bush remains a somewhat mysterious figure of an international businessman who has had contacts with many people throughout his career he is believed by some to be nothing less than the merchant of death and one of the most notorious arms dealers in the world to date by others including his family to simply be a man who was caught in the wrong thing at the wrong time and is basically being made a scapegoat by the united states of course mr bush has received a lot of international attention following his arrest in march two thousand and eight in this high capital bangkok and still the media today could not figure out whether mr booth is simply a good man a bad man or what kind of a man he actually is how the woods lord of rule or there are over five hundred fifty million firearms in world war three. that's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. the only question is. how do we arm the other eleven and his alleged real life prototype russian businessman dictabelt nicknamed the merchant of death denied all accusations of arms selling and laughed off parallels. resulting from

mr. bush visited a mango farm and a sewing factory tuesday. following the deadly quake, mr. bush teamed with former president clinton to raise funds for relief efforts. >>> on the "cbs moneywatch," asian stocks dipped into red territory again. ashley morrison is here with the latest on that. good morning. >> good morning to you. asian markets took a dive after the japanese yen surged dimming the long-term economic outlook. tokyo's nikkei shed more than 2% while hong kong's hang seng was also down. today wall street gets the latest on the job market and earning report from cisco. on tuesday the market slumped even after the fed said they'd keep interest rates at record lows and begin buying government debt to help spur the economy. the dow lost 5 4 points, while the nasdaq gave back 28. >>> a preliminary federal report suggests in many cases toyota drivers were to blame for unintended acceleration. black box data recorders show brakes were not applied in 35 of the 58 crashes studded. sticky gas pedals and bunched up floor mats are still culprits. there's no evidence yet that

i think mr. bush was active in pakistan and pakistan. so in the main you see a continuation of george bush's policies. >> you said to me in a previous conversation the thing you hear-- this was after you were out of power-- people would talk about america's competency. >> well, i think i told you about the story about in the wake of the middle east during cat "there was real questions about america's competency. and in the wake of the deep disaster, all of our citizens, ourselves, were talking about whether we were competent, whether government should accomplish these lofty and weighty issues. so i think there is a real question of competency in the minds of our own citizens regarding u.s. government. >> rose: so b.p. added the same idea that katrina added for the bush administration? >> i would say so. >> rose: how about the middle east? >> middle east no one's made much progress in a lot of years. kept the violence down somewhat. mr. obama is alternating pressure on mr. netanyahu and pressure on mr. abbas trying to get them to face-to-

thank you, mrs. bush. have a good day there in new orleans. we send our best to you from the mississippi gulf coast. take care. >> thank you very much. give everyone my best there. >> mrs. bush gives everyone her best. >>> we'll have much more from the gulf coast in just a moment. come on back. [ male announcer ] what is performance? 0 to 60? or 60 to 0? [ tires screech ] the quarter mile, or a quarter century? is performance about the joy of driving? or the importance... of surviving. to us, performance is not about doing one thing well. it is about doing everything well. because in the end... everything matters. the best or nothing. that is what drives us. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers on the c-class. [ male announcer ] do your contact lenses feel as good at the end of the day as they do at the beginning? air optix® contact lenses have superior deposit resistance for cleaner lenses. air optix®, the lens you can survive a long day in. go to airoptix.com for a free one month trial offer. [ male uncer ] mix i

legal issues i spend my day my father before me mr bush who established our law firm in midtown manhattan helping people throughout this nation give visas green card citizenship by deborah present to john lennon can you just imagine that we're now deteriorating the dialogue is rapidly deteriorating to the point where we're going to go if the babies and children well i'm a former mayor and i do know well the cost that communities have to pay for mending people in hospitals for fixing and educating individuals that don't have the right to be here go after the parents but if you want to take away the inventory of education those wonderful people those babies who have are defenseless you know you cannot sponsor somebody until you're twenty one years old and last i knew i have four children myself it's very difficult to smuggle yourself of course a border and this whole thing is just a lot of xenophobia and a lot of media written you'll forgive me a debate in this election time and i agree with the speaker because the truth is all of this is there is zero chance that the fourteenth amendment w

