in the skies? we'll talk about that straight ahead. >> technology. >> uh-huh. >> there's english, there's spanish and then there's -- well, how do i say it? there's this! > >> [speaking foreign language] >> smooth. >> come on! >> mayor bloomberg's version of spanglish without adam sandler getting a following all its own. "fox and friends" starts now. >> i guess you're not a fan of the mayor's spanglis h? >> you know what? go for it. >> how about a for effort? >> possibly. >> we should ask our spanish speaking audience if it's an a

for effort. welcome back. >> thank you. >> that's the big story. >> big story that i actually got back because -- >> because of the plane. >> one of the first planes back luckily but home to a lot of devastation, unfortunately. >> steve, will you lend gretchen your plane next time? >> i'll lend her my lack of electricity. now day five no electricity in our house. >> me, too. >> i got it back last night. you are welcome to a sleepover. i have a blow up mattress. >> i have the one flashlight i've been using it for five days, shaved with it this morning. >> we have so many trees down, i have no idea when power will be restored. stay tuned for next week. headlines for this wednesday, the latest on the aftermath from hurricane irene. u.s. blackhawk helicopters delivering much needed supplies to people in vermont this morning. more than a dozen towns left stranded because roads and bridges are washed out. the situation just as dire in new jersey. towns near the passaic river being evacuated as floodwaters continue to rise.

some people being rescued by boat from their homes. >> i know people in the communities that i visited say wayne and fairfield have dealt with something like this before. but this is the worst that any of them have seen. i saw just extraordinary despair. >> irene now being blamed for 49 deaths. a brand new report released overnight finds despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars on security since the september 11th attacks, there are still major gaps in the government's ability to prevent and respond to a terrorist strike. the former heads of the 9/11 commission say the nation's ability to detect explosives hidden on passengers boarding planes "lacks reliability." aren't you glad we go through all those things and take off your shoes. you don't have to take off your shoes when you come back from overseas. man accused of killing two u.s. airmen in frankfurt. prosecutors say he was motivated by radical muslim beliefs and he

wanted revenge for u.s. military action in afghanistan. he has apparently confessed to the killing. atf chief kevin nelson demoted for his role in the government's fast and furious program. the botched initiative designed to track gun sales put thousands of firearms in the hands of mexican gang members instead. but one of those guns killed u.s. border patrol agent brian kerry. house oversight committee chair darrell issa says his demotion does not solve the problem. he'll continue to investigate the program until it's dismantled for good. are airline pilots forgetting now how to fly? the f.a.a. thinks that could be the case in a brand new study, officials admit that commercial pilots rely so much on autopilot they forget some of the basic skills. the study blames automation addiction for several plane crashes including one in buffalo in 2009 that left 50 people dead. you know that that report said on all flights, pilots technically are only actually flying the plane for three minutes of the flight.

>> or less. >> three minutes of the flight! >> that's why i won't get on a plane unless kareem abdul-jabbar is the pilot. remember that? >> absolutely. >> surely, you've got to be kidding. let's talk a little bit about this. yesterday, the president of the united states addressed the american legion and saluted their service and talked a lot about jobs. and we understand from the administration from here on out, the president is going to be talking a lot about jobs. we know the president has a jobs plan and we're going to hear about it after his vacation at martha's vineyard. >> he's back. >> he is back. but listen to this, he said exactly the same thing, i'll talk about my jobs plan after my vacation to martha's vineyard last year. here's an interview with brian williams of "nbc nightly news" exactly one year ago and it sounds like what we're hearing now. >> we anticipated that the recovery was slowing. the economy is still growing but

it's not growing as fast as it needs to. i've got things right now before congress that we should move immediately and i said so before i went on vacation and i'll keep on saying it now that i'm back. we should be passing legislation that helps small businesses get credit, that eliminates capital gains taxes because they have more incentive. there's a whole host of measures that we could take, no single element of which is the magic bullet but we can start continuing to build momentum for the recovery. >> now, remember, that was the magic bullet speech. it's hard to believe it's been a year since we were actually talking about that but it has and maybe time goes by so fast that the president is hoping people won't realize that he's actually saying the same thing now. listen to what he said just yesterday about the same thing. >> next week, i will be laying out a series of steps that congress can take immediately to put more money in the pockets of

working family and middle class families to make it easier for small businesses to hire people, to put construction crews to work, rebuilding our nation's roads and railways and airports and all the other measures that can help to grow this economy. >> he's going to preview his big speech in a speech today. the only thing he said in 2010 that was a clear policy is he wanted to do something with capital gains tax and he wanted to make small businesses get -- small businesses easier pathways to money. and nothing really ever came of this. but this time, there's going to be a lot of pressure on him. with the unemployment rate currently at 9.1% as he puts together a proposal that might have republicans maybe on the edge of their seats saying i can deal with this. 77 separate groups have penned a letter to him saying whatever you too with this jobs plan, don't make it republican friendly. don't make it something that they want to pass. >> remember what we said and this is still the same even 10 days from being away and coming back that he continues to blame

bush for this and that appears to be what the campaign message is going to be. why? eternal polling says that's working, that the american people overwhelmingly believe still that it is president bush's problem more than it's president obama's even three years into his presidency so that's going to be why they're going to continue to say the same exact thing. >> ok, go ahead. >> i was going to say something that rush limbaugh said yesterday on his radio show, i saw on line was now they're out there saying that rick perry is dumb. how smart is it for obama to repeat the same pledge two consecutive years? you know, his pledge to come up with a jobs bill, jobs plan that worked last year, didn't work, will it work this year? don't know. will it be a few months before the election next year when he says when i get back from vacation, i'm going to come up with a plan and you're going to hear all about it. >> in the meantime, you know that super committee now is going to be getting together, six republicans and six democrats.

they have only until november 23rd to figure out how to cut $1.5 trillion or those trigger effects go into play. so the republicans met yesterday, now the democrats are going to meet and remember what newt gingrich said during the debate that was on fox news a few weeks ago, he really got people's attention when he talked about the fact that he believes that this whole idea of the super committee, well, it's dumb! >> look, i think this super committee is about as dumb an idea as washington has come up with. i mean, i used to run the house of representatives. i have some general notion of these things. the idea that 523 senators and congressmen are going to sit around while mostly brilliant people will sit in some room and brilliantly come up with a trillion dollars or force us to choose between gutting our military and accepting the tax increase is irrational. they're going to walk in just

before thanksgiving and say all right, we can shoot you in the head or cut off your right leg. which do you prefer? what they ought to do is scrap the committee right now, recognize it's a dumb idea, go back to regular legislative business, assign every subcommittee the task of finding savings, do it out in the open through regular legislative order and get rid of this secret phony business. >> and this is the part where newt could really do well. we have a series of debates going. we see how he can deliver a message which is why he's so strong when he comes on television as a xhcommentator a analyst. u.s. news & world report says they moved out of the category almost entirely because he made everybody sit up and take notice and say maybe this guy has the experience and clarity and thought. the super committee met for seven hours yet, just republicans alone. seven hours. >> i wonder if the lobbyists were there. >> i hope not. >> that's the one thing that's

going to keep them from actually getting anything done. were they at the meeting? not sure. >> let's talk a little bit about this. here in the new york city area, in anticipation of the hurricane, the mayor was on television a lot. and because 1/3 of new york city speaks spanish, every once and a while, the mayor would do his best in spanish to warn people about the big storm that was coming. listen to the mayor. >> make sure windows and doors leading to the outside are closed. if you have a fireplace close the damper and turn off any propane tanks and move to a room with as few windows as possible and ride out the storm there. let me summarize very briefly in spanish. [speaking spanish]

>> the "l.a. times" describes his accent and grammar as earnest but painful. however, it did inspire a new york woman by the name of rachel levin to come up with a twitter character called el bloombito and she now is twittering about stuff like what the mayor had. >> for example. >> ola, el stoemer, grando. i understand that. maybe that's because it's half english. >> exactly right. >> here's another one. evacuateo de rikers! my bado. >> the final one. stay awayoel rivero. no el rescue. >> here's the thing.

why wouldn't they bring somebody who actually speaks spanish to the microphone? they have people doing sign language. >> they have a translator right next to him and he preferred to go ahead and do it on his own. >> a for effort. >> d for diction. >> and e for earnest indeed. what's interesting is the mayor was asked about this particular twitter character and he said he's a fan of hers. right now, she's got 13,000 followers on twitter. >> i think she just doubled it. >> meanwhile -- >> if only she can bring our power back, then we'll really like her. coming up next on the rundown, no parade for you. republicans told they can't participate in a labor day parade but the mayor has something else in mind. he will join us live. >> then the democrats plan to take on the g.o.p. dick morris says cue up the name calling. you can say dope, joke and fraud? that's the plan. almost tastes like one of jack's als.

