. >> present arms! >> present flags! ♪ [ national anthem playing ] [ national anthem playing ] >> present arms! before playing taps ] before playing taps ] >> order, right shoulder arms! and, good morning, everyone. it is the 11th of november, veterans day. ceremonies at arlington national cemetery, vice president joe biden, as you just saw, placing a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns, taps, providing the morning's somber sound track. the vice president will have remarks shortly and we will have those remarks live from the scene. men and women who have worn the uniform represent those who have sacrificed for their country and the american people. president obama is mashing the day in south korea. he stopped at the u.s. army garrison ahead of the summit. he laid a wreath to honor american and south korean troops who lost their lives in the war more than half a century ago and paid tribute to those still serving today. >> real change comes slowly. many people don't live to see the difference they've made in the lives of others but for the men and women who have served on this peninsula, all you have to do is look around. whether you're a veteran who landed in 1950 or one of the young troops today. the security you've provided has made possible one of the great success stories of our time. first lady michelle obama is also overseas on this veterans day. during a stop in germany, she helped to serve a veterans day meal at ramstein air force base, and also visited with troops in lamb stul. she is heading home after traveling to asia with the president. veterans describe the power of word using six words, hollywood fooled us. this is hell. one man is providing therapy for veterans and understanding for us all. a preliminary plan to reduce the nation's crushing debt is already coming under fire. the chairman of the bipartisan deficit commission calling for tax increases and deep spending cuts. the goal is to slash deficits by $4 trillion over ten years. this is one of the most important debates facing our nation right now. most of you have had to make difficult decisions about your own personal debt and finances, and now it is the nation's turn. so as the debate unfolds, we are going to follow it in depth. how big is the debt, and how did we get here? who owns the debt and why you should care? what cuts are being proposed, and what would you cut? you are fully involved. we need you to be fully engaged in this debate. iraq has a tentative deal on a new government aid long months after elections. the three main ethnic blocks each take a top post. nuri al maliki gets another term. jalal talibanny remains president and sunnis are choosing their leader today. a new panel will keep check on the prime minister's powers. >> reporter: the political tloip decided on establishing what is being called a national council for strategic policies. this council will hype threatically have decision and policy making authorities. it will be headed by possibly the former prime minister allawi himself. on paper, it does seem like it could be a working st. louising but this,after all, iraq, so we're going to have to wait and see exactly how this power-sharing deal is going to play out. amazon.com has pulled an e-book after angry protests and threat of a boycott. the pedophile's guide to love and pleasure was self-published. the author said he wrote it to correct the society's misconception about pedophiles, not as a how-to manual. >> to tell you the truth, i don't think that it's always bad for the child, okay. but i do think it's always confining for the adult because there are just so many more things that adults can enjoy between each other than with a child without hurting a child. every time you see them on television, they're either murderers, rapists or kidnappers. that's just not an accurate representation of that particular sexuality. >> the ebook sold fewer than 100 copies. another big story, the carnival cruise ship "splendor" is close to docking in san diego. the engine fire left the ship without electricity and for a while without toilets. the navy ferried food to the people on board yesterday. america pauses to remember its here rose in uniform. arlington national cemetery is one place where tributes are being paid and gripping words for those who paid a heavy price for protecting our freedom. joined army left legs in ago. a special six-word memoir project straight ahead. ♪ this one thing i'll eat, any time of day ♪ pancakes! ♪ from dawn 'til sunset, i'll never walk away ♪ ♪ blueberry pancakes are so good ♪ [ male announcer ] bisquick. pancake lovers unite. of some of the annoying symptoms menopause brings. go introducing one a day menopause formula. the only complete multivitamin with soy isoflavones to help address hot flashes and mild mood changes. new one a day menopause formula. i just knew it! oh, my goodness. >> that's pretty good, huh? honoring america's veterans, live pictures now from arlington national cemetery on this veterans day. we are awaiting remarks from the vice president of the united states. vice president biden and other dignity terrys are attending those ceremonies, including a wreath laying in honor of fallen troops. emotional words from american veterans. there is a special memoir project where veterans talk about their experiences but they have to do it in six words. here's one, moments of silence, years of sadness. from another vet, finally home but miss the guys. the magazine's editor larry smith is with us. thank you for your time on this veterans day. if you would, tell us about your project. >> my pleasure, tony. >> great to have you here, and why you decided to do this. >> well, a few years ago, playing off the hemingway legend. as the story goes, hemingway was challenged in a bet, could he write a novel in six words. i run a website called smith where people write their stories. what would your life look like if tu to do it in six words. we call transplanted the six word memoir. >> a lot of the veterans said they had a hard time talking about 30 experiences. why do you think your format sort of drew them out of it? >> if you ask any person, a veteran or any person living their life. how are you? what's the story of your life is a hard question. a blank page is a scary thing but one filled with just six words isn't quite as scary. a veteran comes home and they ask him or her, how are you? what happened? it's hard to start. six words, it's an ice breaker. you take a six word memoir like look how big you have gotten. your heart fills with empathy, and it works, just a six-word format. >> you devised the six-word format, but i'm sure the veterans who responded have said more than that to you. what's been the personal feedback from veterans beyond the six words? >> it's really an amazing thing to have a story telling site where people share their words with you so sort of gracefully and engagingly, and you can tell a back story on smith mag d.o.t. nyet. there is a story from jeffrey coaler and he talked about looking in the mirror, reading his drivers license, and not knowing the person in the mirror, on the reasons. i don't know who i am. >> you said your own six word memoir would be big hair, big heart, big hurry. >> explain that. >> today it's not as big as usual. >> yes. >> like the 300,000 people who submitted six word memoir, i, too, have submitted them. it's the essence of who you are. you have big mayor, genetic. my heart is big and it's big for story telling, and i'm in a big hurry because there's a lot of people who want to tell a lot of stories. in our way, we are helping people tell the story of their lives, getting them started. >> the ed store of smith mag. what an amazing platform for the veterans. glad we could share it on veterans day. >> thank you. >> here are six more words. it's a hard road out of hell. we take you now to arlington national cemetery. we expect to hear from the vice president shortly. the vice president just moments ago laying a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns. when the vice president begins his remarks, we will take you back to the ampy theater. because toyota developed this software that can simulate head injuries and helps make people safer. then they shared this technology with researchers at wake