. >> worse things get, wagons get circled and continue to and nancy pelosi remind everyone mr. bush's poll says are partly to blame. >> an agenda took us to financial crisis and deep recession. >> so here is what the future may look like. next week there is unemployment numbers for august. i can tell you this, everyone is waiting for that. and he expects the economy to recover by at a modest pace. he says families have more in savings and two, they have lower credit debt, hopefully means they'll be in the mood to spend. >> and stock prices began to climb after a two and a half week slide, dow jones finished 164 points up today, nasdaq add 35. s and p 500 gained 17. and even intel stock went up. and this is down by $400 million. mexicoa airlines has gone belly up, suspending some flights and stopped selling tickets. today mexico transportation minister says mexicoa is halting all operations as of midnight tonight z toy story 3 now sold $1 billion in tickets around the world. making the walt disney studios only one in history to have $2 billion movies in one year. the other is "a

it voted twice for mr. bush and once for mr. mccain and i decided to come and live amongst them. and so at first they didn't quite know what was going to happen. but we've pumped about, now in these six years, close to $50 million into the local economy between the film festival and this theater and all the revitalization that's happened downtown. there's not a day now where a republican doesn't stop me on the street and give me a hug or shake my hand or whatever. it's actually been a very good experience for me to be amongst people that i -- we don't necessarily share the same politics, but we're all americans. we're all in the same boat. we have to sink or swim together. >> larry: michael, you capitalists constantly amaze me. anyway, you said you had a tough time finding american -- >> it's all nonprofit here. >> larry: did you have a tough time finding american independent feature films this year? >> well, i have to say, it was more difficult. we've got a great lineup of american films this year, but probably 50% less american films than we had last year. i think that's due in

mrs. obama and mrs. bush will be the keynote speak erpz at a memorial service in shanksville, pennsylvania where united flight 93 crashed. it will be the first time that the two women have met since president obama took office. a new memorial and national park are under construction outside shanksville to honor those who died while fighting back against the terrorists on board flight 93. >>> today a south bay charitable group collected office supplies for victims of flooding in pakistan. floods have killed more than 1500 people and left 20 million homeless. >> everybody has an extra blanket or sweatshirt or jacket at home. >> volunteers with the hadai foundation unloaded a truck full of donated clothes and supplies. organizers say the donations go straight to the people most in need. >> it is shipped directly to pakistan where it's received by our team. we have over 150 team members on the ground that do the distribution for us. >> reporter: it will take one and a half months for the supplies to reach pa

mr. secretary. >> it's clear that teachers are frustrated. >> why am i paid as if i'm the lowest of the low when i have your child's mind in my hand more than you do? >> duncan supports paying teachers more based on how well their students perform. at a union rally in louisiana -- ♪ we are family >> -- duncan assures teachers that he wants them all to work together. >> we have to do so much more to elevate the teaching profession, to say thank you. >> and secretary duncan joins me now, also president of the american federation of teachers randy weingarten and michelle rhee, chancellor of the d.c. public schools. she joins us from sacramento, california. thank you to all of us. let me go straight to you because that last -- i saw you both nodding in that last piece where really you have to do more together to try to get the teacher situation in the classroom situation better. what can you do to make people like randy weingarten and teachers feel secure about how you're trying to reform a

so nina, the president and vice president have been going after mr. bush every chance they get. now we have the new ad from the democratic national committee. democrats did really well running against bush in 2006, 2008. will it work again? >> they don't have a lot to sell, so they've got to come after bush. where are they left? our favorite non-partisan political analyst charlie cook says republicans could gain as many as 45 seats. they only need 39 in the house to take over. the economy is grim. we know it. unemployment is nearly 10%. companies, even profitable companies aren't hiring because they're still nervous. individual investors are staying out of the stock market, so there is less capital to invest. the confidence of people -- >> chris: we understand all the bad news. but the question is does going after bush work in 2010? >> because you have to -- it doesn't work, it's all they have left because they can't change the conversation to the healthcare bill, for example, which most of the public disapproves of. what are they going to sell in all they can sell right now is