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>> welcome back. take a look at this. the president's approval numbers have hit an all time low, according to a recent gallup poll. only 38% of americans approve of the job the president is doing. now, experts say his re-election bid is on shaky ground. but our next guest says not so fast. democrats in the white house are set to deploy a familiar strategy, one they hope will help keep that man with the keys to air force one. dick morris is a former advisor to president bill clinton and a fox news contributor and joins us live. good morning to you, dick. >> good to be here, steve. >> now, i know republicans are talking about if we can just hold him to his record, a republican will be elected. meanwhile, on the other side of the political spectrum, the democrats have a strategy and it is dope, joke and fraud. >> yeah.

democratic consultant told me that the other day. the dope is supposed to be rick perry. the joke is supposed to be michelle bachmann and the fraud is supposed to be mitt romney. none of those are true. rick perry is far from a dope. and if he is, you know, that great line abraham lincoln had about grant was terrific after he won all the battles they said he was a drunk. he said find out what he drinks and give a case to all my generals if he can generate that many jobs being a dope, that's terrific. as to the joke, michelle bachmann standing up for eliminating the deficit and for real fiscal restraint is scarcely humanistic is terrific and in terms of a fraud, mitt romney has a long record of job creation and should not be dismissed that way but the point is that in the election of 2010, the democrats didn't do any positive campaigning at all.

not one. you'd go to these house and senate races and was wall-to-wall negative ads against the republicans. not one of them praised health care or praised the stimulus package or praised the obama economic record and that's going to be what they're going to try to do in 12 and i don't think it will be anymore successful in 12 than it was in 10. >> sure and i've heard a number of republicans and strategists talk about how if they can only hold the president to the numbers, look at unemployment, look at the cost of gasoline. look at all this stuff. look at the woe in the world right now. if they can pin that on him, republicans win. >> sure. well, i think that there's -- let's go even a little further than that. gretchen was talking earlier about how everybody thinks it's -- by 55-35, the polling shows people believe if the recession was caused more by bush than prolonged by obama. but that's not the question people are going to ask on election day. it's not even how good a job

have you done in handling the economy? the question they're going to ask is mr. obama over the next four years, what is it that you will try that you haven't tried already and has failed already? >> exactly. >> when you play that soundbite of obama saying i want to expand the access small business has to credit, well, his dodd-frank bill is stopping the access to credit. it's killed access to credit. because his regulators have so terrified the small community banks that they don't dare make any loans to small business. >> that's an excellent point. >> all right. >> so his very policy is getting rid of what he said he's going to do. that's what he'll do in his jobs program, a series of microstops that will be overwhelmed by the macro of the economy. >> all right. excellent segment so far. dick, can you stick around five more minutes? >> i can. >> the answer is yes, he doesn't have any electricity at house.

>> what am i going to go home to, huh? >> we'll have dick weigh in on this. the presidential pick far from decided. a lot of republicans are talking about someone specific. wait until you hear who. that's next. >> plus a close call for justin bieber, the pop sensation is in a car crash. who knew he was old enough to drive? [ doorbell rings ] hello there. i'm here to pick up helen. ah. mom? he's here.

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>> time for the news headlines in a matter of moments. let's go up here and talk a little libya. you got until saturday. that's what the rebels are saying to the qaddafi forces. give up or we're going in. meanwhile, qaddafi's wife and three of his children are

believed to have fled to algeria. they're demanding everybody come home. his daughter gave birth yesterday. how do you do that under stress? let's look at this. ugly scene swallowing up 12 homes in all, they say. evacuations everywhere. the blaze almost under control and finally, back up top, to north texas, at least 20 homes, strong winds and conditions fueling the flames. there are no other fires and no word of what sparked it and now i guess john duper what do we do as director? >> time to go back out to the host right out there at camera 2. stand by 2, take two. >> thanks a lot, brian and john. he is a rising star in the republican party and after a rousing speech at the reagan library, there are more calls now for freshman senator marco rubio from florida to be the g.o.p. vice presidential nominee. >> well, what does dick morris think about that? he joins us once again from connecticut. what do you think?

>> this is like one of the sort of arranged marriages, we don't know what the groom is going to be but we know who the bride will be. the vice presidential candidate, i think, will be rubio. i think first of all he's brilliant and he's a solid conservative and impresses everybody when he speaks and has quite a background but critically he's the key to winning the latino vote and the florida vote. obama's weakest link in the base that he put together that got him elected in 2008 is among latinos. his job approval among latinos according to gallup has dropped from 85% in may of 2009 to 44% now. just a tough above the national level and that means if you put a latino on that ticket, you have a very good chance of actually carrying the hispanic vote which not only would be significant in this election, it might flip that entire growing

demographic and make it more pro republican because after all, it is a socially conservative group. >> now, i know that you're going to say this means nothing but having interviewed marco rubio before and having asked him that exact question, he immediately says not interested. he wants to serve the people of florida but i find it fascinating because usually political pundits will say oh, the v.p. pick is sort of meaningless. it really never wins elections. but do you think it could be different that picking somebody like marco rubio actually could be a huge factor? >> yeah. and i think that the idea that it doesn't win elections, i think, is wrong! sarah palin gave john mccain a three-week lead in the polls. >> look at joe biden. >> well, biden did nothing really for foreign policy. >> but he did nothing for him but palin was incredibly important to mccain and he just blew it by going back and voting for tarp but she gave him a three week lead and i think

yeah, rubio could have an enormous effect on this. >> all right. >> by the way, i just wanted to mention that we talked, i think, last week about how the group that is pushing for the 9/11 mosque two blocks from the trade center site is now asking for federal funds from the lower manhattan development corporation and to be set up to help lower manhattan recover. so on my web site, dickmorris.com in the upper right-hand corner we've amassed so far 106,000 signatures on a petition to send down to the lower manhattan development corporation to say no federal funds for the ground zero mosque. so please click on it and sign up. >> all right. the guy behind dick morris.com, dick morris the guy. thank you very much for joining us today. >> thank you. >> last week, she told them to go straight to hell. now democrat maxine waters talking tea party again. this time she wants to be more like them. >> really? then wisconsin union wants the city to pay for their parade

that will ban republican lawmakers from walking down the main street but the mayor of that town says not so fast. he's ready to rain on their parade. but first -- >> happy birthday to van morrison. he turns 66 today. ♪ [ female announcer ] erybody loves that cushiony feeling. uh oh. i gotta go. [ female announcer ] and with charmin ultra soft, you can get that same cushiony feeling you love while still using less. charmin ultra ft has extra cushions that are soft and more absorbent. so you can use four times less versus the leading value brand. ah. [ femalennouncer ] using less never felt so good. we all go... why not enjoy the go with charmin ultra soft.

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>> time for your shot of the morning. bieber correspondent steve doocy told you about this but didn't have the details. terrifying moments for teenage girls across the country. justin bieber gets into a fender bender, reportedly driving this ferrari when another driver bumped into him. both justin and his ferrari are ok. >> can you imagine being a kid where your first car is a ferrari? >> that would be quite interesting. hey, listen, he's a little bit different of a kid who is working hard to be normal. >> that's true. >> right? >> you saw the movie. because i was on the disney cruise. you were just on the cruise. i was on a disney cruise. they showed the justin bieber documentary every nine minutes. >> did you watch it? >> sooner or later, you gradually see the entire thing of justin bieber. i can now do my book report that's due soon by the end of the summer on justin bieber. >> i can't tell you the movies

that i saw. they're a little different. >> no clothes on? >> yeah. sometimes. let's talk about this congressional black caucus. in the last few days, maxine waters, congresswoman from california has been taking shots at the tea party. here she is again. you be the judge -- is she criticizing the tea party or does she want to be more like them? >> they took over the hill. they spat at our members. they walked the halls, they knocked on doors, they were loud, they were boisterous, they were threatening. rallying is what they used to do. you better get up? join with us when the call goes out and put the numbers together and show up. >> you've heard a lot about organizing. that's what they did. they organized. and they invested in what they wanted to do. >> so not long ago, she told members of the tea party to go

