these folks weren't rioting like we have seen the past several days. they were there to clean up. now the problem is that the violence, looting and arson has spread to sever other british cities besides london. also a nationwide manhunt for two brothers and their older sister accused much opening fire on a florida police officer, then robbing a georgia bank. you're seeing the three siblings there and authorities do consider them armed and extremely dangerous. all right. wall street did a bit of a u-turn yesterday and thank goodness it did. we don't know exactly what it's going to do today. but we are waiting to see. that is coming up for us in about 29 minutes from now. the dow closed up 429 points yesterday. however, that was a reversal of fortunes from monday's loss of 634 points. christine romans in new york for us. alison kosik at the new york stock exchange for us. christine, 29 minutes away. what is going to happen? >> reporter: futures are lower and alison can tell you about that. the market after a prehistoric fed decision trying to figure out what it's going to do next, what investors are going to do next. they are still blaing the risk we are in a rut or another recession. the fed's decision yesterday was to keep interest rates low through 2013. weakness in the economy and jobs and housing and spending and saying things were weaker than they thought a few months ago but saying they have a range of policy tools and that is key word we are keeping rates really, really low but if we have to do something we might be able to do it and will be able to do it and it's those words there is one of the reasons got going on the upside yesterday. but you got to be careful here. we have a lot of people talking how bad it feels in the economy and does this big stock market rout the past few days set the stage for more weakness in the economy and how weak will it get? i predict treacherous, treacherous politics and treacherous, treacherous markets the next days and weeks. >> alison, you heard her say treacherous markets the next days and weeks. we are trying to go day-to-day right now. you're keeping your eye on the futures. where do we stand when this thing opens in a few minutes? >> reporter: looks like we start with losses. in fact, the losses accelerated the past few minutes. dow could open down more than 100 points lower, despite that, we are seeing gains that happened overseas. take a look. gains in the asian and european markets up 1% to 2%. we are trying to see what happens you see the tide turn if you bind up getting smaller gains and losses at the close, because that would wind up showing that the market is trying to find some equilibrium, balance. you have to admit the price swings are dizzying we have seen lately. they are huge and happening a lot. we want to see the market have smaller gains and losses throughout the session and especially at the close of the session. you look at yesterday. the dow crossed back and forth over the break even point. more than 30 times yesterday and analysts say guess what? we will continue to see the big moves in both directions. despite yesterday's rally, we are still seeing signs of weakness in the economy overall. oil plunged below $80 a barrel yesterday. good for our pocketbooks but it's also a sign of a slowing economy. now it is coming back just a bit today but it is just a relief rally. i'm talking about oil. we are watching yields of ten-year treasury bonds. they hit a record low. that is considered a safe haven. it's good news for us who have mortgages because that is where our mortgage rates are based on. this is mostly a reaction to the fed saying it's going to keep interest rates low another two years. >> alison kosik, we will see you plenty within the next couple of hours here. the markets open bottom of the hour. we will be there for you. alison, thank you so much. turn to washington, d.c. now. i need to tell you about a super committee being put together. you say what does that mean? it's important. these are the folks who are going to be confronting the deficit heads-on. the folks will be deciding the cuts in the budget that could directly impact you. what you're seeing there are three of the first members that we have found out about for the super committee. the senate majority leader harry reid those the three you're seeing there. you saw senator murray and nor kerry and you also saw senator baucus. a lot of people are questioning already the choice of senator murray of washington. she is the one that they call the fund-raiser in chief for senate democrats and already controversy. but you see the other folks. pelosi, mcconnell and boehner also are going to be weighing in with three choices each. they have a little time to make up their minds but we could be hearing from them soon. let me bring in joe johns who is in washington, d.c. for us. joe, this is supposed to be a bipartisan committee that is supposed to end the deadlock we have seen in washington and the first three picks we see already there's some bickering over it. not a good way to start out with the super committee. >> reporter: right. right. i think you hit the nail on the head why do we care about another congressional committee? because they are going to make some very basic decisions about government spending that could touch you on main street. now, this is senate star power, these first three named by majority leader harry reid. the top party leaders in the house and the senate, each get to choose three people. that adds up to six democrats and six republicans. the question who is the tiebreaker if there is is a deadlo deadlock? the one senator on this list attracting attention is patty murray, washington state, member of the appropriations committee and budget committee and head of a committee that helps gets democrats elected to senate and she has to spend money to do that. dscc have been out front opposing medicare cuts. that could be an issue that comes up in these negotiations. the republicans saying that should disqualify her from serving on the super committee. other people, senator max baucus of montana, chairman of the senate finance committee, one of the true experts on taxes and tax breaks, he's known as something of a deal-maker. the last man, of course, senator kerry from massachusetts. the former democratic presidential nominee. politico saying he lobbied for a spot on this committee because he wants a big investment in the domestic policy achievement arena. >> joe johns, appreciate that. i want to stay in washington, d.c. we could have somebody else jumping into the presidential race. let me bring in our deputy political director paul stein ha hauser now. if he walks like a republican candidates and talks like a republican candidate and he visits primary states like a republican candidate, he must be a republican candidate? >> reporter: sounds like it and he is definitely a frequent flyer this weekend. we call rick perry's hat trick or trifecta. while the attention of the most campaign rule will be in iowa for the straw poll on saturday rick perry in south carolina on saturday afternoon giving a speech and he will pretty much declare his intentions. not formally saying he is running for president but make it obvious. then we learned he will go new hampshire later that day and then back in iowa. he will be hitting the crucial primary caucus voting states this week and pretty good indication he is about in for the race for the white house. remember mike huckabee? he is not running this year and said he is not running for the nominati nomination. at that straw poll at ames on saturday he's on three stages. he is perform at herman cain's tent and rick santorum's tent who is also running for the nomination and he will perform at tim pawlenty's tent! pawlenty the former minnesota governor who is running for the white house. huckabee a pretty good guitar player and can rock it. >> you mentioned santorum. he hasn't gained a whole lot of attraction necessarily. why is he taking time off for the campaign trail? >> reporter: i guess a pretty picture. check this out. here he is yesterday in iowa at the field of dreams. remember that movie from 1989? pretty popular movie. kevin costner and james earl jones and now a museum i guess you can visit on the set where they intermediate that movie and what rick and his family doing as they made the rounds in iowa. all of the candidates about all of them in iowa for debate and that straw poll. >> paul, thanks so much. your next political update in an hour. always get all of the political news 24/7 at cnn/politics.com. i want to turn to a story we have been keeping an eye on the past several days in london. where the british prime minister david cameron meeting with his crisis team after several nights of rioting and violence there. much calmer at least in the capital of london last night. where most of this rioting and violence has been taking place. the problem now is that the violence is spreading to other cities. the prime minister is vowing to do whatever is necessary to restore order even though so far, nearly 800 people have been arrested. >> we needed a fightback and a fightback is under way. we have seen the worst of britain but i also believe we have seen some of the best of britain. >> he spoke about the worst of britain and to a lot of our viewers you may just be listening to the tv for a second. i want you to stop and watch it. because there is some video that kind of captures what has been happening there. you have seen a lot of this riot video but this is a little different here. this is something that was posted on youtube. it's a riot victim and it appears this person is injured and it appears that other people are starting to come over and help him. but that's not really what is happening. take a look and listen to this. >> actually, helping him up. oh, my god! he just took something from his backpack. >> again, this coming to us from youtube. you can see that young man looked like he was bleeding there and got caught up in the riots and people had come over. it happened they were trying to help him and then they started to essentially robbing him. david cameron referred to that video today during his remarks. much more from london coming up this hour. also coming up this hour, wisconsin democrats fall short in a recall election, but the drama there is not over yet. also the markets keeping a close eye on them. monday down 634 points. tuesday, up 429 points. the ride starts again at the bottom of the hour. hold on. 