forest to help reduce head injuries on the football field. so, you know, i can feel a bit better about my son playing football. [ male announcer ] how would you use toyota technology to make a better world? learn how to share your ideas at toyota.com/ideasforgood. aspercreme breaks the grip, with maximum-strength medicine and no embarrassing odor. break the grip of pain with aspercreme. >> top stories now, a white house panelist out with a blueprint on how to trim $4 trillion off the federal deficit over the next ten years. among the ideas, medicare and social security cuts. the issue sure to spark a big fight on capitol hill. >> every single member of congress knows that the path we're on today is not sustainable and if we don't bring these deficits down and eventually get to balance, we are headed for disaster. president obama and other world leaders have gotten down to business at the g-20 summit in seoul, south korea, global economic challenges are on the agenda. relief in sight for 4500 people on carnival "splendor." it's expected to dock in san diego soon, and the cruise turned into a nightmare when the ship lost power earlier this week after a fire in the engine room. our paul vercammen joining us live now from san diego. paul, as i look at this live shot here, boy, it's close enough. folks on board have to feel it's close enough, so close and yet so far, seemingly. >> reporter: well, tony, your timing couldn't be better. as you look behind me, you can actually see the passengers on the ship getting a hearty honk from probably a relative here in san diego right now. this is going to be difficult. you can see the tugboats which played such a critical role in getting the "splendor" back on shore or going to nudge it back into port. because of the fire in the engine room which took out the main power, they do not have operating elevators, et cetera, or winches. so we have to see what they do. i guess they have to try to lower the gangway, and by the way, they do not get any sympathy from u.s. customs. they still have to go through customs over there on that dock when they land. we understand that customs is going to streamline the process and try to get these people through as fast as possible but some 3,000 have to leave the ship and go through customs, tony. this is going to take quite a while. most will take buses back to long beach, california, the point of origin. people flew in from all over the country to be part of this, so others will leave and be flown back to san diego and back to their hometowns. we'll watch as this disembark and that's going to be interesting. >> that tees up my question. what are they going to do? how are they ult matesly going to get these folks off the ship? we're assuming they will try to go ahead and put the gang plank down, the chris cross switch back thing they do for the cruise ships, but moving people around the ship has been a problem because of the lack of power and none working elevators. you can see coronado island. on this veterans day, i think this is rather appropriate. the u.s. military played such a big role in helping these people out. not only was their guardian angel, the coast guard cutter morganthal there. but, then, of course, the uss ronald reagan breaking off military maneuvers on basically a predeployment training mission, steams south and goes ahead and dumps some 60 pallets of food and water on top of it, and interestingly enough, the reagan is stationed right behind the "splendor" on coronado island. everything coming full circle right now in san diego, tony. >> i'm trying to put myself in place of the folks who have been on the ship and are anxious to get off at this point. you can see the dock. you're this close. is anyone giving you an estimate on time here as to how long it might take for the first passengers to get off of that ship? >> reporter: tony, estimates of time have been the most elusive part of this whole story. they were talking about midday today but once they got the other tugboats involved, things started to go quicker. we're starting to hear cheers behind us. if all goes well, it could be as soon as 15 minutes. they have work to do. i think the whooping and hollering below is some of the relatives. you can see the passengers all lined up, though, never so happy to see shore. i can see one person chris crossing their arms and waving. just anxiously awaiting the moment to leave this cramped vessel. by the way, this is more than three football fields long. you can't really tell as the bow is pointed towards us. they can accommodate 3,000 guests. it's a cruise ship. unless you have a luxury ship, these people have been sort of shoulder to shoulder with each other for a long time. as the cruise is supposed to go down, you head down the coast of mexico, have a shore stop every day and get r and r on land, and you don't get that feeling at sea. obviously thinks changed and that didn't happen, and here they come back to san diego. >> it's all smiles now. it wasn't so funny and couple of days ago. paul, if you would, keep an eye on that. i know you are going to talk to folks. round up a couple of folks for us to talk to as well. we appreciate that. that's an amazing scene behind you. back to arlington national cemetery where the vice president is attending the wreath laying ceremony at the tomb of the unknowns. he is at the amphitheater now, and he will be speaking shortly, and we will bring you his remarks live on this veterans day in moments right here in the cnn newsroom. so you are talking about clicking on and posting about it, and we've got the best of the best, really. armistice, armed forces and veterans day. curious about history, huh? did you see that ship? that's going to be exciting. >> i can't imagine three days. >> derrick dodge is here. what's trending? >> worldwide trending topics, armed forces, armistice, veterans day, basically a twitter history lesson. there are a lot of silly conversations on twitter at times but today you can actually learn something. aaron allison, on november 11th, 1918, there was a signing of an armistice between the allies and germany. ed monday michael says the 11th hour, 11th day, 11th month, 1918. happy armistice day. history for you. while we're talking veterans. cnn.com/veterans has great stories about going off to war, coming back from war, including this one. five ways to help a veteran today. while we're at cnn.com, go to news pulse to find out what are the stories everyone is clicking on? they are clicking on the cruise ships. apparently that's resonating with everyone there. >> i don't want to do the tease. let's see the cruise ship once again. we are hearing estimates that we are certainly inside an hour, it seems to me, derek, before we see some of those passengers disembark from that cruise ship. it's been a rough couple of days for them without power, and we are minutes away. we'll keep an eye on this picture. let's take a quick break here before we get back to arlington national cemetery and the vice president's remarks. 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[ male announcer ] if you have gout, ask your doctor about uloric. pretty good stuff, huh? several stories are developing right now. let's bring you a bit of a bird's eye view from ow tower cam. the nation pausing to remember america's military veterans. a ceremony is currently underway at arlington national cemetery. vice president joe biden and other dignitaries in attendance. he will take you there in a moment. >> going, going, gone. the flying saucer house made famous by woody allen in the movie "sleeper" sold in a foreclosure auction. three days stranded at sea, one of the best pictures of the day. the crippled carnival cruise ship "splendor" is being delivered to a san diego sooner than expected. we are tracking its progress and we will speak with passengers on board. 