straight to hell. there it sounds like she's a little envious they've become so influential. >> right and i don't know why their message is so adverse to her message when their message is just tighten your belt. doesn't have enemy. it says stop spending even if programs affect them directly. >> the tea party is saying smaller government. she likes a bigger government. >> it's actually completely the opposite. the only commonality is the idea of coming together and becoming more organized. in that particular clip, it seems like she's rallying her troops to do exactly what the tea party did. we have headlines for you if you're just waking up, it's 6:30 on the east coast. >> here's your headlines. as much as $60 billion in your tax dollars lost to waste and fraud in iraq and afghanistan. that according to a 240 page report from the commission on wartime contracting. they looked into it all. it's being released to congress this morning. the loss is blamed on lax oversight of contractors, poor planning and naturally, corruption, among the recommendations, the creation of

an inspector general to monitor this kind of contracting going forward. >> pay close attention to sarah palin's travel plans because now it's adding some more speculation that she's about to enter the race for president. the former alaska governor and fox news contributor is expected to announce her decision at a tea party rally in iowa on september 3rd. and now comes word that palin will fly to new hampshire following that speech for another tea party rally on labor day so will this be an announcement or just another buslike tour? >> it sounds like she is in. imagine looking out the window and seeing a plane crash right into your backyard. yep, that's exactly what happened in santa monica, california, you have a student pilot who lost control during a practice flight. what happens next, even more incredible. >> wow! ow! >> this video shows a group of good samaritans pulling the pilot from the plane. incredibly, he walked away with only a broken leg.

no word of what caused the crash. >> good for him. there's no escaping shoes for "married with children's" al bundy. >> these shoes are too big! i'm swimming in them. >> that would explain the life preserver under your dress. >> actor ed o'neill who played bundy spent more than a decade working in a shoe store on the show. in a twist of fate, his brand new walk of fame star located right outside a shoe store on hollywood boulevard. >> fantastic! >> let's do a little sports now with -- you're in a new location. is this a new thing now? sports moved? >> yes, i have so much to tell you. >> now you're right in front of us. >> right. there was a problem with the distance. steve started to miss me and you started to weep so we adjusted. >> exactly. >> i'll tell you something we probably saw. we're talking about the yankees.

taking john lackey deep put the yanks on top 4-2. after he homered, the red sox said wait, we didn't like that. we'll hit you with the ball. isn't that great sportsmanship? he didn't attack the mound. no punches thrown but that heightens the angst between the two squads. striking out 10. mariano rivera gets the save. the yanks win 5-2. they're 1/2 game from first. he may be the most valuable player for something he did off the field. the former all pro tight end saved the teammate's life. he was choking in the cafeteria during a team meal. he tried drinking water. he was losing his breath and one teammate tried the heimlich maneuver that didn't work. shockey stepped in and the pork went flying. he is doing just fine.

>> that's scary. >> what are you doing tomorrow? >> what i'm doing in 24 hours from today is reduct, back for patriot golf day. i had a chance to tee off with the president of the united states and we'll talk to him a little bit before and this is from last year, we understand. the president walked up. he is a good golfer, i am not a good golfer. >> but you're golfing with the president. >> this is amazing, though, you talk about stepping up to a challenge. look. >> i have no idea where the ball went. >> i could not find it. >> it looks straight. >> it looks straight when you did it live on the show. >> this is a fundraiser. >> it's part of the green fees all across the country go to those families of those who lost their lives. now, keep in mind, that was about three golf lessons and now before that, i had no golf lessons and no golf experience. so this year to prepare, i did something relatively unusual. i took 10 months off.

>> excellent. >> and i just started playing again a couple of weeks ago. >> so tune in tomorrow to see how brian does. in the meantime, with unions getting their revenge on g.o.p. lawmakers for supporting governor scott walker of wisconsin's collective bargaining bill by banning them from a local parade. but the mayor in wisconsin where the par says not so fast. if republicans are barred, he will with hold the public funding for the event. >> joining us on the phone is the mayor, good morning. >> good morning. >> all right. so you have a plan in effect, too. you say hey, if you're going to do that, i'm going to do this. tell me about it. >> exactly. you know, our whole point here is we've sponsored the parade so many years anded this year should be no exception. when we got wind this last weekend that they were going to exclude certain groups, we said, you know, it needs to be an inclusive or we are not going to fund the parade. >> when you heard they were going to exclude all

republicans, what did you think? >> i just thought that this was absurd. i thought, you know, it's not certainly a fair thing. it's a community event. everybody comes out and loves the parade and to exclude a group was wrong and it flies against our public policy. >> sure. so you have taken action on their action. here's what the president of the labor council on not inviting the g.o.p. lawmakers. he tries to justify it saying it should come as no surprise that organizers choose not to invite elected officials who have openly attacked workers' rights or stood idly by while their political party look to strip their workers of the right to collectively bargain. does that make you change your mind? >> no, this is a whole byproduct of the february-march. >> this was all because of the walkout and what happened. the governor wanted to take away collective bargaining for the union members and the democratic lawmakers left the state.

now this is maybe a payback. what have you heard from them? what's latest? are they listening to what you're saying? >> i was hoping to hear something yesterday. i heard last night around 10:00 they would be issuing a statement within 12 hours. i still haven't heard anything. >> if they don't invite the republicans, no parade, right because the city handles it is insurance and you handle the traffic. no republicans, no parade? >> the parade will still go on. they will fund it rather than using taxpayers funds from the city. >> we'll see if they'll go for that. >> hope you have a parade. >> thanks so much. have a great day. >> you as well. >> meanwhile, during the day she was a working mom with three kids. at night, a key informant for the government taking down the world's most dangerous terrorists. she's here live. >> how is this for a good deal? the government spent $20 million to create 14 jobs. now the president wants to create even more green jobs. stuart varney on that story next. [ female announcer ] so you think your kids are getting enough vegetables?

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more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get 12 months special financing on carpet purchases >> welcome back. the effects of hurricane irene far from over. in new jersey, the passaic river crested again bringing even more flooding and even more evacuations. hi hernandez of our affiliate wnyw is in wallington, new jersey with the latest. it's still a mess, isn't it? >> good morning, steve. not only did they get walloped, when they took their stuff out to dry, you can see here folks emptied out their basements and first floor stories here to dry everything out. they got noticed yesterday that they had to evacuate by 6:00 p.m. because the water was coming yet again and you can see how saturated all this stuff is because even the garbage got

confrontation with the water here. passaic. 10:00 last night in high tide. and with would hope would start drying in the sun. it doesn't look like everybody heeded the evacuation. there are some people here this morning. it's not great. sewage system is backed up and not a great place to be right now but, of course, i don't blame these folks for not wanting to leave their home after being through so much. >> can't cut a break. brian kilmeade, over to you and that guy. stuart varney. >> who will be nameless. president obama said that going green would jump-start the struggling economy. but after the federal government spent millions for green jobs across the country, the program has struggled to create many of those jobs seen here. now, got a $20 million to weatherize homes in seattle and

they've created 14 homes and have a few homes weatherized. where is the money? when will it stop being spent on programs like that? stuart varney, we say this because it's just the beginning, you understand. >> yes, it is. next week when the president announces his job creation program, it's going to contain a big element of green jobs. "the washington post" reports that it will taken proposals for environmentally friendly construction and green energy tax credits. last night in las vegas at harry reid's clean energy summit, vice president joe biden joining the call for more spending on green jobs. but this example of seattle and other cities, it doesn't work for heaven's sakes. it just doesn't work. government projects like this are politicized and heavily bureaucratic. in seattle, they have to pay these weatherizing of homes contractors. they had to pay the laborers $21 per hour plus benefits plus a pension. that's the -- that's a living

wage in seattle. and a government project has to pay that. so it's inevitably politicized and bureaucratic and spending $20 million gives you 14 jobs and weatherize three houses. we want more of the same? this is incredible. >> while the e.p.a. and the other track is strangling oil projects across the country and that is not looking -- not helping the unemployment problem. here's what the energy department says. while communities are advancing their programs at different rates, we are pleased with the progress in implementing the better buildings neighborhood program. >> look, we keep doing this. we keep promoting green energy, wind and solar. in the face of the failure of those projects. we beat up on oil and coal which are going to be around for another generation. we beat it up and we discourage job creation there. this is not the way to go. >> you know, you see governor cuomo, for example, he's going for the natural gas and there's a lot of democrats who are jumping off this bandwagon. but because it doesn't make fiscal sense, they have to all

balance their books. we'll watch varney & company at 9:20? >> yes, more on the affirmative action for ugly people program. >> unbelievable. rick perry making it clear he is no dummy, the presidential candidate firing back at the headline but something he says is really dumb, the president should listen to this. also -- by day, she's a supermom. but by night, she's a terrifying patriot. now, she's talking about how she helped the f.b.i. find more than 300 dangerous terrorists. now, when you want powerful wifi, you've got it.