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[ male announcer ] eliminate tough odors with febreze air effects so you can breathe happy guaranteed. quarter past of the hour. checking stories across the country. stop me when you've heard this before. a blond-haired american woman goes missing in aruba. this time we are talking about that woman you're seeing. 35-year-old robin gardner of maryland vacationing there and was last seen august 2nd. the person she was traveling with says he hasn't seen her since they went snorkeling. authorities now detained him as the search continues. also the first home built by franklin roosevelt? look what is left of it. this is in warm springs, georgia. it burnt to the ground shramed lightning we are told may have caused this fire. roosevelt lived at the cottage before becoming president. also a delta air lines passenger says she couldn't get in her seat because there was an overweight man in the seat next to her and he took up both. now, amanda parker says employees suggested she take a later flight. but they didn't say that to the man. now she is upset that delta is now responding and saying, quote here, the passenger seated next to a passenger of size rays the issue to a flight attendant the passenger will be moved to another available seat, if available. if the flight is full, we work with both passengers to reaccommodate, in their words, one of them on a later flight. they are kicking politicians out of office in wisconsin. four of six republican state senators in wisconsin are able to hold to their jobs after yesterday's recall vote. the vote comes after a huge state political battle which stripped some union rights from public workers. our ted rowlands at the wisconsin capitol. remind viewers why this is not just important for wisconsin. this could have implications down the road for us all. >> reporter: basically, this played out in wisconsin but this had the country's attention from both sides, money flowed into the state of wisconsin during this recall process because there was a lot at stake. what was at stake was the issue of labor and union rights in wisconsin. now in wisconsin because it is law, governor walker's budget repair bill at the time in february now law, restricted union rights for public employees. and that got the attention, as you might imagine, from unions across the country. the worry here from democrats and union leaders was if it happened in wisconsin, it would happen in other states. what did they do? they said we are going to recall all of you republicans. they launched this recall effort. they were successful in getting the recall effort to the voters. however, last night they were unsuccessful in that they didn't regain control of the state senate. they needed to win three spots and only won two spots. they are spinning it as a victory because they say they sent a clear message to people around the country, if you mess with labor, you're going to possibly pay the price with your job. republicans, on the other hand, are saying, hey, we won and there is no doubt about it, they tried to recall us, they tried to change the balance of power here in plamadison and it didn' work out. bottom line, $30 million spent on the recall elections in wisconsin. most of that money came from out of state, played out here, but there were people around the country watching very, very closely. remains to be seen what message will be sent now and if other states will follow suit in terms of trying to restrict union rights. >> ted rowlands there for us in the capitol, good to see you as always. 18 minutes past the hour now. the value of your 401(k) is falling. that's bad. but mortgage rates are falling as well. that could be good. maybe this is a good time for you to buy. maybe refinance. clyde anderson is one might have weekend buddies is coming up with the advice need to hear. stay with us. l to help your enge l to help your enge run more smoothly by helping remove deposits and cleaning up intake valves. so when you fill up at an exxon or mobil station, you can rest assured we help your engine run more smoothly while leaving behind cleaner emissions. it's how we make gasoline work harder for you. exxon and mobil. discover aveeno positively radiant tinted moisturizers with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals. give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on to even skin tone in four weeks. aveeno tinted moisturizers. 21 minutes past the hour now. we have breaking news. i want to go directly to our pentagon correspondent barbara starr on this. this has to do with that helicopter that was shot down killing the 30 american service members. >> reporter: that's right. we just stepped out of a briefing now being conducted by general john allen, the top commander in afghanistan are, and he has announced the u.s. military has killed the insurgents they believe that were associated and responsible for the downing of that u.s. military helicopter on saturday that killed 30 american troops. in fact, they have issued a statement saying that they have now killed, and i quote, the insurgent who fired the shot and other taliban leaders associated with all of this. what has happened, apparently, is after the helicopter incident, they got additional intelligence about who these people were and they went and tracked them. they say that they called in an air strike as the top insurgents apparently were trying to flee afghanistan back across the border into pakistan. so they called in an air strike in the last several hours and they are convinced that they got the people responsible for the shooting down of the u.s. helicopter. the question on the table, that will be a question for investigators that we asked general allen, is if you called in an air strike to kill them this time, why when you were looking for them the other day did you put so many special operations forces right into harm's way and bringing in a helicopter that was potentially, potentially vulnerable? general allen says he is comfortable with that decision that so many special forces were put into that position, but it is still going to be a question for investigators, regardless. you had a number of army rangers on the ground. you had 22 navy s.e.a.l.s of big contingent of special forces and now they got their target by an air strike. t.j.? >> barbara starr, appreciate that important update this morning. you get more, by all means, let us know. we will get you back in here. thank you so much, barbara starr. 23 minutes past the hour. you remember talking about the downgrade of the u.s. credit. they said when that goes down, there is going to be an issue and mortgage rates, interest rates. we could see these things rise. you might end up having to pay more to borrow money. but we are seeing the opposite right now. at least in terms of mortgages. so is this a good time to buy or refinance? clyde anderson, financial analyst, go to see you here. >> good to be here. >> why is this happening? explain to people because it seems like the opposite we were told was going to happen. >> the main reason it's happening. the ten-year treasuries is what dictates or is tied to mortgage rates with a 30-year mortgage rates. everybody thought when we lost our aaa rating these would go down. when those go down, mortgage rates go up. it's the opposite relationship. what happens is people are looking for security and going and still investing in these sturts and ten-year notes to the mortgage rates are going down. >> how much time to jump on it if you want to? >> everything so uncertain we don't know. i think the thing is if you're interested in buying time now is to buy. take advantage. these are historic low 80s rates so the time to do it. we are talking about 4.3 on interest rate and now the feds are talking about keeping the rates low into 2013. we don't know how long the mortgage rates will stay low but now is the time to do it. take advantage of it. >> the two years we are hearing a lot of people, is it a mistake in your own mind to think, okay, i got a little time here. >> oh, yes, definitely. >> you're saying jump on this? >> jump on it. we can see what happened the last three days. a lot of uncertainty and don't know what is going to happen in the market. right now it's great. great as far as interest rates and great because house prices are low so it's the time to do it. we are seeing refinances pick up but also purchases. this is a great time to go in and take advantage of these deals that are on sale. >> one last thing. a lot of people may be thinking about their credit score. we threw up a couple of nice interest rates there. still, what kind of credit do you need to have to get those kind of rates that we put up? >> you need the aaa rating. >> aa plus? >> aa plus may not get it. you will pay a little bit more. credit is important. we talked about how banks are tightening up so credit is definitely important right now. you have to have at least the mid 600 credit scores or higher to take advantage of the good rates. rates good across the board so means if you are lower on the credit score, you're not paying absorbent rates. >> clyde, good information. you still coming on saturday, right? >> yes, i'll be here. i'll be here! >> clyde anderson is with us every saturday morning but good to see you here on a wednesday. thanks so much. 25 minutes past the hour and means we are four plus minutes away from the opening bell on wall street. i hope you're strapped in. we certainly are here. stick around for that. we will be going there live. can