7 1/2 million americans can remember what it was like fighting in the vietnam war, and today we honor them and remember the more than 58,000 u.s. troops who died in vietnam, the longest war the u.s. has ever fought. i guess i have been watching this for six years or so, and this seems to be the latest that we've gone before we heard from either the president or the vice president. weather looks great, though. >> as far as veterans day is concerned? >> yeah. 75 degrees or so? >> it's beautiful. can't beat that. we will talk about weather in a few minutes. yeah, so, honestly, we were talking just a moment ago in the break that -- we're in november, now. this looks like terrific weather because we've got arlington national cemetery. folks at home can't see it. maybe we can split the camera. we have it on a big monitor. it looks wonderful in d.c. today. >> blue bird skies. fantastic. comfortable there, about 60 degrees there. just enough to throw on a fashionable jacket. obviously, for our folks, men and women in uniform, they'll be comfortable as well. >> we have been waiting for this moment. the vice president remarks on this veterans day, arlington national cemetery. >> men and women in uniform and out of uniform taking care of the millions of vets that have served this country so nobley. major general, thank you for your hospitality. roger, you spoke well. we were kidding each other. he said, my speech is in big print, and i said, so is mine. we're of the same generation and same era, and to all of the veterans service organizations, some of whom i had the honor of having breakfast with this morning in the white house. thank you, thank you for your service, your vigilance and constant voice on behalf of america's veterans, and, jim, thank you, the master of ceremonies today, and our new superintendent, patrick hillahan, thank you for your service. and to leader john boehner, it's good to have you here today and soon to be speaker of the house boehner. congratulations. [ applause ] and let me sayat the outset here, i stood in this amphitheater in may to observe memorial day. i think i was talking to secretary gates when i said, this is one of the truly great honors, one of the great honor, bestowed on me as vice president of the united states to be able to return here to this amphitheater on veterans day. this slight november chill today contrasts with the 91-degree heat that we experienced on that sultry day in may, and it should remind us, in my view, that the heat we endured in may was nothing to the heat our veterans endured in world war ii battling across the pacific islands, and in some cases going for days without water. nothing, nothing compared to the generationof americans who waded through the rice patties of the vote congress and heat we experienced when i visited our troops in fallujah showing me the interior of a vehicle that saved their lives. when i got out of the mrap, i saw a thermometer that showed it was 115 dries. these kids do it every day. the chill in the air is nothing compared to what our young men fought through in 25 below zero in north korean mountains pinned down by enemy fire 60 years ago. nothing, nothing compared to the snow and cold that hampered our forces in the forrests 66 years ago, and nothing compared to what the yikth brigade combat team or 1 is it bit tal onor the 101st airborne is experiencing this summer and winter in the mountains of forward operating bases in afghanistan. i've seen it first hand. i was with general david rodriguez when a snow squall forced our helicopter to land between two jagged peaks 9,000 feet above sea level. we landed where the 10th mountain division just earlier that month climbed with 60 pound packs of gear to engage al qaeda. it absolutely blew me away to realize what these kids don't do, and they're not kids, what this men and women continue to do. ladies and gentlemen, these are fierce warriors engaged and engaging a fierce enemy on fierce terrain. there's a section in john steinbeck's "east of eden" where cyrus describes to his son adam what it means to be a soldier. he says, a soldier is the most holy of all humans because he is the most tested. a soldier must coldly learn to put himself in the way of losing his own life without going mad. if you can bring yourself to face not shadows, but real death, described and recognizable by bullet or sabre, arrow or lance, then you need never be afraid again. i look out at all of you who have served our nation, and all of hugh have stood by their sides and waited as they served, and i see the most tested among us, the most tested of all americans. i also see the most honorable men and women, citizens who have never feared the future and are determined to build a better future to this day. collect of itl collectively, the generation of soldiers, airmen and marines are the heart and soul, the very spine of this nation. and as a nation, we pause today to thank the more than 23 million surviving veterans who have so bravely and faithfully protected our freedom. >> as we should on this veterans day. the vice president joe biden in remarks at arlington national cemetery. let's get a shot of the carnival cruise ship "splendor." so close and yet -- we have activity. this looks like folks boarding the ship. maybe we can put that on the big monitor so i can look at it with the people at home and in offices across the country. we understand we are about an hour or so away from the passengers actually disembarking the cruise ship. we will keep an eye on this story for you, get the very latest for you. our paul vercammen is there a inn san diego following the story for us. [ male announcer ] welcome to that one time of year when we all become doers. when our mittens double as work gloves. and we turn every room into a project. but this year, let's trim the budget. get some help from martha stewart that we can't get anywhere else. and spread our money as far as our cheer. ♪ more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. we're lowering the cost of bright spirits. trade any light string for 3 bucks off a new led set. very quickly, we want to get back to derek dodge, who is rocking the ipad and getting tweets in from folks. >> i was mining the twitter feeds to find someone on the scene. >> when we say the scene, explain to folks what we're talking about. we can show the cruise ships now, and we are actually getting tweets from folks in the vicinity. this is from a reporter in san diego. >> from the tribune review. she says the decks are crammed with people but everyone is waving so they're in good spirits and they can hear an onboard announcer telling them about one hour and 15 minutes before they disembark. >> they puts uft just past that eastern hour. >> the big question is what is carnival going to do for these passengers? this is the carnival facebook page where they say we've been working to make alternate flight arrangements for all guests and coordinating ground transportation for those who need it. all guests will receive a full refu refund, reimbursement of transportation costs and a complementary future cruise. >> all right, so what we're doing is, we're going to talk to paul, and he's going to grab some folks as they come off that cruise ship, but we need to take a break. to be fiber.too good they're delicious crunchy clusters with sweet honey and half a day's worth of fiber. you care about my fiber? not really. [ male announcer ] fiber one. my kids say i speak a different language. but i love math and math and science develop new ideas. we've used hydrogen in our plants for decades. the old hydrogen units were very large. recently, we've been able to reduce that. then our scientists said "what if we could make it small enough to produce and use hydrogen right on board a car, as part of a hydrogen system." this could significantly reduce emissions and increase fuel economy by as much as 80%. boss: and now i'll turn it over gecko: ah, t, ecko.ns as we all know, geico has been saving people money on rv, camper and trailer insurance... ...as well as motorcycle insurance... gecko: oh...sorry, technical difficulties. boss: uh...what about this? gecko: what's this one do? gecko: um...maybe that one. ♪ dance music boss: ok, let's keep rolling. we're on motorcycle insurance. vo: take fifteen minutes to see how much you can save on motorcycle, rv, and camper insurance. okay, here are some of the stories we're working on for the next hour of cnn newsroom. thousands of cruise ship passengers are getting close to kissing dry land after their vacation gone very, very wrong. stranded at sea eating spam every day -- i don't like spam. we will talk to passengers as they get off the ship. and a new ebook on amazon.com has people threatening a boycott. it's called "the pedophile's guide to love and pleasure." hear what the author is saying to defend it. a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. with stelara® for adults. stelara® helps control moderate or severe plaque psoriasis with 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. in a medical study, 7 out of 10 stelara® patients saw at least 75% clearer skin at 12 weeks. and 6 out of 10 patients had their plaque psoriasis rated as cleared or minimal at 12 weeks. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and increase your risk of infections. some serious infections, like tuberculosis, require hospitalization. before starting stelara®, your doctor should test for tuberculosis. stelara® may increase your risk of cancer. always tell your doctor if you have any sign of infection, or have had cancer. alert your doctor of new or worsening problems including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems. these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal condition affecting the brain. tell your doctor if you or anyone in your house needs or has recently r. with 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses it's stelara®. try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. as the g-20 summit opens in seoul, korea, the leaders of the world's largest economies are deeply split over the issue of currency and balancing trades. here's a look at the emerging currency war. >> currencies, the new economic battleground. according to some analysts, it has now gone to a whole new level. >> this is not officially declared, but i do believe that the world is in a currency war. >> on one side, the chinese yen, on the other the u.s. dollar. >> it's in china and now we're going to see two-way arguments. >> in any battle, words are weapons. the u.s. has accused china of manipulating its currency, keeping it low to boost exports and taking american jobs. the u.s. has embarked on another round of so-called quantitative easing, pumping another $600 billion into banks to stimulate lending. it lowers the value of the dollar. china looks at america's sluggish growth, financial woes and high unemployment and says, don't blame us. >> if they get the code, they cannot ask china to take the medicine because this will not cure their code. >> strong u.s. allies have been building its economy on the back of china growth. foreign minister kevin rude recently in chinese combat. >> it takes two to tango. these questions are not as simple as that. >> at stake is the very future of the world economy. no longer the engines of growth, that belongs to emerging economies. according to the international monetary fund, china grew ten times faster than the global average last year and contributed almost 50% of world domestic demand. >> where would we be if china had not generated phenomenal economic growth in the last 80 months? i tell you where we'd be. in a lot of trouble. >> with the world's number one and two facing off, there are fears of a rise of protectionism, putting national interests above the world. the answer ultimately is cooperation, not conflict. for the u.s. >> for the u.s. to get the jobs of making shoes and socks back is long over. the u.s. salary should decrease by at least 80% before they become competitive. >> for china -- >> china should give its workers more salary increase, and that's going to increase demand in china and that's where the global rebalancing should be coming from. >> a compromise easier said than done, the g-20 brings the two leaders head to head. forbes magazine now rates fuji kaan the most powerful leader in the world. that's two economies, two heads at opposite ends. this makes the g-2 plus 18. hello, again, everyone. i'm tony harris in the cnn newsroom where everything can happen. here are some of the people behind today's stories. thousands of travelers waiting to get on shore after being stuck at sea. a disabled cruise ship is about to come into port. we are live in san diego and we've got one of the passengers on the phone with us in just a couple minutes. honoring america's veterans this hour. what did president obama promise to do for the men and women who have served our country? and a how-to book for pedophiles that was sold on amazon.com. a big talker today. some folks say it should not have happened. let's get started with our lead story. is to close, yet so far. the crippled carnival splendor cruise ship has finally been towed to shore in san diego, but it will be a while before the passengers can disembark. thousands of passengers stranded for three days on the ship off the coast of mexico after a fire in the engine disabled it. that fire in the engine room. joining us on the phone right now is one of the passengers on board right now on that ship. let's speak with valerie oheda. valerie, are you on the line with me? >> yes, i am. >> valerie, can you describe the last hour or so, so close to shore, so close to disembarking and yet so far? >> yes. it's just been like a wait. it's so exciting to see the land. yeah, it's just -- you know, everybody just started walking the halls, everybody is on their balconies. so happy to see the land. >> so, valuaberie, take us thro the last three days or so for us. what has this experience been like? describe it. >> it's been -- i mean, on our part, it's been okay. i know some people have been experiencing their toilets not flushing. ours is working. we're on the balcony room, so we had plenty of light. interior rooms, no lights at all. we've been really making the most of it, trying to stay positive and praying that we'd make it home okay, and we did, so we just have to be patient right now and just wait. i can't wait to get home. >> yeah, i know that's true. hey, valerie, you mentioned no electricity. we know that to be the story. were there ever moments where you were a little sketchy, a little concerned about your personal safety and the safety of the folks traveling with you? >> i was concerned once that they said the tugboats would arrive at 5:00 a.m. and then they came on and said the tugboats didn't make it because of peace emissions? really, was it peace emissions or were they lost somewhere? i know they say what they have to say. they have a lot of people on this boat, so nobody panicked, but i'm not a dummy. >> no, you are not. no, you are not. so, valerie, what did you do with your time? that's a lot of time when you don't have the amenities. >> i'm sorry; go ahead. >> it's a lot of time without the amenities you expected on this luxury cruise. what did you do with the time? >> they had people playing the piano, people doing sing-alongs. i don't know if you've watched "good morning, america." "sweet caroline" was sung all over this boat. that's pretty much it. a lot of singing, dancing, music, the best they can play with the instruments that were on board. >> i missed it, valerie. what was the most popular song sung? >> "sweet caroline." >> "sweet caroline"? the neil diamond song? >> yes. >> that's terrific. so you're in good spirits. what are they telling you on board as to how long it will be before you can disembark? >> they said it's going to start in about an hour and a half. >> about an hour and a half. you're ready. it's long past time for you to get off that thing. >> yeah. >> will you take another cruise any time soon? i think you're being offered a refund and an opportunity to take another one by carnival. will you do it any time soon? >> i don't know about any time soon. we have until 2012 to take the next one, so i think it will be a little while. >> that's probably smart. >> i would go on another cruise, but this is just an unfortunate event that happened, and, you know, people made the best of it on the ship, and that's all we could do. >> valerie, you're a great sport. i don't know if you're planning to go back home immediately once you get on shore, but if not, let's get you in front of a camera. we'd love to see you erither in the next hour or so or maybe tomorrow, all right? >> all righty. >> valerie, be well and congratulations. you came through an ordeal and you've got your spirits in good shape here. we appreciate it and hope to see you soon. >> thank you so much. >> let's go to paul vercamon now. he's in san diego. let's talk