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>> welcome back, everyone. the 9/11 terror attacks struck a chord among so many americans and so many others signal a call to action.

one of those people was shannon rossmiller. imagine this. she's a former judge and mom in montana minding her own business but then she transformed herself into a cyber spy who infiltrated global terror networks from her home computer. she shares her fascinating story in "the unexpected patriot" her new book "how an ordinary american mom is bringing terrorism to justice." she joins us now from our d.c. bureau. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> i understand we just described, you were just a regular mom going to school and spending time during the day as a judge. what made you stumble into these chat rooms after 9/11? >> well, i was affected by 9/11 like a lot of other people but i was looking for a way to just really try to understand the whole terrorism phenomenon and what had happened on 9/11 and i came across a news story that talked about terrorist chatter and web sites. >> you taught yourself arabic on line.

you took classes. you eventually use the on-line aliases to lure and catch foreign and domestic targets. you personally are credited with more than 200 actionable captures for the united states government? >> well, that number is really not actual captures. there's information cases and then there's cases involving persons of interest so it's a combination of all of those that really compromises that number. >> so your family didn't even know about it. your husband finds out that you're doing this because your whole computer crashes from a terrorist wiping out your personal computer. and then the story really goes public in 2004, tell us about what happened with the washington state guardsmen and what you did to help capture this person. >> well, specialist brian anderson was -- he had converted to islam after 9/11. and he gradually became radicalized and decided to try to reach out to al-qaida as he was starting his deployment to

iraq. and so luckily, he ran into me instead of a real al-qaida and from there, i just did a communication case with him that ultimately led to his conviction. there was another case in 2007, the reynolds case, you helped to bring that person down. it's interesting because you talk about the fact that you don't have any regrets about getting involved in -- but you have personal regrets. what are they? >> i don't regret the work i've done but as far as personal regrets, you know, the whole process of everything i've done has been taxing on me personally with my family and my health. it was kind of like a catch 22 between doing what i knew was the right thing to do and then the pressure of everything that fell upon it. >> personally your work has led to three assassination attempts. your marriage has fallen apart. why write the book? >> i've had lots of media interviews over the years resulteding -- which started from the anderson case in 2004

but i never really had a chance to really talk about how the whole process affected me and what it meant to me and so writing the book really gave me an opportunity to start that process of explaining why i did what i did and why it's important and how it ultimately affected me. >> shannon rossmiller is the author "the unexpected patriot." you're still in this line of business. i know you're a private consultant and you continue to do this work. i can only imagine how you're feeling as we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11. thanks so much for your time. good luck with the book. >> thank you very much. >> amazing story. coming up on our show, a pop quiz for you, break out your pen and paper, what costs more? putting your kid in daycare or putting your kids through college? we'll do the math with you. and a majority of americans think government is just too big and it spends too much money. guess what the administration is proposing. seven new federal regulations for a billion dollars a year. "fox and friends" will be right back.

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>> top of the morning to you. it's wednesday, hope you're going to have a fantastic day. it's the last day of august today, the 31st. i'm gretchen carlson. this morning, we asked where are the jobs? >> i've got things right now in -- before congress that we should move immediately. next week, i will be laying out a series of steps that congress can take immediately. >> two different years, two different speeches with the exact same message and the exact same results. we have 9.1% unemployment. so when will the president actually lay out its plan? it's coming, folks. >> all right, rick perry making it clear he is no dummy. the presidential candidate firing back at the headline with something he really says is dumb. >> that's right. >> meanwhile, james bond can finally buy that aston marten,

the reason he just won $6.5 million in the lotto. wow! "fox and friends" starts right now. >> you got to hear about that james bond thing. you're wondering which of those guys that played james bond because the actual james bond doesn't exist so he couldn't really win $6.5 million, right? >> that's a good tease. something that's going to happen tomorrow is brian is going to play golf with president george w. bush and he just got an e-mail from somebody who knows a few things about golf. they're a little worried for him tomorrow. >> greg norman just the legendary golfer just saw my golf swing and he said oh, my god. what did i just watch? is that a golf swing? oh, my god. you have work to do. >> i have 24 hours. >> there you go. and that's -- >> the pressure is on from the shark. >> it's incredible. >> maybe we could dress greg

norman up in a suit that looks like brian kilmeade. >> we are twins. >> more on that in a moment. first for the headlines on this wednesday. latest on the aftermath from hurricane irene. blackhawk helicopters delivering much needed supplies to people in vermont. more than a dozen towns cut off because the roads and bridges are completely washed out. now, let's head over to new jersey where several towns near the passaic river are being evacuated because of all the flooding there. some people have to be rescued for their homes by boat. >> i know the people in the communities have dealt with something like this before but this is the worst that any of them have seen. i saw extraordinary despair. >> hurricane irene now blamed for 49 deaths. a man accused of murdering two u.s. airmen at frankfurt airport back in march just made its first appearance in a german court. in a court statement, he confessed to killing the airmen in cold blood and he said he was influenced by radical muslim propaganda and he wanted to

prevent anymore u.s. soldiers from going to afghanistan. zachary kubak and nicholas alden died in that attack. brand new report released overnight finds despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars on security since the september 11th attacks, there are still major gaps in the government's ability to prevent and respond to a terror strike. the former heads of the 9/11 commission say that the nation's ability to detect explosives hidden on passengers boarding planes "lacks reliability." that's not good news for us. well, the latest lotto winner, none other than james bond! >> bond. james bond. >> ok, he may not be the real 007 but james bond jr. from indiana, ken, add a few more zeros to his name now. bond won $6.5 million in the lottery. forget about being any aston mortens. this bond says he'll use the cash to invest in his construction business.

all right. >> i'm sure he was shaken, not stirred. >> that's a good point. i know you heard the president of the united states on his bus tour say when i'm done with vacation, i'm going to have a major jobs plan and you're saying to yourself, where have i heard this before? why would someone say something like that? >> exactly right. as it turns out, with the president of the united states saying i will announce my jobs plan that congress will act on after my martha's vineyard vacation, he actually has not only been saying it in the last month or so, he said it exactly one year ago. listen to this. let's get in the way back machine and go to nbc a year ago. >> we had anticipated that the recovery was slowing, the economy is still growing but it's not growing as fast as it needs to. i got things right now in -- before congress that we should move immediately and i've said so before i went on vacation and i'll keep on saying it now that i'm back. we should be passing legislation that helps small businesses get credit.

that eliminates capital gains taxes so they have more incentive to invest right now. there are a whole host of measures that we could take, no single element of which is a magic bullet but cumulatively can start continuing to build momentum for the recovery. >> and those were the key words during that speech last year. the magic bullet. remember, we heard that then more specifically from the president's spokesperson for weeks afterwards. that look, there's not just one thing that the president can do to cure our economy. well, what's interesting now is that things have gotten worse in the next year, unemployment higher or the same and so now the president really has to come up with the more comprehensive plan, see if you can hear anything different a year later. >> next week, i will be laying out a series of steps that congress can take immediately to put more money in the pockets of working families and middle class families to make it easier for small businesses to hire

people. to put construction crews to work rebuilding our nation's roads and railways and airporteds. -- airports and all the other measures that can help to grow this economy. >> sounds like groundhog's day 2011, doesn't it? this is a green administration. they're just recycling exactly the same thing they said one year ago today. >> last year, we were going on have the momentum from recovery summit that never happened and now we have this year where it's much more serious and he does have the deficit commission conclusions to work off of. we sit there and say i'm going to take the first five and one of this could be and i think everyone agrees cutting corporate taxes could bring a lot of that foreign money in. he could name five things, i believe, quickly that republicans and democrats could agree on. maybe now we'll have a much more serious, less political attempt. >> so optimistic, brian. >> you hate that. >> i don't hate it. i just don't always think that it's going to pan out that way. >> how did it pan out last year? you know, he was talking about ok, wait until after my vacation and he was talking about taxes for small businesses.