i have some ice cream, please ? no, it's just for new people. hey ! chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ? chocolate ! chocolate it is ! yeah, but i'm new, too. umm... he's new... er... than you. even kids know it's wrong to treat new friends better than old friends. at ally bank, we treat all our customers fairly, with no teaser rates and no minimum deposit to open. it's just the right thing to do. with aveeno nourish plus moisturize. active naturals wheat formulas target and help repair damage in just 3 washes. for softer, stronger... ... hair with life. [ female announcer ] nourish plus. only from aveeno. the authentic, the rare, the hard to define. to those always searching for what's pure and what's real from we who believe we know just how you feel. haagen-dazs. 29 minutes past the hour. less than a minute away from the opening on wall street. makes you nervous these days. this is like the first part of that roller coaster and you're going up, click, click, click. you don't know what is going to happen on the other side when you come over the edge. i don't know what to say here. maybe we are being a little too dramatic here but after what we have seen the past couple of days, christine, this calls for a little drama right now, does it not? >> reporter: yeah. i'll say if you want to use the roller coaster analogy hold on to your sunglasses and expensive watch because i don't know if you'll have it by the time it's over. no. what is different right now at 9:30 eastern time this 4:00 yesterday when stocks up 400 points, not much, except more people are trying to weigh whether this economy is in a rut or headed for a recession. if all of this drama on wall street could cause a lack of confidence that could feed into even weaker economic growth. we are at a negative feedback loop here and volatility is the story. alison talking about it for days now. fear and irrational behavior. some say it's pretty rational if you're worried about a double dip recession to sell stocks. we have a complicated and nervous trading situation right now. after that euphoria from the fed yesterday when the fed said it would leave interest rates exceptionally low until 2013 it said it had every tool range of policy tools it would use. liked it yesterday and today, saying, okay, now what? there is where we stand. >> alison, where we stand now. you were talking about this a short time ago. the futures weren't looking too bright for an opening that was going to be down a bit and here we go seconds into the trading day and down 130 plus points. >> reporter: exactly. not everything come up pros to say the least. the dow down 138 points. keep in mind it's not a huge surprise to see a pullback after we had such a big rally and kind of get used to this because we are likely to see more of these wild swings until the market finds a new trading range. of course, we all want to know you know, when are we finished with the downward spiral. doesn't look like it's happening soon. expect the negative momentum to continue. volatility is the word of the day yet again. but you know what? if you look at yesterday swings, you kind of have an inkling how things will go today. you look at the dow between its lowest and highest points it swung in a range of 640 points and see-sawed across the break-even point more than 30 times during the trading day. i mean, this is really, really crazy trading. so what we are looking to see happen today, t.j., we want to see if we can get smaller gains and losses throughout the day, but really at the close because that would show that the market is finding some equilibrium. these huge price swings during the session and near the close that we are seeing happen a lot and happen in just this huge fashion. it's really not healthy for the market. t.j.? >> what if, chris steen, i believe you're still standing by with me. what if we had not gotten the news from the fed yesterday? that kind of turned things around. could that have made for not the rally that we saw necessarily, but could we still be dipping down and down and down and please put in perspective, maybe i'll go back to alison for this. people just turning on the tv and maybe don't follow the stock market every day and see a couple of minutes in and 200 points down and think it's going to continue like this all day long. sometimes this is just how things go and this is how certainly it went yesterday. give me some perspective as well for the viewer. >> reporter: let me jump in and say, t.j., it's like, you know, we pulled a rubber band in that big, big market sell-off. pulled it so tight it will snap back of course, and yesterday we had a nice snap-back rally and didn't regain all of the losses but it snapped back. remember, you have the dow down like 1,700 or 1,600 points in the peak from july. it is a ferocious move. you will see days with terrorri digit gains and losses. you have treacherous politics and you have sort of this treacherous discussion going on, are we in a rut or headed for a recession in both of those are painful for people and complicated for stocks. >> go ahead, alison. >> reporter: there is also something else to consider what is happening with the market moves. you know, when you see these kinds of moves, you think, my god, what is happening? but you have to realize especially with what the fed say, expect the economy to be slower. expect to see slower growth in the next few quarters so the fed is downgrading forecast for economic growth and fed is not the only one downgrading that forecast. companies doing that. we have economists doing that. what you also see happening here on wall street is is repricing of stocks to fit that forecast which is now been downgraded. that is kind of why you see this momentum for a downward trend. >> alison, may be there are individual companies at least who have have some good news to report out there. apple may be being one of them. >> reporter: yes. apple, the darling of wall street. you know what it did? it topped exxon as the most valuable company yesterday. albeit very briefly. yesterday apple's market cap more than exxon's. but exxon went back to number one by the close because of all of those wild swings. but analysts say only a matter of time apple is crowned the new king. have you looked at its stock price? it is still soaring. both companies strong profit and revenue growth but investors are flocking to apple and its consistency blow expectations ousted walker. apple sold 9 million i pads in the first quarter in three months. apple shares are up 4,000% since the ipod was introduced ten years ago! if only we owned apple shares way back when when it wasn't worth as much now. >> speak for yourself. no, i don't. i don't have apple shares. let me make sure i'm being clear there. to our viewers, christine, i'll try to inject humor. we are down 320, 323 plus points now. on this opening here. christine, i'll bring you in a little to some politics. we always inject a little politics in a lot of these conversations because everybody is going to want to blame everybody else for what is happening. we saw that happen in washington, d.c., calling this, what was it? some blaming the tea party for the s&p downgrade and other people say that downgrade caused all of the panic on wall street but a lot of this has to do with all of them in washington, not giving the markets, the country, or the world any type of certainty or confidence that we are going to get ourselves in order. >> reporter: right. the people who are fighting about politics, one group calls it the obama downgrade and the other calls it the tea party downgrade. the people on wall street, they say, heck, we knew a downgrade was coming and the reason stocks are so horrible all summer because the united states was not acting like a aaa country fighting whether it would pay its bills in the first place, right? at the same time, you have slowing growth and bigger and bigger deficits and public debt growing and growing and growing and you're not bending the curve on that. one of the reasons i think it's treacherous until that december 23rd deadline for the super committee to come up with its choices for cuts. people on wall street are already saying it could be a christmas crisis. they have already named a cries that doesn't exist yet and that uncertainty casts a shadow over wall street and investors who say i'm sitting on my cash. companies saying i'm sitting on my cash and not hire anybody and not invest until i figure how weak the economy is in the united states and whether the government will come out with a plan and show the world the u.s. has its fiscal house in order and all of that uncertainty and waiting makes things worse. >> christmas crisis does not have a good ring to it. appreciate you both. i will be checking in with both of you later. thanks so much. as we have seen over the last couple of days, volatile market can reverse course at any moment. we do have our crews and our smart business folks who are covering this story on all of the angles, all of the dramatic turns that do happen. as we see now, we look at the screen, 317 points, the dow is down within about five minutes of the stock markets opening this morning. we are keeping a close eye on that for you here. also, keeping a close eye on london. streets of london have just been chaos for the past several days. we will be going live to scotland yard for a report after the break on the violence, the riots and arson taking place in the streets of england. 