about what these passengers had to endure the last few days. we're talking no air-conditioning, no hot water for hot showers, and in many cases, stopped-up toilets, dark cabins, and as you just heard from valerie, she, at least, and it sounds like there were a lot of passengers on board who are in pretty good spirits right now. >> they're in good spirits but it really was quite an ordeal as you described, tony, and to help shed more light on that, we have paul blocker. his wife was on board along with his 21-year-old daughter. this has been quite a long three days for them. you were describing the fact they happen to have a little light coming into their room which was helpful, but one of the biggest issues was walking around in the dark on the ship. >> yes, it was. luckily they worked together. they were on a girls' cruise so they coordinated together. but those on the interior cabins had no light whatsoever, so i would think it was pretty tough. >> can you describe for us based on conversations with your wife, you talked about what her mood was like and what the toughest part of this ordeal was. >> she's anxious to get off the ship, she's anxious to have a nice, hot meal and get a nice temperature in the room. she's cruised many times before and she knows it was just a freak accident. i know one thing, she'll do it again before our daughter will. carnival will make it right. >> your family is from goodyear, arizona. and we were able to get paul ifp' d so you can ask him questions if you'd like. >> i'm going to get my wife and daughter and we'll go back home. >> i think carnival is going to pay for you to spend the night here, and you will all leave from here. >> from san diego, yes. >> are you anxious to see them? >> yes, i'd like to give them a big hug and our girls as well. >> all of a sudden you hear, carnival cruise ship splendor disabled, stranded off the coast of mexico. what did you feel? >> i feel like once the fire was under control, i had all the faith in the maritime technologies that they would be safe. but once the coast guard was headed down there, i felt safer. when ronald reagan was there, what can you say? i felt very comfortable they're going to be fine. might as well be comfortable in the situation they're in. >> tony, do you want to jump in? >> no, i think that's terrific, paul. you covered everything i would have asked. we wish the best for his wife and family and to get back on dry land as soon as possible. it looks like that will be in the next hour or so. paul vercammen for us in san diego waiting for those people to disembark and he'll grab a few of them for us. probably not until the next hour hosted today by t.j. holmes. let's take a quick break. we're back in a moment in the cnn newsroom. ♪ ...unlock the doors, and turn on the hazard lights. ♪ or better yet, get a car that automatically does it for you. ♪ right now, during the sign and drive event, get the all-new 2011 jetta for practically just your signature. you can't switch car insurance until your policy expires. the truth: you can switch to allstate today. extra incentive: you can get allstate's early signing discount. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. the random moment of the day poses a question most foul. why did the turkey cross the road? around 100 big birds are roaming the ocean breeze neighborhood on new york's staten island. some people like 'em and kept them fat and happy, some people don't like them at all. new york wildlife workers planned a turkey survey to see what residents wanted to do. some say the thanksgiving solution is not off the table. enough turkey talk. time to horse around. >> smile, horsey! there's a horse in the car. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. a car with real horsepower in your random moment of the day. >> there's a car here, and in the back of this car there is a horse. reducing the nation's crushing debt. it was a major theme in the mid-term elections and the revolution at the polls, and it is one of the most important debates we're likely to have over the next few years. most of you have had to make difficult decisions about your own personal debt and finances. now it's the country's turn. the chairman of the bipartisan commission appointed by the president are out with a preliminary plan. more on that in a minute. as this debate unfolds, we are going to follow it in depth. how big is the debt? and how did we get here? who owns the debt and why you should care. what kutcuts are being proposedd what would you cut? let's start with the preliminary proposal by the chairman of the bipartisan deficit commission. it is designed to slash $4 trillion in deficits over ten years. kristi on our money team is here. is this the proposal that finally gets the conversation going? >> this is the first move. it's the first move in a complicated political chess game that begins right now, tony, and this will really be the story for the next few years we will be talking about. because we ever spent $14 trillion already. that is the national debt. we have to pay for that. and we have to pay for the operations of our country and we are right now not paying for it. so we have to figure out how to do that. this is what's on the table. it affects every farmer, every senior citizen, every teacher, every mom, every worker in this country, everybody who drives a car, this affects you and here's why. fir first, we're talking about a 15 cent increase in the gas tax to talk about transportation spending. also big cuts in the military. $100 billion in cuts to the military enclosing one-third of our overseas bases. they talk about some changes to tri-care. that is the health care system for the military. that will be something that many people in the military are anxiously watching to see how that would change under this proposal. and the elimination of 10% of the federal work force. so for every three people who retire or leave the federal payroll, you would only add two more back in. that's something like 200,000 workers, so that's big. you're talking about cutting farm subsidies, you're talking about the mortgage tax deduction, which is the sacred cow of tax freebies for people. they're talking about some limits on that. just about everything you can think of. i talked to miles mcguinness who is the budget analyst, this shows they're serious. they're very serious when they say raising the social security age. you wouldn't be able to get benefits until you're 69 years old. if you're generation y, that affects you. if you're a senior citizen getting a social security check, this does not affect you. so don't let the fear hmomonger about social security get to you because you'll hear about big changes to everyone. but it's far worse if you don't do this belt tightening. you don't have a car to put gas in, she says, you don't have a job to work until you're 69 to retire on benefits. this has to be done to prevent something far, far worse down the road. that's what budget analysts say. >> wow. so everything is on the table, and it is time to get serious about this conversation, right? a starting point. >> it was time to get serious, some people would say, a long time ago. it's time to get serious about it but not to do it too quickly and severely that you blunt this recovery right now. you have to do it in the right order, the right timing and politics will start -- now you enter politics into the mix and we'll see where we go from there, tony. >> you've provided enough wiggle room in that last statement to get nothing done. we're going to come back, so let's do this. we're going to ask a series of questions. the next one we're going to ask is, how did we get here? we will examine how the country racked up such a mass amount of debt in the first place and who we owe. jos ledge is wo josh ledge is working on that. dear corolla, it must be hard. you never considered making turn-by-turn navigation standard. if you want to talk about it.. call me when you get there. that is if you find there, since you don't have turn-by-turn navigation standard. the all-new chevrolet cruze. starting under $17,000. get used to more. qualified lessees can get a low mileage lease on a 2011 chevrolet cruze ls for around $169 a month. call for details. how did it get so huge? the national