one of the proposals he made in that earlier sound bite was to eliminate the capital gains taxes on small businesses, that did not make it through congress. even though the democrats held both houses at that time. eventually, they tack on something similar to the bush tax cut extension and that did pass. otherwise, we would have forgotten all about it. >> one thing we know for sure in his five point plan coming out in the next few days, he'll ask for more stimulus money. that's part of it. he's laid that out for more construction crews, he wants to put them back to work. for sure, that's not going to pass the house so we'll be at gridlock again so that's why i say to brian that i love your optimism but i just don't know, you know, are politicians really going to come together on this and should they? that's the bigger question. >> ok, the thing that's going to be much help for the president right now, nl only is he going to deal with the congress that he has but dealing with people that want his job. one of which is governor perry responding to a political story which headline was -- i believe

the headline said is rick perry dumb? he was asked about that on sean hannity's radio show. >> here's what he said. he told sean what's dumb is to oversee an economy that has lost many millions of jobs. he also accused the president who remember, once upon a time in a previous job was a law professor as relying too much on academics. he says, regarding the people, there's the politico, that leftie web site's headline a couple of days ago, is rick perry dumb? he says that the president has surrounded himself with too many, well, academics. i was going to say eggheads. that would be inappropriate. they are intellectually very smart but he does not have wise men and wise women around him. he has listened to all the academics around him. plenty of smart people but nobody who has wisdom. >> i think a lot of people thought maybe the president would not choose an academic to be his chief person on the economic council in the last couple of days because they thought, hey, he really needs to

reach out to the business world and specifically wall street and get somebody in there who has actually had real life experience running a business or running a bank. but he chose not to do that. and the minute i saw that on vacation, i thought wow, this is going to be another thorn in the side of all the people who are running small businesses or down on wall street because they just don't feel like he's in it for them. >> and that's exactly, i believe, why mitt romney included that his theme, in a speech he had yesterday in texas. he talked about career politicians. >> in texas? >> in texas, he did not name governor perry specifically but governor perry has spent a lifetime in politics but here is mitt romney going after what he think is the main problem in washington. now, i'm a conservative businessman. i spent most of my life outside politics. dealing with real problems in the real economy. career politicians got us into this mess and they simply don't know how to get us out. >> so by saying career

politicians, is he skewering mr. perry? well, according to a news item that's out today, apparently, the mitt romney plan had been to engage mr. perry going forward after labor day and in particular, during the television debates that are upcoming. but apparently, they're going to accelerate things particularly over the next couple of days, over the labor day weekend, mr. romney is going to be on television a whole lot more than they had planned and look for more shots of career politicians. >> what's the most significant thing that mitt romney is doing? joining senator jim demint's conference who is one of the -- >> which he wasn't going to go to. >> leaders of the tea party, kept himself on the outside while saying nice things. he has essentially said i'm going to texas one day and the next day, i'm going to senator jim demint's conference. that's a change of strategy. >> it's game on! >> i think that's the first tea party event that he will actually be at. >> right, he'll need a nametag. >> he won't know who everybody is. >> are you ready to take a little quiz? i know it's still the summertime and we don't want to do any

school work yet. guess what? it will be easy. what's more? putting your kid in daycare or putting your kid through college. i know you think you know the answer. we'll do the math with you. >> he says unemployment benefits won't help the economy but his new boss does not agree. so will president obama actually listen to his new economic advisor? that guy right there screen left. our political panel is about to weigh in! good morning, jay leno. >> president obama has chosen princeton labor economist alan krueger as the new white house economist. krueger is considered an expert on unemployment. you know, these days a lot of people are experts on unemployment. ok? how about getting a guy who is an expert on employment. why don't we get that guy? that's the guy we need. have i got a surprise for you! [ barks ]

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>> hi, president obama set to

unveil his economic plan next week and the president is planning to exclude an extension in unemployment benefits that the white house says will help put people back to work. just one problem, his new economic advisor, alan krueger said in a paper he co-authored in 2002, it proves that unemployment benefits actually exacerbates jobless benefits. here to join us, former new mexico governor gary johnson is here, dr. deborah howser is here, chairman of the no labels women league and david webb is here, founder of the tea party 365 and radio talk show host. first off, governor, your feeling about a guy that you nominated going against the plan you're about to release. >> you know, as governor of new mexico, i actually vetoed legislation that was going to extend unemployment benefits believing, just believing that a person will deal with their problems when they have to as opposed to prolonging that.

by extending unemployment benefits, it's my feeling that you were going to put off decision making that the sooner you made those decisions, the better and that was where you were going to take your life. it turns out studies will show the same thing. from a common sense standpoint, you know, when you're receiving unemployment benefits, the longer you receive those unemployment benefits, the longer you go without making those hard choices. >> as a psychologist, that's your forte. is it true if people have a cushion? there's no urgency? >> i don't think people like to be unemployed. particularly now in a recession, people are very unhappy without having a job. it has obvious financial implications and psychological implications so i think the safety net of unemployment benefits is all well and good but the real issue is about whether or not we're going to be able to create jobs. >> that's true. that's what this is about.

do you think it's credible if he creates something that a new guy against? >> i looked into his history and i called him a paul krugman jr. in his approach. >> the award winning columnist. >> and he says this in his 2002 paper about the empirical evidence that shows what the governor said, by the way, backed up by much -- by real data out there. responsibility and accountability. people will be forced to make decisions also economically, we're removing wealth from one sector of the economy to pay for another. that's bad in the aggregate of the economy of not only the state but of the nation. so will he become the president's man or focus on real economic solutions? that's the challenge for alan krueger. >> preceding that, you'll have a big economic speech from john

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>> now some news by the numbers. first, 18,200 bucks. that's how much it costs parents in washington, d.c. for daycare each year. you got to be kidding me. that is more expensive than a year of public college in some instances. next, $578. that's how much a 42 inch led screen tv will likely cost you by year's end. that's cheaper than one of those little ipads.

put this all in perspective. final lly 8,868, that's how man tweets were sent out per second after beyonce showed off her baby bump at the video music awards. twitter says it's a social media record. now back to kilmeade and friends. >> with battle over government regulation set to take center stage in one week. president obama sent speaker john boehner yesterday a list of seven new government regulations he is considering that are projected to cost billions of dollars. so with this economy struggling is this a smart move by the president? our political panel, i ask you that question. dr. howser, time for more regulation. will that help wake things up? >> it will take a balanced approach, that it's important that we do two things. one that we -- that we know what the regulations are. obviously, the lack of regulations led us, you know, into a global recession but yet, american people need to know how

much things cost. so i'd advocate for transparency. >> you're running for president, let's take a look at these regulations. you know what regulations can cost and also the good they could do. do you think this is the time for the e.p.a. to start factoring in, for example, regulations that are going to cost a lot of money? >> so brian, i can't make this up but the candidate running for president that has the best record on jobs is me. google it. and what i did and what i said in response to that is i didn't create a single job in new mexico. government doesn't create jobs. the private sector does. i vetoed so many bills that business went to bed at night knowing that the business environment was not going to get any worse. and don't underestimate the ability to control rules and regulations which is what i did because i controlled all the agencies, i controlled all the boards and the commissions and there's a common sense that the president could bring to bear on all these rules and regulations when the reality is pointed out by what you're saying is just

the opposite. he's letting the bureaucrats take over as opposed to leading and saying look, let's have common sense prevail here. >> right. maybe it's time to put things on hold. now i look at the economic reality, if i put that in, i'm afraid it will strangle the economy. and as you walk, let's look at some of the regulations that will be factored in. not good news for the energy division. >> not only that but by the way, always say never, you're wrong. it wasn't lack of regulations that led to what happened in america, it was lack of enforcement. we have current regulations. this is a president who said i'm going to fundamentally transform america. he has a set ideology of a centralized government control. if he wants legislation by fiat, if i can't get it through congress, i'll up the e.p.a.'s budget by up to 85% in some areas and let them go to town. there's no economic benefit to the governor's points for a company to destroy the environment but there is a

benefit to keeping a safe environment, all americans, all sides, all companies. we can take care of the bad actors with enforcement but $19 billion, a billion a year and over long term, up to $90 billion legislative costs. costs of agencies. this is a president who either is so bent on his ideology that he's willing to kill our need for recovery, unemployment at the expense of his ideology. >> i think he would do anything to turn the economy around, don't you, gary? >> like i say, you can make this actually a better environment as opposed to a worst environment. and that's the -- that's the rub here is that it isn't dependent on congress. don't underestimate the president's power to do this administratively and that's my experience coming as governor of new mexico. >> ok. which you are. and presidential candidate. former governor gary johnson, dr. deborah howser, david webb. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> coming up straight ahead, there's english and there's spanish and there's this.