41 minutes past the hour. 10 minutes into trading day. keeping an eye on the dow industrials. you're seeing it there on the screen down 270 plus points now. it did get down below 300 points but immediately went down when we opened the trading day here. you know that saying works, it's been a roller coaster ride on wall street and losing points on monday and gaining points yesterday and see how today turns out and we are keeping a close eye on the market for you. in london the prime minister is ordering order on the streets. our phil black is live at london scotland yards. good morning to you and pretty strong words from the prime minister. >> reporter: yeah, indeed. very strong words from the prime minister. t.j., he says fight back is now under way and so he is very keen to show that he is once again in charge of britain and the british police ruling the streets. over the last few nights, approaching 800 arrests in london alone and hundreds more in other cities as well. the prime minister, the government and the police at scotland yard are promising that is going to continue in t two-folds. in the form of a more robust approach to deal with the rioters if they continue with this sort of behavior as they run out of control on the streets. last night a surge of 10,000 more police on the streets of london and the prime minister says that has made a real difference with the relatively calm night here and on top of that, hundreds of officers are now going through thousands of hours of cc-tv video to try to track down the people they say were responsible for this. they say those arrests are already being made. t.j.? >> phil, you said a little quieter night there in london but how much of a concern is it that it has spread to a few other cities outside of london? >> reporter: yeah, it's a good point. the momentum seems to have broken here in london for the moment. but you're right. it has spread to other major cities, including manchester, nottingham and big scenes of real violence there and hundreds of arrests just overnight. so the challenge continues if you like, and the british prime minister says that all police battling this, whether it be here in lopped or in those other cities, will have everything they need to bring it under control. >> phil black for us in scotland yard, appreciate you as always, thanks so much. 43 minutes past the hour. just about, what, 12, 13 minutes into trading day. it's down 248 points. the dow industrials. stay with us. we are keeping a close eye on that for you today. our music.. and your playlists. and you don't have itunes on your phone.. the world's number one music store. with genius.. that recommends new music based on the songs you already have. ipod and itunes. just one more thing that makes an iphone an iphone. of these abandoned racetracks in america today. automotive performance is gone. and all we have left are fallen leaves and broken dreams and -- oh. wait a second. that is a dodge durango. looks like american performance is doing just fine. ♪ carry on. ♪ there it is. we will continue to update you on this number, because as we know, it will continue to change throughout the day. kind of starting like we started yesterday immediately down, but there was a rally yesterday and ended up 400 plus points but still early in the trading down and down some 250 plus point on the dow industrials. 46 minutes past the hour. checking stories across the country. sad news out of maryland. you might not know his name. you don't know his face, but that man you're seeing on the screen is the first-ever black secret service agent. he has now died. charles gittens was a law enforcement trail blazer when he was credentialed in 1956. he died late last month at the age of 82. turn to haymarket, virginia. it pays to live there. how would you like your government to do this for you? the small town of 1,500 people cutting checks for both the residents and the business owners there after discovering $700,000 surplus in the city coffers! the town's council voted to take $150,000 of that and just give it back to the taxpayers. one condition -- you need to be current on your taxes right now. good luck with that. in houston, we are trying to figure out how in the world this happened. maybe you can tell me. this is on interstate 45 north. last night, it was shut down for several hours and you can see why. this is in houston. this is a trailer on the 18-wheeler. it started rising, we are told, as it was going down the road. it clipped the overhead sign and ended up in that position. 48 minutes past the hour now. we continue to keep a close eye on the markets. where is my number now? 2 245 down. we were talking to clyde anderson a moment ago how mortgage rates are going down. good time to buy and refinance possibly. tell me what we are seeing and good to give perspective to people as many turn on the tv, ah! we are down 300 points almost instantly. help people understand what we are seeing right now and what we could see throughout the day. >> i think a lot of people are wondering like the 18-wheeler. i think they don't know what hit them right now. we are on a roller coaster ride and we knew it was coming. this whole week, we have seen it. markets down and up. again, investors are looking, they are sitting back and relaxing. it's not time to react to the market. sit back and watch, enjoy the ride. i'm enjoying riding this. this is exciting. this is reality tv at its best because, again, this is the market. if you're a view investor you will know you buy low, you sell high. you know? it's not time to sell your investments right nouchl watch. we had a huge rally yesterday and so now this, again, all offsetting that and not that bad. we sit back and look. i tell people know what you have and know what you're investing in and know where you are right now so talk to your people but don't rally and call your broker and every is calling the one time to panic. not the time to pull your money out of the bank. >> i know how important this is at this point. it will be politically at some point. >> yes. >> but you've heard people talk about this is a manufactured crisis. what we are seeing on wall street right now. could this have been avoided if we didn't go through all of that uncertainty, if we didn't have our credit rating go down? i mean, justdown. i mean, and we know the u.s. is going to pay its bills. we know that, but still just that uncertainty and putting those questions in people's minds, did we create this week we're seeing on wall street? >> a lot of this could be avoided. the s&p downgrade, the bonds coming down. all this information, the whole debt crisis. s&p did what they did for a reason. they felt they had to do something. and so a lot of these things happen and we could've come to some terms early on and avoided a lot of these things that are happening. and again, the market's going to correct itself. so we sometimes feel like we have to do a lot of things to try to control it. but it's going to correct itself, work itself out. but again, you know, a lot of these things definitely i feel could've avoided. >> we appreciate you again. don't go too far. we might need you in a second. clive anderson. there it is, folks, as we get to 10 till the top of the hour, the dow jones industrial down 253 points. stay with me. 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[ male announcer ] old el paso. hard and soft tacos. ♪ feed your fiesta. we're watching later today, this morning scheduled arraignment for two men accused of beating paramedic bryan stow. and john pistole talks about the agency's goal for the future. and later tonight, 8:30 eastern time, president obama hosting a dinner in celebration of the muslim holy month of ramadan. christine romans in new york. >> hello there. another wild day in the stock market, at least for now, the dow jones industrial average down another 200 points. what do you expect from this? and what has changed this morning from yesterday when the dow was up? i'll tell you in a few minutes. and i'm phil black in london where the british prime minister says a fightback is on against rioters across the country. there's been a surge of police in the british capital, but still violence continues in other cities. i'll have more at the top of the hour. >> phil, christine, thank you, both. see you both shortly. also coming up, press secretary for george w. bush will be here with me live. we're talking 2012, talking about the poll in iowa. is there a clear front-runner? if not, is that a problem? [ martin luther king jr. ] i still have a dream that one day on the red hills of georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. i have a dream today! 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"fortune" magazine reports it was paid for by an angry midwestern broker. >> spending in another day in what's being described as freakout mode. >> reporter: even comedians took cover from the carnage. >> i'm just down here looking for my emergency hobo satchel. okay. now, remember, folks, just remember -- over the long-term stocks always increase in value. >> hey, everybody's chicken. when the market goes down over 600 points one day and up over 400 the next, even the parody e-trade baby gets queasy. >> i think i'm going to be sick. >> reporter: jeannie moos, cnn, new york. >> i'm going to jump out the window now. okay. we're going to try to get through this hour without puking. all right, folks? it's going to be okay. 10:00 eastern here on the east coast. 7:00 a.m. out west. wherever you may be, glad you are right here. i'm t.j. holmes in for kyra phillips. 