debt, almost $14 trillion. earlier in the show just a moment ago, we heard about a new proposal to start to tackle the problem, but that left us wondering a couple of things. where does all this debt come from and who owns it? josh is here to break that down for us, and josh, let's start here. where does all this debt come from? >> tony, even though we look at this all the time, it still feels surreal to be talking about such huge figures. the big picture here is that with this figure now $14 trillion, it's actually the sum of debts we've been facing for pretty much our entire history. i want to show you something cool here. this documentary called "i owe usa." this shows how long it's been building. >> our war created much of our earlier debt, and by march 4, 1789, the first daf our federal government, our national debt was $17 million, which was about 4% of our economy. this terrified founding fathers and they acted quickly to pay it down. >> look at that. 1835, folks. this is important. that is the only time in our history that we have been debt free. when we talk to you about the debt now, we're talking all the way back since 1835. we're talking about the civil war, the great depression, the world wars we've been fighting, all the wars we've been fighting, everything that's been happening since that time, everything, has been contributing to that debt. now, that's history. a lot of what americans want to know now is what's been happening over the past decade? it is accurate at the end of the clinton administration there actually was a surplus in the budget they had managed to create. so take a look at this, tony. this is just the past decade, right? $5.7 trillion. today, $13.7 trillion. that's a massive skyrocket in just over ten years. analysts point to a lot of things, the iraq war, finance policies. the steps taken to stave off the depression, all of a sudden it jumped up even higher. and if that's not enough, i have a bigger figure for you. when you take our debt and you add in the unfunded mandate, social security and health care, the government by law is supposed to pay them back. the accountability office, part of our government, takes a look at this and says it could be as high as $76 trillion. when i talk about debt figures, i feel like i should be doing this. it's so preposterous to say $76 trillion about anything. but when you factor in all the mandate thaz we're supposed to pay out under our law, this is how huge our tax debt is right there. >> you look at this and say, how could we have been so irresponsible for so long as a nation? josh, who owns this debt? >> when people talk about debt, one of the big words you hear is china, right? let's take a look at a political ad playing throughout this campaign. >> they won't succumb. >> from citizens against government wages, we talked about this. the u.s. built up all this debt and now they work for us. it takes place in the future, i think 2030. it's playing to that fear. china does not own the majority of our debt, but when you look at foreign governments and how much they own, china owns the most of any single foreign government. right now china owns about $868 billion of u.s. debt. here's another couple nations that own our debt. japan owns $837 billion of our debt right now. the united kingdom owns $448 billion of our debt right now. but i want others to understand that actually, look how much is held inside the united states by a system of barngs right here. $5.3 trillion is actually being held in intra-governmental funds. a lot of it is in the united states, but that does not diminish the concerns about how this changes the balance of power for the united states as more and more nations are in a position of owning our debt. clearly the crushing debt, tony, big problem for the future there. >> that's really vivid. what an illustration, josh. thank you. i got to tell you, the ink is barely dry, but the preliminary deficit reduction proposal is already coming under fire. reaction ranges from cautious to completely opposed. >> to deal with this problem is going to take bold steps, and they've certainly outlined their proposal for what those bold steps might look like. you know, to get a package it's clearly going to take more work. it's going to take compromise, it's going to take a variation of alternatives. >> christine romans is back with the plan, so christine, remind us again what are the main points of the proposal and where is the pushback coming from? >> well, first, social security. when you talk about raising the age by the year 2050 for full social security benefits to 69 and indexing or means testing then them, as they say, meaning people who are poor or in poverty, those seniors would for sure get full benefits, but maybe higher up the income chain, you would not get everything you paid in. that makes people very nervous because they say social security is a contract with the american people, and it should not be touched. so progressives get very upset about that. on the right, you can look for criticism and concern about big cutbacks in the military, anything that would smell of a tax increase. there are some investment gains that would be taxed differently -- taxes would be raised, quite frankly. even as they're simplifying the overall tax code. we've already heard from some folks. nancy pelosi called this, tony, simply unacceptable right from the get-go. and the president in seoul, korea said, let's not shoot anything down yet because we have to talk about all the possibilities. illinois senator dick durbin said there are things in there that i hate like the devil hates holy water. i think there are a lot of members of congress who probably feel the same way, but the bottom line here, many budget analysts say, tony, to solve this very big problem, these people are going to have to swallow some things they really hate, because we have a very big crushing debt issue that has to be -- that simply has to be addressed. again, it comes down to, do you take the belt tightening now in a proper way, or do you hurt the country further down the road? when you have debt like josh was telling you, huge debt commitments like that, you're paying interest on that debt. at some point in the foreseeable future, you're paying more to service the debt. you're paying more to the foreign bankers and the people who hold the debt ourselves than you are actually putting an investment in the country and investment in our people, and that's a real problem. >> thank you in advance, christine, for your help on this project. >> sure. >> we want to hear from you about digging the country out of debt. what would you cut, honestly? what would you cut? give us specifics. some of your comments are on facebook and twitter. they lined the streets in jacksonville, florida this morning lining the veterans with a parade. today we're honoring the nation's 23 million veterans, those who are passed and those still with us. [ applause ] [ woman ] you know, as a mom, i worry about my son playing football. which is why i'm really excited. because toyota developed this software that can simulate head injuries and helps make people safer. then they shared this technology with researchers at wake forest to help reduce head injuries on the football field. so, you know, i can feel a bit better about my son playing football. [ male announcer ] how would you use toyota technology to make a better world? learn how to share your ideas at toyota.com/ideasforgood. aspercreme breaks the grip, with maximum-strength medicine and no embarrassing odor. break the grip of pain with aspercreme. veterans day ceremonies at arlington national cemetary today, the 11th of november. vice president joe biden placing a wreath on the tombs of the unknowns. "taps" was played. president obama is marking this veterans day in south korea. he stopped at a u.s. army garrison ahead of the 27th. he laid a wreath to honor american and south korean troops who lost their lives in the war, and he honored those troops still serving today. >> a real change comes slowly. many people don't live to see the difference they've made in the looifives of others. but for the men and women who have served on this peninsula, all you have to do is look around. whether you're a veteran who landed in 1950 or one of the