>> all right. new york's mayor bloomberg's version of spanglish getting a following all his own and he loves it. and if you can't afford college, you're not alone. but if you don't have to dig yourself into debt to do it. dave ramsey here to explain how to go to school without student loans. hi, anne.

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where do you want to go? just drive. [ engine revs, tires screech ] mom? ♪ >> time for a shot of the morning. a california woman blaming american airlines for letting her cat out of the bag. literally. karen pasco says baggage handlers at new york's j.f.k. airport lost her pet cat jack about a week ago. well, now she's launching a facebook page urging the airline to take responsibility and to find jack as soon as possible. if you have seen that cat, contact american airlines. >> right. >> i have a little problem with you. we already chose our shot of the day. who are you to come in and choose a shot of the day? >> let me say this. that was the shot of the hour. >> thank you!

>> please clarify. >> we have a new one each hour. >> yes. >> is that what the way it works? >> he keeps naming a shot of the day. it makes me feel bad. >> maybe this story will pick up yier spirits because if you try to speak a little spanish and you don't do so well, you'll feel better after you hear the mayor of new york trying to speak a little spanish. now, ok, we're not piling it on bloomberg because he did get an a for effort but listen to his attempt at telling the folks about the hurricane. >> make sure windows and doors leading to the outside are closed, if you have a fireplace in your home, please close the damper. turn off any propane tanks, and move to a room with as few windows as possible and ride out the storm there. let me summarize very briefly in spanish. [speaking spanish] >> right. >> the guys behind him. did you see the guy --

>> kelly just put his head down like oopsy. >> "the l.a. times" describes when he speaks spanish as earnest but painful. somebody who has been watching is a woman from new york by the name of rachel and she started a twitter feed where she has now spirit of the mayor speaking spanish called el bloombito and here are some of el bloombito's tweets. hola, newo yorko. >> i have a friend that does impressions and he would get a kick out of this story. here's another tweet. el hurricaneo esta mucho worse. no es cute. remanido where tu are locatedo? >> stay awayo rivero.

no el rescue. so far this particular woman has got 14,000 twitter followers and she has one fan in the mayor himself. he was asked about her and she -- he said he was a fan. >> i have a feeling he's going to get a translator next time. >> he's got one. he just doesn't use it. >> maybe he's trying to save tax dollars or something like that. let's tell you about this. labor secretary for the united states of america, i'm probably not saying it right, signed a partnership with foreign kun countries now to protect the rights of legal and illegal immigrant workers so it's a little convuluted because on their own web site, it says illegal immigration is illegal. now she's saying they should be here to work and get a legal wage. >> this is the u.s. department of labor, supposed to worry

about the u.s. laborers, right? she did sign these agreements with a number of latin american countries to protect not only legal but illegal and one of the things she said was that all migrant workers possess a right to a legal wage. she goes on. no matter how you got here or how long you plan to stay, you have certain rights. you have the right to be safe and in a healthy workplace and the right to a legal wage. >> right. >> you're entitled to that? >> here the thing. this is the third piece of big legislation for immigration to come down in the last month and it seems to me something -- i'm smelling election season. >> remember -- >> last week, we were talking about how the federal government had come out with regulations for sheep herders, remember? and goat herders. where if you got people who do migrant work and they tend your flock, you've got to have all sorts of standards of living that are up to snuff that have never been on the books before

which obviously are going to cost the farmers a whole bunch more money. >> and life without goat herders, goats would be everywhere if it wasn't for goat herders. we salute you wherever you are and get some rest. >> couple of other stories making headlines for your wednesday so far. as much as 60 billion bucks of your tax dollars lost to waste and fraud in iraq and afghanistan? that according it a report from the commission on wartime contracting, it's being released to congress this morning so the losses blamed on lax oversight of contractors, poor planning and corruption. some other recommendations, the creation of an inspector general now to monitor contracting, brian? >> an 8-year-old girl in iowa cannot receive $150,000 in social security benefits. her mother says she's entitled to receive. she was born two years after her dad died from leukemia because of in vitro fertilization technology. but a federal appeals court says she doesn't qualify for benefits

because out of date state laws never considered a situation like hers before. the case is likely headed for the supreme court. >> meanwhile, atf chief kenneth melson demoted for his role in the government's fast and furious program. the botched initiative designed to track gun sales south of the border put thousands of firearms in the hands of mexican gang members instead. and one of those guns killed u.s. border patrol agent brian terry. house oversight committee chairman darrell issa says his demotion does not solve the problem. it's still there! >> brian terry's family, his mother and siblings, they've never gotten a fair recognition of who is responsible. there are people who were part of the chain of those weapons that ultimately killed brian terry who have not been charged with any crime of this magnitude. >> mr. issa says he will continue to investigate the program until it's dismantled for good. >> hawkeye the dog who famously

laid by his master's casket at his funeral is expected to lead the iowa hawkeye football team on to the field this season. hawkeye belonged to navy seal john tumelson, a native of rockford, iowa, he was one of 30 servicemen killed when their chopper was shot down in afghanistan on august 5th. now the university of iowa planning to honor that navy seal by using his dog, hawkeye. >> that's great. >> meanwhile, tuition costs are soaring and savings are dwindling. now with kids heading back to school this time of year, parents are asking themselves, how are we going to pay for college without going into debt? and this is good news for me because i now have two kids in college. >> and joining us now is personal finance expert dave ramsey with all of the answers, as he always does on wednesday. good to see you, dave. >> good to be here, thanks for having me. >> all right. so we've been doing this little quiz today, pop quiz for people out there. even though it's still summer break. do you spend more on daycare or

spend more on college? what's the answer? >> well, daycare is awfully expensive and it is every day and usually there's a lot of kids involved rather than one kid. so i don't know that that's exactly going to be a fair comparison. the average public university right now $7600 a year tuition only. now, you'd have dorm and books and other costs in addition to that. and the average private is running $27,000, about four times as much. >> right. >> ok, so we've got some e-mail from folks who have some questions. but first, here is dave, debt-free college plan graduating without a loan. first of all, apply for scholarships and grants. most kids have already done that, haven't they, at the behest of their parents? >> most of them apply for three or four. i suggest you apply for 300 or 400. it's the law of large numbers. a lot of these are $1,000 or $1,200. my son got a $500 one so what you need to do is just apply for a whole bunch and actually, you

can end up going to a public university free if you do that. >> work your way through google and find out where they are and how to get it. ok. >> absolutely. >> all right. think local. think, i guess, your local groups and your local town. encourage your students to work and live on campus and eat dorm food. so don't live off campus, it costs more. and dorm food might be tough to stomach but just swallow it and shut up. >> well, at $7600 a year plus the dorm, plus the bad dorm food, plus some used textbooks, you can go through school right now for about $12,000 or $13,000 a year. that's about $1,000, $1500 a month and you can make that delivering pizzas so the idea that you can't work your way through college like you used to in the old days is absurd. you actually can. >> still put on the freshman 15 even if you eat the dorm food. >> 20 minutes from now, we've got dick cheney on. he got a full ride scholarship to yale and one of the provisions was he had to work in the cafeteria and he did just that.

while he was at yale. >> all right. let's do an e-mail from david in colorado because he wants to pick dave ramsey's brain. we have not had the success with our educational savings account that we had hoped. we are afraid to pour any more money into it. our freshmen will start college in four years. where should we put additional monthly savings going forward? good question. >> well, if your esa was invested in good growth stock mutual funds, it's been a wild ride because you've been riding this crazy stock market from 2008 and from this summer as well. i wouldn't become disillusioned, though, you have four whole years to go, that's a long time in the stock market world so i would continue to invest assuming you're in good mutual funds that have long track records that are good. if the current market is what shook you up, then keep investing. >> andrea from connecticut asks you, we had the money to pay for all of our children's college and related expenses, but we don't want to. we want them to learn how to work and grow through this experience. how much should we actually contribute to their college experience without spoiling

them? >> wow, what a wonderful problem to have. you have done a great job of actually saving for college! very few people do that. and so you don't necessarily spoil them if you pay for their education. you can require other things in their life that indicate character. that's what we did with our kids. they saved up and bought their first car as an example. that kind of a thing. then when they went to college, they were on a budget. they had to do the grades and they had to behave. that was their part and then we were able to pay for college. so it doesn't necessarily spoil them but it doesn't hurt them to work either. work is a good four-letter word. >> sure. dave, real quick, what about the people who say i've got money in my 401k, should i use my retirement money for college? >> no, you can't! you're going to get taxed and penalized on it as if you had pulled it out for something else. leave that money alone. make the kid work. get the scholarships, go to the less expensive school that fits your budget. put all of those things together and you can do college these days without debt but you have to make different choices.