16,000 police officers all across london trying to stop the rioting. maybe made some headway last night. hundreds of people have been arrested in several other british cities now. also, there's a nationwide man hunt going on right now for those three siblings. two brothers and their older sister all accused of opening fire on a florida police officer, then robbing that georgia bank. they are considered extremely dangerous. and international outcry builds over syria's deadly crackdown on citizens. an official call for syria's president to resign. on wall street, so far not so good. another day -- could we see another big rally? >> so far that is not the case. 30 minutes into the trade. the dow industrials down some 350 plus points so far. our christine romans with me in new york. alison kosik at the stock exchange. christine, let me start with you. and we were joking. and we just saw that piece by jeannie moos and the rip-your-face-off rally and freak-out mode. can you calm people down at all about what we're seeing? >> we are seeing volatility. classic volatility in a market that's trying to figure out what should be a fair price for american companies, international companies, stocks, gold, treasuries, the whole works. everyone's trying to find out what they think the world economy's going to do, what kind of debt problems you have in europe, is the u.s. going to be in a rut or recession down the road? what's the fed going to do about it? and where should stocks be priced? you also have an awful lot of fear factor in there that's exacerbating the move. so, you know, the reason why people out there watching shouldn't freak out is that yesterday stocks were up 400-something points, the day before that down 600-something points. a huge decline since july. but the s&p is still up more than 50% from march 2009. so it all depends on your perspective. and financial planners and money managers will tell you that if you are changing your plan, your financial plan right now in the midst of all this chaos, you are going to lose no matter what. imagine if you sold on monday only to find out that yesterday markets went up. and so today you decided oh, i'll buy again and now it's down. you cannot behave like that. normal people cannot behave like that. got to have a plan, stick to it. don't freak out. >> normal people cannot behave that way alison kosik for me, though, we see some people probably are behaving that way today. we're looking at the dow jones industrials. give me an idea overall the other indices what we're seeing today. >> yeah, we are seeing the dow down quite a bit, 326 points and i'll kind of echo what christine said. what you're seeing here is trading that's not necessarily rational. it's based on a lot of fear and emotion. and i'll tell you what, forget about yesterday's huge rally, it's ancient history at this point. we watched stocks tumble right when that opening bell rang. the dow, of course, continuing to go down. it's a yo-yo again of where we see these huge, wild swings in these averages. it's really dizzying. in the last two days, we've seen the biggest loss and gain in several years, not to mention these huge price swings of several hundred points in a matter of minutes. what this essentially shows is that investors are really nervous, traders are telling me investors don't know where the economy is headed. and they're doing what christine said, repricing stocks to fit the outlook for economic growth. and we've got economists. they're upping their forecasts on the likelihood of a double-dip recession. and you're seeing that concern play out in these crazy swings with stock prices, you're seeing it in rising gold prices, that's considered a safe haven. and you're seeing it play out in treasuries where the yields are at lows right now. so if you happen to be the savvy investor, you happen to be making money today because you've got the stomach to buy and sell on these big swings. but if you're not a savvy investor, you probably want to sit this one out, t.j. >> thank you. but what are the international markets doing? nina del santos in london for us with that. we know the world markets watch the u.s. and the u.s. watches world markets, as well. tell us how the rest of the world is doing. >> t.j., the markets over here certainly acting in tandem with the markets in the united states as the dow started trading. we had european stocks falling even further. it's hard to believe that the markets where i am at the moment were actually trading higher just about two or three hours ago. but around about half way through the trading session, what we saw was stocks shedding those gains and pretty quickly as alison kosik was telling you. yesterday's gain history, really, ancient history as she was putting it. one thing we should point out is that the cac 40 in paris is falling by the most down about 2.5%. nicholas sarkozy, the french president has summoned his finance minister and the central banker of france for emergency talks. this is amid ongoing concerns on the bond market. the france has aaa credit rating could be the next to face the crisis. only gold seems to be gaining at the moment about $1,770 an ounce. >> thank you for contributing to the coverage of our markets right now. thank you, all. today we could learn more about which lawmakers will be taking on the country's deficit. now, we know three of the names. you see them there. these are harry reid's picks for this super committee you've been hearing about. but already, republicans are slamming the choice of senator patty murray of washington. they're calling her the fundraiser in chief for senate democrats and does not belong on this committee. other congressional leaders will all add three picks of their own, nine more to make up this 12-member super committee. joe johns in washington for us right now. hello to you once again. we hear about committees all the time, now a super committee. this committee is going to be important to all of us. remind our viewers why. >> well, a lot of reasons. i mean, 12 people who are going to sit down and try to come up with the kinds of spending cuts and perhaps revenue changes to get us sort of on the road to something that's a little bit more stable financially. the most important thing, though, is these are kind of kitchen table issues that could affect you on main street. that's what they're going to have to look at. this is round two also, you know. we heard so much about raising the debt limit. now the cast of characters is beginning to change, but the principles remain the same. a lot of sniping now. a lot of it around senator patty murray. a member of the appropriations committee, budget committee, but the main thing that republicans are looking at, the chair of the democratic senatorial campaign committee supposed to help democrats raise money, also spends a lot of money for them. and republicans got out of the blocks very quickly saying she shouldn't have been chosen because of this political job she has that's so important to all senate democrats. what's hard for them to swallow, the republicans quite frankly is that the dfcc, which she's been involved in has been out front in opposition to entitlements cuts. so this is all the beginning of another battle that's going to take us, you know, through thanksgiving, all the way up to christmas if it works the way it's supposed to, t.j. >> joe, we have any sense of what the american people want this as you were committee to do? >> yeah, well, you know, we have this cnn/orc poll that just came out and was released this morning. we asked america what this committee should do. the first question, should the deficit reduction include taxes on businesses and higher income americans? the answer there was yes. 63% said yes, 36% said no. and the second question was should the deficit reduction include major changes to entitlements? 64% of respondents said no, 35% said yes. and so these kinds of polls are going to only add to the urgency as this committee gets formed for them to actually come up with something that the american public's not going to be upset about. >> all right. joe johns for us in washington. we appreciate you as always. well, nine minutes past the hour now. let's turn to what the british prime minister david cameron is calling appalling violence and thuggery. that's what he's saying about the riots taking place in london and other cities now. authorities are trying to get this under control. our phil black is there for us live. phil, they're trying to make some kind of headway with these riots. did they last night? >> reporter: well, they appear to have initially, at least, t.j. here in london, the momentum of violence appears to have been broken. the fourth night was relatively calm by comparison to the previous three evenings. and david cameron is saying that is the direct result of the more robust policing strategy he has enforced on the streets of this city. the number of police have been boosted by more than 10,000, 16,000 in all. and in addition to that, he says those police are now empowered, authorized to go out there and be far more active in their attempts to break up any rioting. >> also, we've been focusing on london so much, that has been the focal point. but now starting to spread. and we've seen it spread to other areas. how big of a concern that you get it under control in one place and now it's starting to spread in a number of places. >> well, last night while it was quiet in london, there was significant rioting in other uk cities including manchester, birmingham, notingham among others. police describe and the pictures show quite terrible scenes. so it remains to be seen if those police there are able to bring that under control, break the momentum in the way that the police here in london seemingly have done, t.j. >> phil black for us, we appreciate you as always. thank you. we're at 11 minutes past the hour right now. the island of aruba, the focus of a high-profile missing persons case, but not the one you may be thinking. this time, another young american woman has gone missing in aruba without a trace. also coming up, republican candidates like mitt romney visiting iowa this week. former white house press secretary ari fleischer joining me. naturals from delicious, real ingredients with no artificial flavors or preservatives. naturals from purina cat chow. share a better life. toi switched to a complete0, multivitamin with more. only one a day women's 50+ advantage has ginkgo for memory and concentration, plus support for bone and breast health. a great addition to my routine. [ female announcer ] one a day women's. the authentic, the rare, the hard to define. to those always searching for what's pure and what's real from we who believe we know just how you feel. haagen-dazs. no, it's just for new people. hey ! chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ? chocolate ! chocolate it is ! yeah, but i'm new, too. umm... he's new... er... than you. even kids know it's wrong to treat new friends better than old friends. at ally bank, we treat all our customers fairly, with no teaser rates and no minimum deposit to open. it's just the right thing to do. personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. all right. 