mr. obama has set a daunting goal -- raise college graduation rates from today's 40% to 60% in 10 years. by adding at least 8 million graduates. >> the single most important thing we can do is to make sure we've got a world-class education system for everybody. >> reporter: some education experts say the problem isn't colleges, but high schools that fail to prepare students once they get there. >> large percentages show up needing some kind of remediation. in reading, in mathematics, in courses that colleges would like to think had been done at high schools. >> reporter: to tackle that problem, the president is pushing a set of common academic standards so that all students would have the same skills. and the president wants to get more students in the door by making college more affordable, through increased financial aid and student loans. >> it took 30 years to get to number 12. do you think we can really get to number one in 10? >> i do. and is it an ambitious goal? absolutely. is it

one of those people is the form er first lady, laura bush. we're going to speak to mrs. bush in just a couple of minutes. but first, here's nbc's kerry sanders. ♪ >> reporter: it's been a long jor journey but five years later a 6-year-old with a drum set and in louisiana these brothers have a home again as well. >> this is the washing room where my mom washes clothes. >> reporter: do you help her sometimes? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: are you sure? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: we first met the brister family here on "today." hurricane winds toppled four huge trees right into her house, splitting it in two. it was all tears when magic johnson handed the family keys to a new habitat for humanity home, some of it built by volunteers right here on the plaza. they have a mortgage like all homeowners just not as expensive. okay, mathematics, you are paying -- >> $392. >> reporter: a month? >> a month. >> reporter: for your house? >> yes. >> reporter: and you say to yourself? >> wow. great. >> reporter: habitat volunteers here are still helping folks recover. >> sometimes it just

. >> if that were mrs. bush, the screaming would be heard everywhere. >> this is completely overhyped. >> reporter: david axelrod defends the trip telling "the new york times" "folks in the public eye are also human beings." >> it's out of balance. it's not a smart move. you can't really have your cake here and eat it too. >> reporter: the bad pr comes at a time when the white house could use some good news. we learned friday that the economy lost 131,000 jobs last month. the president's approval rating is at 41%, his lowest ever. and the forecast for the democrats in november is not good. the administration is hoping that the public shifts focus to the obamas' upcoming vacation. this weekend the entire family heads to the gulf. for "good morning america," yunji de nies, abc news, the white house. >> okay, and for more on this we're joined by our friend cokie roberts in washington and, cokie, thanks for coming in this morning. you heard yunji saying the white house hopes this is going to blow over. but they

but i just wonder if mr. bush and mr. cheney and mr. rumsfeld ever goes to a v.a. hospital and actually sees our veterans that are coming back with their arms are blown off, their legs are blown off, their eyes lost their eyes and severe head injuries and all that. these people don't have a conscious. i don't know how they can live with themselves. i think they should be brought up on war crimes. and not only the numbers of americans veterans, but we should talk about the whole number, the total number of injured people and killed of the american veterans, the coalition forces, the iraqi people. how many iraqi people have been forced out of their homes living in refugee camps? how many of iraqis have been killed because of this unjust war? host: michigan. josh on our independent line. caller: thanks for taking my call. i want to get back to what the guy from missouri was saying. how many millions of iraqi civilians have been slaughtered by people we're fighting and by our own actions? i mean, the fact that we go to iraq for what reason do we even go there? and i un

but i just wonder if mr. bush and mr. cheney and mr. rumsfeld ever goes to a v.a. hospital and actually sees our veterans that are coming back wit their arms are blown off, their legs are blown off, their eyes lost their eyes and severe head juries and all that. these people don't have a conscious. i don't know how they can li with themselves. i think they should be brought up on war crimes. and not only the numbers of americans veterans, but we should talk about the whole number, the total number of injured people and killed of the american veterans, the coalition forces, the iraqi people. how many iraqi people have been forced out of their homes living in refugee camps? how many of iraq have been killed because of this unjust war? host: michigan. josh on our independent line. caller: thanks for taking my call. i want to get back to what the guy from missouri was saying. homany millions of iraqi civilians have been slaughtered by people we're fighting and by our own actions? i mean, the fact that we go to iraq f what reason do we even go there? and i understand th