>> you know, by the way, gretchen and i have kids that are going to be in college, one in three years and you a while. can we go to the ramsey school of student loans and get something under the table? >> under the table? >> 2% interest? >> i think that would be a new picture of the day. >> that would be a new shot of the day. >> first step is to get dave's books for kids which i have. thanks so much. see you again next week. >> thanks, guys! >> all right, coming up next, americans came together after 9/11 giving millions to charities to help our country in its darkest hours. it seems millions of donations never made it to their intended destination. peter johnson jr. with a closer look. >> then we just mentioned this. vice president dick cheney is coming up in 18 minutes. he's here to talk about his new memoir. his time in several white houses and what's happening in the current white house as well. put down the clicker. >> dick cheney, if you're here, if you can play the trivia question of the day. at usaa, we believe honor is not

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>> this fox news alert. you're looking right now in north texas. it's up in flames right now. you're taking a look live at a picture in texas where at least 20 homes torched. strong winds and dry conditions fueling the flames. no word of what sparked it. but we will follow it. gretch? >> wow. ok, thank you very much, brian. after the september 11th terror attacks, america forked over big bucks to charities helping victims and their families. 325 9/11 related charities were established but can you be sure that your money is being used ultimately in the right way? joining me now is fox news legal analyst peter johnson jr. good morning to you. so $1.5 billion from america. >> and maybe even more according to another study. what's disturbing now is that

the attorney general in the state of arizona, the attorney general in the state of new york are investigating certain 9/11 charities with regard to their conduct because some of these charities, according to the associated press, were spending more on salaries and expenses than they were to distribute to worthy 9/11 causes like memorials, like family members, like survivors, that kind of thing so in fact, in the state of arizona, they're looking at one organization that raised more than 700,000 dollars for a giant memorial quilt. the problem is that they took the money but there isn't a giant memorial quilt. and so that's a real, real question going forward. >> it's not just that one particular charity. there's a whole big list. >> there's a whole big list according to the associated press. >> as we come upon the 10th anniversary of 9/11, many people are probably wondering wow, how many people were actually helped through all of that money. one of the things you want to do

today is bring out some tips for people in general when they want to give money. >> i think it's really important when you want to give money whether it's to a 9/11 charity and that's really important especially as we mark the occasion in just a few days but any charity at all, people need to look up and see whether that's a good charity to give or not. and there's some easy ways to do it. so let's look at the full screen on that. one of the ways to do it is so look at the national charity report. and make a determination about whether, in fact, that's a real charity. the second way is check something called guide star.org. that's kind of a repository of nationally recognized irs charitable organizations. contact the charity itself in order to get their reports and their financial guidelines. also, visit irs.gov and consult what's called publication 78.

publication 78 is the list of certified 501c3's meaning designated charitable organizations. better business bureau has got a list of at least 500 national charities. and then look at the annual reports of the charities and contact your local state attorney general. it's wrong that we have memorial quilts that aren't being put together, it's wrong that people under the guise of that great tragedy are collecting money and not paying it out. they will pay the piper, i predict that there will be indictments of certain organizations as a result of what's gone on. it's really wrong. >> all right. peter johnson jr., thanks so much for that advice. >> good to see you. >> coming up next, the tea party coming under attack again. this time the congressional black caucus is after them. what does tea party backed congressman and member of the black caucus alan west think? he'll join us with his thoughts. first in history, aerosmith had

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>> richard gere is the answer to the trivia question of the day. who knew that? janice gross in jackson, mississippi, congratulations. we're going to send her something real nice. meanwhile, the congressional black caucus has been complaining loudly that they were tired of waiting on the president to fix the poor jobs market but now, they are blaming the media for trying to divide

them. >> the way that it's been covered, frankly, has pissed me off, excuse my language. because they always want to see us divided, the congressional black caucus is very clear who we want to see in the white house in the next four years. and we're not going to let them divide us. >> she's talking about the media there. but is this just another attempt to distract voters from a struggling economy under president obama who promised jobs? joining us right now to weigh in is republican florida congressman allen west. good morning to you, congressman. >> good morning, steve, how are you doing? >> i'm doing fine. thank you very much. we've heard a lot from the congressional black caucus a couple of weeks ago, maxine waters said that the tea party members can go straight to hell. then this that we just played. what's going on with them? >> well, i think that what you see is a desire to not recognize some of the serious problems

that are in the black community when you understand that the black unemployment rate is 16% with black teens, you have an unemployment rate close to 40%. you see what's happening in philadelphia with the unrest in these flash mobs and to try to all of a sudden have a scapegoat called the tea party which is what you saw after the s&p downgrade, that became the liberal media talking point, that's just a distraction. the tea party really stands for some basic core constitutional principles and that means efficient constitutionally mandated government, fiscally responsible government, national security and our free market and free enterprise and i can't see why anyone would not want to agree with that and align themselves with those principles. >> congressman, i want to play a soundbite for you. this was taken down in miami, florida, your state. it's a democrat by the name of andre carson. he is from indiana and he takes aim at you and others. listen.

>> oh, my. what's your message to congressman carson? >> well, i think that we heard the president talk about some of this over the top rhetoric and we should move away from that. when you start using words such as lynching, i was born and raised in georgia and my folks were from southern georgia, born in the 1920's and 1930's, that's a very reprehensible word and we should move away from using that type of language and i have to tell you, one of the things i'm starting to think about is reconsidering my membership in the congressional black caucus because i don't think that they're moving towards the right manner in which we're going to solve the problems not just in the black community but all across the united states of america. >> i can understand that. congressman allen west, thank

you very much for joining us today from the beautiful city. have a great week. >> thank you. >> straight ahead, are the teachers unions to blame for the trouble with our schools? coming up, the former mayor of new york city who knows first hand what it's like to deal with those unions. adrian fenty here with the inside perspective and former vice president of the united states of america, dick cheney right there. he's in the green room and will join us on the curvy couch unless brian scares him off. right back. looking good! you lost some weight. you noticed! these clothes are too big, so i'm donating them. how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios... five whole grains, 110 calories. not a mammal in this household isilling to lay claim to its origin. but now is not the time for blame. now is the time for action. ♪call 1-800-steemer.

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>> gretchen: top of the morning to you. it's the last day of august today, the 31st. i'm gretchen carlson. he's worked with some of the most powerful men in the world, even holding one of the nation's highest offices himself. what does former vice president dick cheney think of the current admission? that's a loaded question. the former vp live with us seconds away. >> steve: it's been almost ten years since september 11 changed

america forever. so why does a new report show there are still security gaps that could expose our country to an attack? we'll detail that straight ahead. >> brian: it's a fact, pretty people make more money. so should ugly people get special protection from the federal government? >> steve: are you looking at me? >> brian: i apologize. the professor who says yes will join us live. "fox & friends" starts right now >> gretchen: good morning, everyone. hope you're having a great wednesday, especially if you're still picking up from the storm. >> steve: we got a great guest. he's sitting right next to us, he's on the curvy couch. the former vice president, first visit. you ready? >> i'm ready. >> steve: all right. interview about his brand-new book called "in my time" with dick cheney in a minute after the headlines. >> gretchen: the latest, aftermath from hurricane irene, you're looking at brand-new

video, patterson, emergency in, the passaic river, overflowing after the rain. governor chris christie issued mandatory evacuation orders for several towns in the river basin late last night and it looks like he did it just in the nick of time. >> i know that people in the community visited fairfield and other areas dealt with something like this before, but this is the worst that any of them have seen. i saw just extraordinary despair. >> gretchen: also new this morning, u.s. blackhawk helicopters delivering much needed supplies in vermont. more than a dozen towns cut off because roads and bridges completely washed out. irene being blamed for nearly 50 deaths nationwide. brand-new report released finds despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars on security since september 11, there are still major gaps in the government's ability to prevent and respond to a terror strike. the former heads of the 9-11 commission say that the nation's ability to detect explosives hidden on passengers boarding

plane, quote, lacks reliability. a man accused of murdering two u.s. airmen in frankfort at the airport there back in march just made his first appearance in a german court. in a court statement, he confessed to killing the airmen in cold blood. he says he was influenced by readycal muslim propaganda and wanted to prevent any more u.s. soldiers from going to afghanistan. the two airmen died in the attack. general david petraeus retiring today from military service as he prepares to head the c.i.a. petraeus credited with turning around the iraq war and providing steadfast leadership in afghanistan. petraeus served in the army for 37 years. he becomes c.i.a. director on september 6, taking over for leon panetta. those are your headlines. >> brian: and now the author of "in my time," dick cheney, vice president of the united states. nice to have you here.