troops today. the security you've provided has made possible one of the great success stories of our time. >> one town suffered more losses from world war ii than any other. the town of bedford, virginia. congress established a national monument there. cnn photojournalist brought us something as part of our focus series. >> i look out of our house to those mountains. you see that post. that represents the 29th division. i was in world war ii. i was about 23.5 years old then. that little piece of shrapnel right there was taken out of my back. not bragging, but this is some of the awards that i got. >> my name is kevin mcconnell and i go to virginia military institute. today the freshmen from vmi come to bedford for the va memorial. >> we never knew when the next bullet was going to hit us. >> mr. hobbs, he went in on omaha beach on d-day. >> if a bullet had landed, i would have been nothing. >> this is a very special place. congress decided to place this memorial here in the town of bedford because it sustained the highest per capita loss than any other community in our country on d-day. this is the next generation of men and women who are going to be serving in our military, and we want them to be able to meet these veterans. >> hello, my name is buster shafe. >> we want them to hear our stories. >> i was an 18-year-old kid on d-day. we went in to omaha beach. >> we want them to impart their advice and what they went through. >> he won't say this, but he certainly is a hero in my eyes. >> i'm not a fighter anymore, i'm a lover. >> we would go in behind the bedford boys. i just looked up in the sky, and i said, good lord, if you take care of me, i'll be a good boy the rest of my life. and i'm so proud to be speaking here before you young people today. you got the whole world in your hands. you got the opportunity of a lifetime. and i believe that's a bugle and it's not "taps," thank god, or i'd start crying. thank you. >> we need to focus on the gifts these young people and veterans have given us, and that is just to be willing to serve this great country of ours. >> it's my duty to make these young people realize the sacrifices some of their dads, some of their grandfathers went through to make sure they had their freedom. >> and you can catch more of these stories all week here in the cnn newsroom and tune in saturday at 3:00 p.m. eastern for a one-hour special. you can also visit cnn.com/veterans. in an era when the rallying cry is less government spending, why on earth does amtrak have its hand out? less government spending. it is the political rallying cry we keep hearing, but amtrak isn't listening. the government-funded railroad wants billions for a high-speed railway project. poppy harlow rode the rails to find out more. >> reporter: this is the fastest c train in china. it averages 250 miles an hour. and this is the fastest train in america, amtrak's excela express. it averages just 80 miles an hour. >> i'm here in penn state and i have a 9:00 meeting in washington, d.c. i'm going to hop on this train, but it's going to take me three hours just to get to washington. >> reporter: over the next 30 years, amtrak wants to spend over $100 billion to dramatically speed up that trip, hitting 220 miles per hour. >> if you're on the express, the first stop you're going to make is philadelphia. that's 38 minutes later. you stop there for two or three minutes and you'll be in washington, d.c. in 96 minutes. >> and while the acela can reach 150 miles an hour, it rarely does. true high-speed rail would require brand new tracks, tunnels, stations and trains on a new route from washington to boston. in the heavily populated northeast, that's going to be expensive. really expensive. >> the cost is significant. $117 billion over the next 30 years. >> right, but it's a 25-year minimum construction project, so we're only talking 5 billion a year. but think about the gdp of this region. it's $3 trillion. so if you take 117 billion as a percentage of 3 trillion, the annual gdp, it's about 2.5%. >> but it would be the most expensive engineering project undertaken in the u.s. since the 47,000-mile interstate highway system. >> it's a project of national significance. in this region, the culture is all ready to use trains to get to work. and you look -- these trains are full of people, so the vision, the new high-speed rail system, which is happening every where else in the world, will provide an 84-minute trip time between boston and new york. >> but is it worth taxpayer money? >> yes, it's a lot of money. is it worth it? hard to say. >> i think it's time we be competitive with western europe and their rail service. it's a big number, but if we can bail out the motor industry, we can have a competitive high-speed rail service. >> poppy harlow joining us now from new york. poppy, good to see you. with this country facing massive debt, why do we need high-speed rail? >> reporter: it's a great question. it's one that i posed to the man you saw in the story, the head of this entire project, and he said, look, we cannot build this overnight. it has to be done over 30 years so you have to start now. and the truth is, this is really where america falls so far behind japan, china, europe. this is why we fall behind. now, the obama administration for their part has put $10.5 billion taxpayer money towards high-speed rail, but tony, you saw the number on this project, $117 billion, so that's about a tenth of what's needed just for one corridor between boston and washington. this is a hugely expensive project. we should note, though, this money would be spent over 30 years. some would come from the private sector, some investors. it has not been approved yet, and on top of that, tony, we're talking about tens of thousands of jobs that would be created in the process. we'll keep an eye on it for you, though. $117 billion, a pretty penny to pay. we'll tell you if it gets through congress. >> we used to take on big projects like this, didn't we? >> that's how we built this country. of course. >> poppy, good to see you. thank you. let's sweep the country a little bit here. gorgeous weather in parts of the united states today. not so nice in other places. a snapshot now across the country. a little bit of a mess in boston yesterday, but wow! things are looking up now. the lunch hour. chowder time in bean town today. live pictures from our affiliate cwbb, thank you very much, in chicago. not what you would expect in mid-november, right? we're getting to christmas pretty quickly here. temps in the 60s in chicago today. a nice walk outdoors. looking good, chicago. rain, we understand, moving in a little later today. we're back in a moment. in today's business world? our professors know. because they've been there. and they work closely with business leaders to develop curriculum to meet the needs of top businesses. which means when our graduates walk in the room, they're not only prepared... they're prepared to lead. devry university's keller graduate school of management. learn how to grow the business of you at keller.edu. [ but aleve can last 12 hours. tylenol 8 hour lasts 8 hours. and aleve was proven to work better on pain than tylenol 8 hour. so why am i still thinking about this? how are you? good, how are you? [ male announcer ] aleve. proven better on pain. first it was kanye west taking on president bush, then it was taylor swift. we all remember that. now matt lauer? brooke anderson, co-host of "showbiz tonight" on hln joining us from los angeles. great to see you. kanye stirring it up again. what is it about him causing a twittering frenzy? >> yeah, tony. you know, i get the question a lot, what's kanye up to now? so here's the latest incident. kanye west had a pretty uncomfortable conversation with matt lauer. the interview ran on the "today" show this morning, and kanye somehow managed to turn a heartfelt apology to former george w. bush into a controversial moment. kanye was trying to apologize for essentially calling bush a racist, but when the interview was being taped, kanye apparently felt like he was being manipulated. so he proceeded to go on another one of his trademark twitter rants after the fact. kanye claimed that lauer tried to force his answers, he called the interview brutal. why don't we take a look