bush's favor don't miss it. mr curtis if you would come forward. and ask the court reporter to swear the witness. mr curtis would you please state your full name for the record name is clinton eugene curtis and what is your profession i'm a computer programmer mr curtis are there programs that can be used to secretly fix elections yes how do you know that the be the case because in october of two thousand i wrote a prototype for president congressman tom feeney at the company i work for you know vito florida did just that it would really going to watch and it would flip the vote fifty one forty nine whoever you wanted to go to and whichever ray she wanted to went to who ever you wanted to win. on november second two thousand for george bush was more popular even middle of an unpopular war i was watching the.

bush win the two thousand and action. mr curtis if you would come forward. i would ask the court reporter to swear the witness. mr curtis would you please state your full name for the record name is clinton eugene curtis and what is your profession i'm a computer programmer mr curtis are there programs that can be used to.

bush when the election two thousand and four. mr curtis if you would come forward. and ask the court reporter to swear the witness. mr curtis would you please state your full name for the record i name is clinton eugene curtis and what is your profession i'm a computer programmer mr curtis are there programs that can be used to secretly fix elections yes how do you know that the be the case because in october of two thousand i wrote a prototype for president congressman tom feeney at the company i work for an o.b. to florida that did just that it would rig an election it would flip the vote fifty one forty nine the whoever you wanted to go to and whichever race she wanted to went to ever you wanted to win. on november second two thousand for george bush was more popular even middle of an unpopular war i was watching the exit polls and looked very clear that john kerry was going to wind. up going for duty. was. and then all of a sudden the numbers that were coming in did not match up with what was coming in from the exit polls and it didn't make any sense it just did

he blames president bush and republicans for triggering the recession. >> mr. baner is nostalgic for those good old days, but the american public is not. >> reporter: democrats say they need more time. at least they've kept it from getting worse. >> the problem is the fact that the economy is still not good. it's in fact, very, very weak at best. >> reporter: is it rude for john baner to call on the president to fire cabinet members, unprecedented? not necessarily. democrats when they were out on power frequently called for president bush to fire his secretary, rumsfeld. >>> we want to remind you about an upcoming debate, the first face off will happen september 5 right here on ktvu. >>> it'll be very hot inland, cooler coast. the extended forecast calls for a cooling trend. these are the forecast overnight lows. 69 in oakland, 64 in fairfield, downtown san francisco low 60s. the forecast highs tomorrow. look for the white, those are your 100s. we're going to see them in lots of inland bay valleys. temperatures around 101, 102, the rest of the bay area a bit co

he blames president bush and republicans for triggering the recession. >> mr. baner is nostalgic for those good old days, but the american public is not. >> reporter: democrats say they need more time. at least they've kept it from getting worse. >> the problem is the fact that the economy is still not good. it's in fact, very, very weak at best. >> reporter: is it rude for john baner to call on the president to fire cabinet members, unprecedented? not necessarily. democrats when they were out on power frequently called for president bush to fire his secretary, rumsfeld. >>> we want to remind you about an upcoming debate, the first face off will happen september 5 right here on ktvu. >>> it'll be very hot inland, cooler coast. the extended forecast calls for a cooling trend. these are the forecast overnight lows. 69 in oakland, 64 in fairfield, downtown san francisco low 60s. the forecast highs tomorrow. look for the white, those are your 100s. we're going to see them in lots of inland bay valleys. temperatures around 101, 102, the rest of the bay area a bit co