14 minutes past the hour. and take a look. 400 points down. it's going to be okay, though, folks. we've been watching this. and it has been these extreme ups and downs over the past couple of days, but as you know, the dow lost 400 -- excuse me, 600 plus points on monday. another 400 points in gains yesterday, and now here we are 400 points down today. i've been talking to all of our business folks, including our alison kosik up on the new york stock exchange for us right now. and alison, we see this and remind our folks of what we have seen the past couple of days. because we do need to keep this in perspective what's happening before we start to panic. 400 points isn't time to panic, necessarily just yet. it's a long day. >> not just yet. yeah because where we start is not necessarily where we end up. what you see happening right now is a reaction to what's going on overseas. there's still more concerns about what's going on in the euro zone. people forget, we've got our debt problems here, but there are big problems in europe, as well. notably spain and italy. those are kind of on the front burner at this point. so we're watching european markets tank and that is also why we're watching stocks here in the u.s. tank. they kind of feed off each other. what you're really seeing here is just this trade where it's really generated by fear, lack of confidence, it's just emotional trading. and the reason why you're seeing these huge swings, you know, in just a matter of time we were talking, the dow was down over 400, it's backed off a little bit. but these are pretty big swings that you don't see on an every day, on a normal day, and this is definitely not -- we're not in usual times right now, t.j. >> this almost seems like the norm for this week, however, and we've still got a couple of days to go. remind us how the s&p, how is the nasdaq doing, as well. we're focusing on the dow jones industrial average. how are the others doing? >> the others are also lower. off by more than 3%. and seeing this flight to gold again. considered a safe haven, gold up almost 2% at 17.74. treasury yields, ten-year yields down at historic lows. you know, we're seeing, you know, people just take their money out of equities and park it somewhere else because there's really -- there's really not much direction. no one really knows where the economy's headed at this point. and people are trying to figure out where to put their money. and that's why you're seeing this flight out of stocks and into other asset classes. >> we appreciate you this morning. i'm sure we'll be checking back in with you. thank you so much. well, the republican presidential candidates in iowa this week. saturday, the iowa straw poll considered the first big test for the candidates. the former white house press secretary ari fleischer knows some things about the presidential campaigns. good to see you, kind sir. i don't want you to endorse anybody, but i want you to pick somebody. pick somebody who you would say has the best chance of beating obama in your opinion next year. >> much too early. much too early. i wouldn't even try. >> can't even tell? >> that's the fascinating thing about the republicans for 2012. the republican party who almost always knows who its front-runner is, has no front runner of any importance in this cycle. i don't think there'll be any importance until november or december. >> is it -- it sounds like you're saying it's anybody's to win, but is it also romney's to lose at this point? >> to use a sports metaphor, i look at this like the nl central in baseball. there were about four teams 1/2 game from first place. there are four people in the top tier. if governor perry of texas gets in, there'll be five. romney, pawlenty, bauchmann, and huntsman. add perry to the mix. and at any given day any of those five have a chance to win the republican nomination. it'll start with winning on the out process and really pawlenty has the most to lose in iowa on saturday. but this remains a wildly fluid, unusual year for republicans against an incumbent who is extraordinarily vulnerable. so it's very topsy-turvy. >> is there any doubt in your mind that he is going to be getting into this presidential race? but if he does, will that give that excitement you're talking about and that there's nobody that's a front runner, would he immediately step in and become that in some ways? and also just fire folks up? >> i don't think he'll become the front runner, i think he'll become one of five people on the top tier. that's what the likelihood is. and again, i don't see anybody breaking out for quite a little while here. it's just not how campaigns work. and nobody has enough money to be the overwhelming front-runner. there's a lot keeping them in the middle right now. >> besides the attention that the winner of the straw poll is going to get, how critical is it going to be for these candidates? because i think i have it right, only two of the last five of these polls, straw polls did that person go on to actually be the republican nominee. and sometimes important to have a second or third or fourth place finish for some of these. i believe john mccain even in the last cycle didn't participate, he came in tenth or 11th or something in this poll. so who -- how much of a difference is it going to really make? >> the iowa straw poll doesn't have a strong track record in predicting who the ultimate winner of the nomination will be. it does have a strong track record of knocking people out. 12 years ago i was elizabeth dole's communications director when she ran for president. she did better than people thought, vice president dan quayle at the time, former vice president, got knocked out as a result of a straw poll. i think people like rick santorum, for some of the second-tier candidates, this could start to separate them from the rest of the pack. but they can hang on until the fall, and that's what i think is going to happen again. again, tim pawlenty, the former governor of minnesota has the most on the line because he's invested so heavily in minnesota and has not lived up to expectations. so he's the one you have to watch the most, but i think all the rest of them, it's going to be one of these wild, fun, political days in a circus tent. and it'll be the first vote of the republican party. >> one last thing here, michele bauchmann, her strength also her weakness, meaning she can bring new people into this campaign, she can excite a certain segment of people, but at the same time, it's just that segment. and she turns so many other people off. those people in the center. so a great strength, but also a part of her weakness? >> i think people underestimate her and will make a mistake in so doing. she is for real. and she has the ability to bring a lot of new people into the race. she's going to bring a lot of women into the straw poll, which i remember elizabeth dole did successfully. can she do that and appeal to moderates and independents? that's going to ultimately be her test. but you have to keep her at the top of the front-running tier. she's that strong in a republican primary. >> all right, fleischer. it's good to talk politics with you once again. good to chat with you. you enjoy the rest of your day. all right. hope to talk to you again soon down the road. >> t.j., thank you. we're 21 minutes past the hour. and coming up, a bit of a pr headache for whole foods. the grocery chain accused of caving in to complaints about a ramadan ad campaign. we'll hear from the company at the center of the controversy. and don't forget, if you're walking away from the television, you can take me with you. you don't have to stop watching. that's probably not the best tease, but you can get cnn streaming live on your phone, computer, or yes, that thing right there, your ipad. you can check out cnn.com/video or just download the app, and you're good to go. 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[ male announcer ] half a day's worth of fiber. fiber one. 24 minutes past the hour now. we are keeping a close eye on the markets. the dow jones industrial average down 442 points, continues to kind of fluctuate. started instantly, was down almost when the markets opened. down almost instantly at 200 points within a matter of minutes, now dipped below 400 points. of course, it has been quite an interesting ride this week on wall street. the dow losing 600 plus points on monday, rallying by 400 points to close up yesterday. but now here is where we are just about an hour into the trading day. but still, a long day ahead. we have a close eye on the markets for you today. also, in syria, the violence there seems to continue to intensify. this is amateur video you're seeing here posted online of government troops and tanks on the offensive. now the international pressure's growing on syria to end the crackdown on civilians. dozens have died in recent days. the united nations security council is expected to call for calm today, and the u.s. may go further than that. government sources telling cnn that the u.s. is inching toward a call for the embattled president to step down. brianna keilar at the white house for us right now. brianna, tell our viewers why the white house has resisted making that call so far. >> reporter: well, certainly there's some considerations when it comes to syria, and also the u.s. has been looking very much for international support on this, t.j. and this is really the game-changer here. growing international support as the violence has become so elevated and has gone on for so long. and so what you have now is arab countries who are now chiming in, becoming more vocal and saying that this is unaccepta e unacceptable, and especially right now during this holy period of ramadan. those calls really have even more weight. the