now at part of their chat where matt lauer is trying to get kanye to react to some video of president bush. and as you watch, you can see that it was not an easy, relaxed conversation. >> okay. >> when you look at his face, what would you say to him? >> i mean, pre-looking at his face, i came here because i wanted to say something to him right after the fact. i would say -- you know what i'm saying, this is reality, this is the real thing going on. >> so he was defensive. the whole interview is like that, tony, with west complaining about the tape being played in the background, and sometimes he would look off camera and tell people to be quiet. i think it's interesting to note that kanye originally said via twitter after that interview that he was done with the press but he has now removed that tweet from his twitter page. so, tony, we're getting inconsistent messages from kanye. but to me what was just fantastic was, after all was said and done, the unflapable matt lauer said this morning that he is looking guard to seei seeing kanye west performing live on the plaidza the day aft thanksgiving. there were some pretty surprising moments during the country music association awards, wouldn't you say? >> it was a lot of fun. the cma had a lot of surprising, a lot of memorable moments last night. the biggest winners were established country stars blake shelton and amanda lambert, who, by the way, are a couple. they are engaged to be married. big night for them because they took home five awards between the two of them. there is also a lot of buzz this morning, tony, about oscar winner gwyneth paltrow. she got up on stage to belt out a song from her new movie "country strong." that was her first big live gig like that, so i'm sure she was really nervous, but she received a very warm welcome from nashville. that's how they do it in nashville. good people. >> didn't she have a pretty sizeable hit with hughie lewis and the old smokey robinson song, right? >> right. she's got a voice. she's established herself as an actor and now she's establishing herself as a singer. she's also going to be in the upcoming episode of "glee." she's going to be singing the song "forget you." >> i saw it performed last night at the soul train awards. that's a whole other conversation we could have, brooke. >> i know, really. >> let's talk about your big show. if you're looking for more information on everything breaking in entertainment news, brooke has it all for you. that's at 5:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. on hln. a giant web retailer pulls a book from its virtual bookshelf. customers outraged by "the pedophile's guide to love and pleasure." 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[ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus rushes relief for all-over achy colds. the official cold medicine of the u.s. ski team. alka-seltzer plus. ♪ my country ♪ 'tis of thee ♪ sweet land ♪ of liberty ♪ of thee i sing [ laughs ] ♪ oh, land ♪ where my fathers died ♪ land of the pilgrims' pride ♪ from every mountainside ♪ let freedom ring ♪ the obama administration talks taxes. dana bash part of the best political team on television joining us live from the political desk in california. give us more on this story. good to see you, dana. >> you, too, tony. the political adviser david axelrod that he would only extend tax cuts from the bush era for the middle class americans, well, that that's ng ablg now. maybe on a temporary basis, the tax cuts for the wealthiest americans may be able to be extended, and what's going integ is not that he said that, but where he said it. he said it on the huffington post. we already know they are not happy with that statement. it's just the reality that the republicans are living in now after the drubing they got on tuesday. she is the first latino governor in history. she was on government usa last night and she talked about one of the first things she wants to talk to president obama about when she gets the chance. she talked about jobs and the economy, but she's going to tell him you must dive into the issue of illegal immigration, which is obviously a big problem in her state of new mexico. and one side note on susannah mar martinez, and her camera crew was putting her microphone on and the governor elect said, be careful, i'm packing heat. very interesting woman. >> dana, look, let's talk about john boehner. things are really looking up for him. >> they are in a way. there is a new gallop poll out that's talking about his approval rating is at 34%. you might say, wait a minute, that's good? actually, it is a slight uptake. it was 27%. but you know what? only four out of ten people in the survey said they had even heard of john boehner. that, obviously, tony, is going to change with his profile raising since he will be the next speaker. maybe it will help by the fact that he's going to fly commercial. he's going to continue to be in airports. he's not going to take military planes like the current speaker, nancy pelosi, has done. >> terrific, dana. good to see you as usual. your political news in the next hour, go to cnnpolitics.com. take a look at this. my understanding -- guys, put this on the big monitor if you would, please -- we're about to see in a moment some of the passengers disembark from that carnival cruise ship. we received word not that long ago that it would be maybe an hour and 15 minutes. everything seems to be moovving ahead of schedule right now. the ship was brought into port, into dock ahead of schedule skpchlt nand now it looks like those passengers will be able to get off that cruise ship after three days. miserable, right? no lights, no working toilets, no hot water for showers, having to eat pop-tarts and spam for three days. but it looks like we're getting really close here to seeing some of those passengers, what, 4500 in all, start to disembark from that cruise ship. we will keep an eye on these pictures for you in minutes, it looks like. right here in the cnn newsroom. take a look at these pictures once again. it's a story we're following from san diego. it looks like the cruise ship splendor is about to begin getting some of its passengers off that ship. the passengers, we understand, may be disembarking in the next few minutes here. you see them on the deck getting ready. they've got to get the gangways in place now. no electricity, so there is a different construction here that has to take place to get the passengers off that ship. but we understand they're making really good progress in a really speedy fashion here, so it looks like it may be happening sooner rather than later. you know the story at this point. there was a fire in the engine room, and the engines were dead, lost to the captain, so you had three days with very little electricity or none at all, and food supplies ran low. no working toilets for many of the passengers, and now it looks like that nightmare of a cruise is about to come to an end. let's take a break. we're back in a moment with the cnn edition. sarge: that's interesting. you know what makes me sad? you do! maybe we should chug on over to mambie pambie land sawhere maybe can find some yoself-confidence for you.? ya jackwagon! tissue? crybaby. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. down the hill? man: all right. we were actually thinking, maybe... we're going to hike up here, so we'll catch up with you guys. [ indistinct talking and laughter ] whew! i think it's worth it. working with a partner you can trust is always a good decision. massmutual. let our financial professionals help you reach your goals. very quickly, before we get to the top of the hour in new york city, let's get to san diego. paul standing by. >> this is ken and he's waving at everybody. his mom is here. live tv. tell us what this whole ordeal was like for you. >> the first part of it was okay. the food was great, staff was great. and then after we had the issue with the engine or whatever, fire is what they're telling us now, then the food actually got worse, the toilets didn't work for about 12 hours. it was hit or miss with the water if you could wash up. and just now they actually told us there was a fire in the boat. >> you did not know that there was a fire on the boat until now? >> yes. >> so what did they