but the policies preceded bush. i am not blaming mr. clinton. we need first to tell the truth and give our opinions. i am convinced that that its the, the root of the problem. changing the criteria to enable who couldn't afford homes to have them so that we reach out to minorities and poor people. >> larry: what is the solution, stephanie? do you think the solution is happening? >> as i say, larry, i get it its hard to sell a negative. that most economists most credible economists say we averted the next great depression. hard to prove a negative. we didn't do that. we don't have that. hard to say you have to take credit for that. but i think it is true. i think we were headed for the next great depression. i think we are moving in the right direction, not certainly fast enough for a lot of people. as the the president has said. i think we are moving in the right direction. the last thing if you read paul krugman's column today last thing you want to do is put in obstructionist republicans that are not going to do anything to help the president

>> i have never questioned the good faith of mr. blair or bush or anyone else. i think to question the good faith, it will -- you need to have very substantial evidence and i do not have that. on some occasions when i talked to blair on the telephone, february 20, i certainly felt that he was absolutely sincere in his belief. what i questioned was the good judgment, particularly with bush, but also in blair's judgment. >> i would like to come back, if i could, briefly to the march assessment of the outstanding issues, which, of course, was entitled, "unresolved disarmament issues -- iraq's proscribed weapons programs." you have told us about jack straw's reaction and your comment on it. in his evidence to us he voiced his surprise that the document had not been available to the ministerial security council meeting in its discussions on march 7, 2003, and obviously given his view of the importance of the document, he felt it would have had a similar effect on other members of the security council as it had on him. was there any reason why it could not be made ava

than by a lot of but it you mentioned the relationship between bush and washington and do you believe that it should continue to develop in the same direction or should the priorities be shifted somewhat because of his what you're close up of there is a good saying we don't have to be an academy you don't have to be appointed an ambassador three times to be great diplomat of some sort just listen. the saying which is a close neighbor is better than a distant relative now when saying something like this the wisdom of our fathers of our forefathers are unappreciated as one or foreign policy becomes meaningless to us most and we look at could get stuff from the job political and the strategic point of view which especially taking into account the globalization process of life and we will see that could get started as an area of interest from a new powers to cuba gives government it is taking part in the settlement of several global problems such as iran issue and the situation of the biggest dogs and afghanistan it was the catalyst government that initiated the creation of standing confi

bush onboard air force one, i said mr. president if this happened in nantucket or new york or chicago, he interrupted me and said you can call me anything you want, but don't call me a racist. that was his response to that. what do you think was at work here? >> i don't have the expertise to be able to say. when i watched your report, i had never before seen the helicopters going over the convention center from day one. and at the superdome. they have two hilo pads. the convention center has an empty lot. you can see those people as president of the united states or browni or whoever you are. you can't lift in water and mris? it didn't make any sense. >> as you look around your beloved city these days, it's interesting to hear the people answer the question, how is new orleans do, how is recovery doing? >> i'll give you two words that i think is our hope it's called mitch landrieu. i think he's doing a terrific job. we have a police chief with a ph.d. and tons of young people, entrepreneurs coming in here. i think we're on

reports have linked mr blewitt to arms smuggling to east. in africa but some analysts say that bush is being extradited only because he posed direct threat to american business in africa what's your take on that i completely i completely support what. the mexican president said yesterday i believe his statement regarding the u.s. role in latin america in africa he's the best ever a. punchline and sound bite if you consider within the context of a fair yesterday the mexican president openly cuse the united states first for promoting drugs culture and in promoting the violence in africa and latin america i quote his say for the united states to provide it to smuggle weapons to criminals because for them it's a it's a fair business so in a way. inadvertently. mexican president played yesterday as a richness to the prosecution of the united states' role in smuggling both the smuggling the arms and drugs and the and that's is a very important thing because if you connect if you connect the dots it boils down to these united states exports consump