u.s. up until now, t.j., they've been looking for kind of some backup if you will. they have limited business interest in syria, so sanctions only go so far. and they've been looking for some more support from arab countries and from europe that may have more influence with syria. you have lately saudi arabia coming out in terms condemning the violence. china and russia finally joining the u.n. security council in a statement against syria, against the violence. and it's really the surge of outrage that the u.s. has been looking to capitalize on. and that's why government sources are telling our cnn state department producer that u.s. officials have come to this conclusion now that assad must go. >> brianna keilar for us today at the white house. we appreciate you as always. and tonight, the president will be hosting an annual dinner celebrating ramadan. the islamic holy month is actually the center of a controversy right now that's involved whole foods of all things. the company was accused of pulling a ramadan-themed ad campaign after complaints. whole foods denies there was any such directive. they say unfortunately 1 of their 12 operating regions made the decision on its own. now, one of the stores, big ramadan promotions is for safron road. and the ceo of that company joins us now. sir, we appreciate you being here. what was your take? did you think whole foods had done anything wrong, necessarily? and what they're saying at least one store wanted to pull back on their ramadan-themed promotion. >> thank you very much for having me on. >> yeah. >> and i think that the way whole foods has reacted to this has been very good, actually. they're a large organization, $9 billion in sales, 300 stores, always going to get some dissension somewhere. this is america, people have a right to different opinions. but our ramadan promotion with whole foods is still strong, very strong in spite of bizarre rumors that any ramadan campaign would slow or stop. >> now what you're saying there, maybe some rumors that are out there. but is it your understanding, and at least the reports are that at least there was an internal e-mail in which someone was directing employees at that one store to maybe pull back and maybe not use the word ramadan in some of the promotion. is that your understanding of what had happened, as well? >> yeah, that's correct. i have not seen that memo. that i think from what i've heard in the media, there was one region that had, unfortunately, decided to play into this controversy. from my understanding, the ramadan promotions are still on, they're still very strong. we're seeing the retrial on the shelf. and quite frankly, the way whole foods responded to this from corporate and from austin and the headquarters and throughout the communications to the regionals just in the last 24 hours, it's very commendable. they did it swiftly and vigilantly. did it in social media as well as in regular media. as you know, some of -- i'm sure they also called your cnn office, as well. so actually i've been very proud of the courage they took to take a stand and reiterate and clear the facts that everybody knew that whole foods national promotion is still on charge. >> well, even if it was only one store, one e-mail, one person even who sent that and said we want to pull that, we don't want ramadan in our promotions. there were bloggers and people out there online, of course, saying they were upset with whole foods even doing this. but are you even offended by that? given it was one person or a few online, are you offended personally that someone wouldn't appreciate a company here in the u.s. promoting ramadan? >> no, i'm not offended at all. i mean, i think it's unfortunate. but you know, i think you're always going to have people with different opinions around kosher holidays, easter holidays. you'll always get some kind of reacti reacti reactionary response. and this is an attempt -- some really, unfortunately, racist bloggers spun this in the wrong way, and this gets blown up larger than it really is. we're seeing a tremendous amount of consumers, thousands, going into whole foods stores as a result of our ramadan promotion and the fact that we're reaching out to 8 million american consumers who have never had availability on a national basis before. we're actually seeing the other side of this, which is much larger than, perhaps, a very tiny, tiny minority of radicals who have tried to spin it a different way. >> i need to make sure i note here that whole foods telling us in a response they put out that, no, they have not at all told their stores and company wide to pull back on their ramadan promotion right now. we appreciate you taking the time. >> thank you. go to whole foods and pick it up. >> we appreciate you taking the time out, buddy. thanks so much. we're 31 minutes past the hour now. texas governor rick perry may be about to jump into the presidential race. but which gop candidate should be worried about that? we've got the political buzz next. stay with us. hi there! that's not going to satisfy you. it's time for a better snack. here, try this. it's yoplait greek. it has two times the protein of regular yogurt. you'll feel satisfied. [ female announcer ] yoplait greek. it is so good. it's pretty good! now we're just getting past the bottom of the hour, taking a look at some of the stories making headlines. this will make some headlines, won't it? another topsy-turvy day. dow down sharply once again, but not as bad as it was a few minutes ago. we have gone below 400 points on the day. but just an hour into the trading day. we'll see what happens for the rest of the day. over in london, it was a calmer night after clashes we've seen violence, looting there. even though they're starting to get it under control, the things there in london, it has now moved on to other cities. it spread, that is a concern now. the prime minister there, david cameron saying that police have authorized the police there to use whatever force necessary to get these riots under control. texas authorities have released new mug shots. can you recognize that guy? that's warren jeffs. that's the polygami sex leader sentenced yesterday to life in prison on two counts of sexual abuse of a child. t ribut now, the pga championship is taking place. we've t tiger woods who was back out there ting to get another major. hee is at the microphone right now. we're going to dip in and listen to him right now. >> back and forth between the method, i think, the mallet version to what i'm using now which is very similar to cameron. and that's about it. fresh wedges, that's nothing new, same design. >> thank you, tiger. over here to the front row, mike? >> there's a lot of talk in this week having one player dominate golf versus a whole bunch of other players having a chance to contend. when it comes to sports in general, which do you like? having a michael jordan dominate a sport? and what's your talk on the state of the pga tour now with all of these young players having a chance? >> well, i've always been one that enjoyed watching dynasties or rivalries. you know, i grew up in so cal with lakers playing the celtics. one of those teams were in the nba finals for ten years. that's what i grew up watching. and then obviously watching the bulls. michael winning six in a row. that's as good as it gets. so for me, and obviously with derek and the yankees, being a big yankee fan to see what those guys have done. so it was -- i've always liked that. i think the game is cyclical. you know, when i came out here, it was still had -- playing well, ollie. you know, now my generation of phil ernie. now you have this new crew coming up. and there's probably two generations to that young crew. the guys that are early 30s like adam is what? 30? and those guys who are in probably mid-20s, and then there's the teenagers, you know. being 19, and it's ungodly how good these guys are at such an early age. you know, it was being here from the states no one turned pro in their teens. that was unheard of. we always went to college. but overseas, it's different. guys are turning pro at a very young age. and getting way more experience than we ever had playing professional golf. and they're better earlier than even my generation. >> and tiger, the overall state of the tour right now? >> i think the tour's doing great, very healthy. i know that, you know, tim's in the midst of starting his negotiation. so i think with all the excitement of the young players coming up, i think it's going to be a very good contract for us. >> a question too over here to the left. >> i know you've won with brian before. but what are the realistic challenges you face this week? winning a major with a temporary caddy like brian? >> well, i think i have to push him up a couple of the hills. he's doing a little bit of caddy. there's no way he's walking back up on 11. he says good luck, have fun, see you down there. i want to get your angle how the driver's coming in. no, i think we're going to have a great time out there, we're going to have fun. we're going to be competing. he knows my game. he knows how far i hit the golf ball. we play all the time at home. so he's seen me play a ton of golf. so that's nothing new. only thing that's going to be different for us is obviously we're in a tournament situation. but as far as understanding me and knowing me and knowing what to say, he's very good at that. he's very good at making a very sly remark every now and then to loosen me up. there's some pretty intense situations we've had in the u.s. in '96 that he said some pretty funny things that, you know, i'm getting my butt kicked by steve scott. and he'd make a sly comment, if i hit one good shot. so we've had a lot of fun. and we're going to have fun this week. >> right in the middle, mike three, please. >> i'm interested in where you are as a competitively. are you still patient enough with yourself to see your game through? >> yeah, absolutely. i believe that -- that's a great question. because i think if you would