that you're getting down on yourself, you've got to make sure to reach out to people you trust - whether it's your parents, teachers, people who you know care about you just the way you are, you've got to reach out to them. Don't feel like you're in this by yourself. Things will get better and more than that - in time you're going to see that your differences are a source of pride and a source of strength.
"As a nation, we're founded on the belief that all of us are equal and each of us deserves the freedom to pursue our own version of happiness," Obama says in the three-minute video.
Florida man caught up in foreclosure chaos
Editor's note: Watch Drew Griffin's full report here
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/10/22/art.tonytable.cnn.jpg caption="Florida homeowner Tony Louzado is facing foreclosure and two different law firms are pushing the foreclosure - on the same mortgage."]
Drew Griffin and Jessi Joseph
CNN
(CNN) - Tony Louzado is facing foreclosure.
He's not alone - in central Florida, where Louzado lives and works, one in every 56 homes is in foreclosure.
That simple number, from foreclosure data firm RealtyTrac, doesn't tell the whole story, especially in Louzado's case. Two different law firms are pushing the foreclosure - on the same mortgage.
"I see now that there's two people that are coming after me, that maybe [the bank] hired in this way," he said. "I don't know all the specifics, but there's two people that are coming after me on the same loan number," said Louzado.
Across the country, millions of Americans have lost their homes to foreclosures since the recession began in December 2007, according to RealtyTrac. Increasingly, however, more of those stories are becoming horror tales about a system in chaos with banks pushing people toward foreclosure, sometimes, allegedly, based on error-filled or even fraudulent and illegal documents.
Several of the nation's financial giants, including Bank of America, Allied Financial, JPMorgan Chase and GMAC, have halted foreclosures, although Bank of America and GMAC announced they are resuming the process. While the Obama administration opposes a moratorium on foreclosures so the process can be examined, the federal Fraud Enforcement Task Force has launched a criminal investigation to determine if the banks and their lawyers have done anything illegal.
Louzado's case may or may not have been handled properly, but his story is typical.
FULL POST
Reid says he doesn't need to prove his manhood
Alexander Mooney
CNN Ticker Producer
(CNN) – In a Senate race that has devolved into a bravado competition of sorts, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he doesn't have to prove his manhood.
"People in Nevada know me. From the street to the ring to the Senate chambers, I've never had to prove my manhood to anyone," Reid, a one-time boxer, told MSNBC on Thursday.
The comments come in response to repeated jabs from Republican opponent Sharron Angle, who often says Reid needs to "man up" when it comes to dealing with issues like the economy and Social Security.
Angle first debuted her "man up" line of attack at a Nevada debate last week and has since repeated the mantra against the soft-spoken 70-year-old senator ever since.
Campaign swing takes Obama to California, Nevada
Ed Henry
CNN Senior White House Correspondent
San Francisco, California (CNN) - President Obama will wake up in San Francisco, California, on Friday amid a five-state, four-day tour aimed at propping up embattled key Senate incumbents.
Obama will fly to Los Angeles, California, to attend a fundraiser luncheon at the University of Southern California for Sen. Barbara Boxer and former Gov. Jerry Brown, before delivering remarks at a Democratic National Committee rally at USC's Alumni Park.
Boxer has opened a slight lead against Republican Carly Fiorina, as has Brown in his effort to win his old job back in a nasty battle with Republican Meg Whitman. National Democrats are still watching these races closely to ensure they don't slip out of their hands.
By Friday evening, the president will be in Las Vegas, Nevada, to attend a DNC rally at a middle school before heading to a private residence for a fundraising event for Sen. Harry Reid and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Reid is stuck in the mid-40s in most polls, despite months painting his Republican opponent, Tea Party-friendly Sharron Angle, as an extremist.
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