before leaving office, president bush sent an additional 20,000 troops. and extended the tours of many more, a move then-senator obama opposed. >> i cannot in good conscience . it's a policy that's already been tried. and a policy that has failed. >> mr. obama had opposed the surge. and that, if we had not surged, we'd be in a much different place today. a much worse place. >> reporter: the president did not credit the surge directly. although, he did say iraq is increasingly able to stand on its own. >> becau >> because of the sacrifices of our troops and their iraqi partners, violence in iraq continues to be near the lowest it's been in years. >> reporter: violence escalated in july, with 161 civilians killed. still, with the height of the violence in late 2006, civilian deaths reached 1,500 a month. >> if you value political liberty, as most americans do, you would say iraq's a lot better off now. if you value personal safety on the street, iraq is still somewhat worse off than it had been in the latter years of saddam's rule. >> reporter: five months

bush ] "let's see here, are you in china?" "no, mr. president, i'm right here talking to you." [ laughter ] "you sure? are they speaking spanish where you are?" "i don't know what you're talking about. sorry, mr. president." "inception" came in number one at the box office this weekend, you guys. it's made -- [ cheers and applause ] yes. it's made $193 million so far. yeah. the only thing it didn't make was sense. [ laughter ] "is he dreaming? did he dream that?" "no, man, no. he was dreaming, but you --" i'm sure you heard about this. lindsay lohan was released from jail earlier this morning and immediately checked into rehab. yep. it happened so fast they barely had time to hang up the "welcome back" banner out front. [ laughter ] "we didn't know it would be this soon." i'm in a good mood, you guys, tonight. i'm very excited. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ i can't even believe it. [ laughter ] no, you know why i'm excited? it's the discovery channel's 23rd annual shark week. [ cheers and applause ] that's right, or as they call it on th

for bush. but. always by one vote for kerry vote for kerry so the people that are going to be validating this machine can stand there all day long and vote for somebody and it will be right every time but the guy can walk up here and if he hits the right buttons. they can flip the boat that he took. so. this is not a. war. everybody is sure to support they have no idea about the hardships that face. this is. in the army. is the most precious thing in the world. of self-sacrifice and heroism those who understand it fully but you have to live it. stories from would need. to treat nineteen forty five gold. five sizes of battling blazes in many parts of russia cool spy the raccoon breaking heat wave and drawing spell the wall fall as it will do to change it these personal lives and that to continue down this entire. small continues to blanket several cities meeting the. chinese emergency was because the plan is to retreat in most of the tops of the piles that swept into a flood zone and were heading for

republicans say he should give president bush some credit because it was the troop surge that mr. obama opposed that led to the reduction in violence to iraq. tracie potts, nbc bay area news, washington. >>> a reminder that prime time speech is scheduled for today. it's at 5:00. we will carry it live on nbc bay area. >>> this morning hayward police are trying to figure out whether they have a case of vandalism or hate crime on their hands. someone broke out the windows at the naacp office on b street in hayward two weekends in a row. police believe rocks and a bb gun were used. police say there's no evidence it was a hate crime and they're investigating, but the civil rights of the organization is not ruling it out either. >> i'm very familiar with rocks being thrown into people's homes, that happened in birmingham. so when that happened when i walked in this office and saw that, for a moment there i thought i was back in birmingham. >> police are looking at video from a surveillance tape to see if they can put together any clues. >>> palo alto police are warning shoppers about a

>> i have never questioned the good faith of mr. blair or bush or anyone else. i think to question the good faith, it will -- you need to have very substantial evidence and i do not have that. on some occasions when i talked to blair on the telephone, february 20, i certainly felt that he was absolutely sincere in his belief. what i questioned was the good judgment, particularly with bush, but also in blair's judgment. >> i would like to come back, if i could, briefly to the march assessment of the outstanding issues, which, of course, was entitled, "unresolved disarmament issues -- iraq's proscribed weapons programs." you have told us about jack straw's reaction and your comment on it. in his evidence to us he voiced his surprise that the document had not been available to the ministerial security council meeting in its discussions on march 7, 2003, and obviously given his view of the importance of the document, he felt it would have had a similar effect on other members of the security council as it had on him. was there any reason why it could not be made ava