probably have asked me that question earlier in the year, i would have given you a different answer. i was frustrated earlier in the year. especially at the masters on, you know, consequently after the masters because i wasn't feeling well. and it's been frustrating. but now that i'm healthy, it's so much easier to be more patient i feel good, i have way more energy because i'm not trying to block out pain. and trying to ignore that. i can go out there and play golf. as i said earlier, you know, my feels are starting to come back. i'm starting to get the feel of hitting shots and how far the ball's going and just getting that more target awareness. but it's comes from playing in terms of golf. >> take your question here in the front, mike one. >> so far, everyone's come in and talked about the great position of the golf course, but how difficult the last four holes are. can you speak to the last four holes? >> i don't think there's another stretch that i can remember that is this difficult coming in. >> all right, we're 42 minutes past the hour. even though he's not at the top of the golf world and not on top of his own golf game right now, tiger woods still drawing immense interest. he is going to be playing this week at the pga championship. this is a chance for him to try to pick up another major even though the way he's played certainly last week, which was his first tournament back after being off with a knee issue also a leg issue, he is back, didn't perform well last week, had one decent day, but still, didn't perform well, and now he is back at it this week at the pga championship. just listening in to tiger woods there talking about his return to the pga. we shall see. keep you updated this week on his doings out there on the course. 300 points down now as we turn back to wall street. that's the market, we have seen this dip down below actually 400 points we were down just a matter of minutes ago. but that's the kind of day it's going to be and maybe even the kind of week it's going to be on wall street. we will keep a close eye on the dow jones industrial and on wall street today. but also, we're talking the political buzz with maria, pete, and dana. i remember the days before copd. my son and i never missed opening day. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly improve my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. with symbicort, today i'm breathing better, and that means... game on! symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. 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[ male announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. well, political buzz, your rapid-fire look at the hottest political topics of the day. three questions, 30 seconds on the clock. and look at who we've got playing today. democratic strategist and my dear friend maria cardona, and my former friend pete dominic, and talk show radio host and my new friend dana losch. first question has to do with the gallup poll. most members of congress deserve reelection, that's the lowest number since the poll began. is there anything washington can do to turn these numbers around, dana, let me start with you. >> i think they can start by listening to the people. there was a poll that came out in march of just this year from, i believe it may have been abc that said, oh, american confidence in congress is at an all-time low. i've been watching this confidence in congress dropping steadily for the past two years. is and also coupled with this, we see results about how americans feel about congress' handling of the economy. they disapprove of it by an overwhelming amount. but congress isn't getting the message. they're not listening to the american people. they didn't listen to the american people with health care. they're not listening to them now. >> maria, same question to you. anything they can do? >> yes, they can actually get to work and do what they were elected to do, which is to work in a bipartisan way to try to solve our nation's biggest problems. and to dana's point, if they listen to the american people, they need to understand that that's exactly what they were elected to do. not to be intransigent, not my way or the highway attitude, which is exactly what the tea partiers and gop has been doing for the last several months. and we see the result in a cnn poll yesterday where 60% of americans have an unfavorable view of the gop. they need to get the message. >> okay. pete, jump in there. >> i think -- i think what they could do is maybe get unelected about 75% of them, that might help. maybe they could cut their own pay, maybe they could turn down some of their benefits, but i disagree with dana and maria because they're saying they need to listen to the american people. that's not what they do. they have to -- they're working for the people who fund their campaigns. this is less of a democracy and more of a corporatacracy. they're not going to listening to our will. >> all right. let me move on to the next question. lord knows i wanted to do a follow-up right then. texas governor rick perry, looks like he's about to jump into the presidential race. if he does -- and let me start with you this time, maria -- if he does jump into the race, which of those gop candidates should be worried? >> i think they all should be worried, t.j. because clearly gop voters are not pleased with the current crop or else they wouldn't be so excited about rick perry jumping in. it'll be interesting. he loves to talk about the jobs he's created in texas, when, in fact, the unemployment rate has gone up. and all the jobs that have been created have been low-wage jobs. and he was the one advocating for secession from the union. not a mainstream point of view not a mainstream candidate. >> dana, you go. >> well, there was a bipartisan plan put up in congress about cap and balance, but maria's party killed it. i don't have a prejudice against low-wage jobs, any kind of jobs. jobs period, we need them. perry was not talking about secession, he was talking about -- it's a long story, i have 20 seconds. getting to it, the biggest candidate that has something to worry about is mitt romney because perry is the non-romney, between romney and bauchmann, and i think he has a lot of ground to cover, but i think he could knock romney out of the lead spot. i really do. romney should be very, very concerned right now. >> i knew you were going to get your follow-up in, but pete, you go ahead. >> can i just say i love being between dana and maria. and i love for all of us to go out to drinks, but you're not invited, t.j., because we're no longer friends. listen, if rick perry gets in, you know, presidential campaigns are like reality shows. and this is a reality show within a reality show. it's who's the most christian. rick perry can probably take a chip out of michele bauchmann as well as rick santorum, and especially if rick perry gets in. there is another competition here. who is the best looking? mitt romney or rick perry? clark kent and bruce wayne. they're both handsome. >> oh, i love you. 20 seconds now. >> it may come down to better hair. >> this is the buzzer-beater for the day. talking about mike huckabee. he's going to join gospel singer and presidential candidate herman cain on stage this weekend. if you had your choice and could recommend to them, what song should they play? >> the very first concert i ever went to was the reverend al green, and i would say let's stay together. i went to that before guns and roses. i would say "let's stay together." let's play that. >> what do you say they should play? >> i have two suggestions. one is "coming in on a wing and a prayer" and the second one is that he should whip out his bass guitar, which he loves to jam to, huckabee does, and play bon jovi's "on a prayer," as well because that's exactly what herman cain's going to need to make it anywhere in the gop primary. >> pete, give me a song. >> well, i don't know much about music, i've got top confess, but it would be ironic to hear them play some cover by an openly gay artist like elton john. i'd love to see that. and maria, i -- she's right, mike huckabee's a talented guitarist. i'd like to see him get real naught by a guitar rip up there. if only simon cowell could be there to judge the performance. >> pete, great stuff. >> he played stuff with nugent. he played that on television. >> he's good. he's good. >> dana, maria, and my good friend pete, good to see you again, buddy. >> i'll be tweeting about you. i'll be tweeting all about you, t.j. holmes, you handsome devil. >> i'm sure you will. thanks so much. i'll talk to you all again soon. we're getting close to the top of the hour. this has been back and forth. every time we've gone back to this number, it's gone up or down by about 100 points it seems. the dow jones industrial down. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ introducing purina one beyond a new food for your cat or dog. what if we designed an electric motorcycle? 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>> we appreciate you as always. thanks so much. and to our viewers coming up in the newsroom with susan malveaux talking live with former senator alan simpson about the super committee. he was co-chair of the recent bipartisan group to look at government spending asking him about the politics and compromise needed to make the upcoming super committee successful. stay here. the eagle flies at dawn. the monkey eats custard. price-line ne-go-ti-a-tor. so, you've been double crossed by other travel sites and now you want to try the real deal. yes, is it true that name your own price... ...got even easier? affirmative. we'll show you other people's winning hotel bids. so i'll know how much to bid... ...and save up to 60% i'm in i know the lady in leather travels on three wheels. wait, is that code? that's my secret weapon... ...naomi pryce see winning hotel bids now at priceline. helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." 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