>> a pleasure to be here. >> brian: incredible job on this book, by the way. very comprehensive. good career, i might say. >> unplanned. >> brian: when we talk about it -- we want to look forward. governor rick perry, he's currently a front runner in the gop. you've been a stalwart with the gop for four decades. is he somebody you could see getting the nomination? >> i think so. i haven't signed on with anybody at this stage, haven't endorsed anybody. i expect i will support the republican nominee for president. i've been busy looking back at old elections doing the book rather than focusing on 2012, but i think we've got good candidates out there and i think president obama is going to have trouble getting reelected. >> gretchen: you know from looking back at the elections you've been a part of that things change at the drop of a dime. so we're all these months out. but what an interesting poll i want to you look at. check out what's happened since

rick perry came into the race. romney must be thinking, i got to change my strategy. we saw a glimpse of that yesterday. >> i think also it's important to recognize that polls at this early stage, polling population, only a very small portion of which is actually focused on the race. poll a year from now will be much more meaningful, i think, were it to show the same numbers than the polls today. >> steve: you lived in texas for four years. you know mr. perry a bit. there is something about him, is it the fact that he is very texan that has attracted a lot of people? >> i think so. i think i was always struck by the extent to which the rest of the country is attracted to texas and texas politicians. >> steve: things are big there! >> things are big there. and it is different. i was a citizen of texas for five years when i was running halliburton, enjoyed it very much. but there is a different feel to it. it's the west, the strong sense

of independence, and a little bit of arrogance maybe. >> brian: or confidence. >> those of us from wyoming think we're a little arrogant, too. >> gretchen: i loved living in texas, too. let's talk about afghanistan 'cause that was a huge part of you when you were vice president. august was the deadliest month for us over there. i'm interested in your thoughts about these trigger effects that may go into effect with pentagon cuts if the super committee cannot come up with $1.5 trillion in cuts. your response to that? >> i'm very worried about it. i think it's important for us not to lose sight of what our functions and responsibilities are for most for the federal government. there are some things that the states can do. some things that private sector can do. in the area of national defense and national security, that's the responsibility of the federal government. it's one of the most important functions mentioned in the constitution assigned to the president as commander and chief

and the congress and it's very important for us not to do serious long-term damage to our defense capabilities during the course of this budget exercise. i care like everybody else does about trying to get a handle on the deficit, reduce the debt, come up with a long-term plan, but i think we need to focus on a lot of those entitlement plans and not whack away at the defense budget now. you can't turn defense back on short notice. it takes years. the materials and the troops that we use in desert storm in '90 and 1991 had really been built in the early '80s during the reagan administration. ten years later, they were there when we needed them. but if we disarm ourselves seriously, really cut back in major ways, we'll end up doing serious long-term damage to our security capabilities. >> brian: didn't you witness this in your own career? as chief of staff when you took over as the defense secretary, there was a peace -- we don't

have to worry about the soviets and it could have been disasterous? >> look what happened after world war ii. one major war in the pacific and in europe and five years later, we had a terrible time in korea in the early days of that conflict because we totally dismantled the force in the meantime and hadn't made the investments that are needed to sustain that force over time. i don't mean to argue that we can't find savings in defense, i think we can. but it has to be done in a way that maintains the capability we're going to need in the years ahead. >> steve: sure. let's talk about the fact that we don't know exactly where moammar gadhafi is right now, even though we dropped a whole bunch of bombs on what we thought was his house. it sounds like the president of the united states will be using -- it's not a war. it's something going on in libya. use that as an example with other countries, how we can all work together. you know something about coalitions and going to the u.n. and congress. >> i'm cautious about coalitions

and this notion of leading from behind or sort of expecting somebody else to do it. the fact of the matter is, when difficult things have to be done in the world, it's usually the united states that leads them. we could not have put together the coalition for desert storm if it hadn't been for u.s. leadership and our willingness to step up, make commitments, commit the force and then go get others to sign on and be part of that. most of the time, nearly every situation we find out there over the last 40 or 50 years, it's been the united states that's provided the leadership. that hasn't changed. >> steve: what kind of frame would you give this libyan operation? >> i don't know enough about the internal dynamics. i think if they've gotten rid of gadhafi, which we don't know where he is, that's a major plus. if we have a good government come in behind that, maybe one committed to democracy and not full of radicals, that's a major plus. there is still a lot of questions. >> gretchen: my question to you, mr. vice president, is whether or not that will be an advantage

for this administration to say, look, we weren't the super power that took down libya, so we did this coalition effort, so maybe that's the way we should approach the world moving forward? >> i think that's a mistaken notion, that that's the solution to our problems, is we just lay back, say please, please, pretty please to everybody else out there, that somehow they'll step up, they'll provide the leadership. they'll take the casualties. there isn't anybody else who can do it long-term except the united states and i think that would be a mistake to take the libyan experience and now say that's a model you can follow in all crisis. >> brian: is it a reach to say the unrest in egypt, tunisia, syria, has a lot to do with what happened in iraq, letting those people, seeing those people vote and the arab community saying why not us? >> i think there may be some of that going on. again, it's so big and so complicated, that part of the world, i think we have to be careful to distinguish between the various countries. they've got their own cultures,

their own histories, their own political systems, and it's a mistake to sort of lump them all together. you really have to look at each one individually. but i think that what happened in iraq and the fact that we brought democracy, if you will, and freedom to iraq, i think clearly has had a ripple effect on some of those other countries. >> steve: we've been talking about the news of the day. we'd love to talk about your brand-new book "in my time," former vice president is sticking right here on the curvy couch for a couple more minutes and we'll get a little personal with you. we got pictures. >> pictures? >> gretchen: only the ones that are in the book. then sarah palin making another interesting move that signals a run for the white house now. we're going to tell you what her travel plans are, what does it say [ female announcer ] so you think your kids are getting enough vegetables? maybe not.

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>> steve: for nearly 40 years, our next guest has been one of the most influential figures in american politics. >> brian: he's now the former vice president, i'm talking about dick cheney. he's filling us in on the details of his new memoir. mr. vice president, you weren't always mr. vice president. you packed up, you were a student. you get over to washington and the first time you have a chance to meet donald rumsfeld he did not hire you. >> he threw me out of his office. >> brian: he wasn't impressed. you're the wrong guy. it was bill bradley that interviewed you who said that donald rumsfeld later on for a position that opened up, go with this guy, another princeton die. >> right. and a democrat. >> steve: you used to be a democrat. >> my family both sides were democrats. >> steve: what happened to you? >> i got started working for republicans. i had opportunity with republicans. but i had the experience of working in some programs like wage price controls, like the antipoverty program where government was trying to do good

things and messing them up. >> brian: lbj to nixon, right? >> exactly. in the nixon administration, we learned trying to run the economy with a huge bureaucracy and a lot of rules did more damage than it did good when it came time to fight inflation. you had to let private markets work. they produced a miracle of the american economy and those kinds of experiences moved me in a pretty conservative direction. >> gretchen: what i love about the book is that you also talk about failures in life and how you can always learn from those and become a greater person. one of the most -- the best decisions i guess you made in your life was hooking up with your wife, right? >> no question about it. >> gretchen: she took your offering to on a date. she was the homecoming queen and you were the class president. correct? >> uh-huh. >> gretchen: and all these years later, what has been the most important part of staying together with your wife this long? >> we just celebrated two days ago our 47th wedding anniversary. >> steve: congratulations. >> it's been a remarkable time.

part of it is that when you share that much time together and raise a family, two daughters, seven grandchildren, go through all of the experiences we've gone through, we came to washington to stay 12 months and stayed 40 years, it solidifies those relationships. i can't think of anything significant that happened in my life that lynn wasn't part of. and she's been a fantastic partner in everything from my career to looking after me when i had been very sick, as i have been a couple of times in recent years. >> steve: how are you now? >> much better, thank you. a little over a year ago, june of last year, i was in end stage heart failure and my -- >> steve: what does that mean? >> it means your heart is not pumping enough blood to provide adequate supply to your liver and your kidneys and your other vital organs, and in effect, what we had to do was go in and

insert what's called a vlad, ventricle assist device. it is not an artificial heart, but adds significantly to the total blood flow in your system. and repairs those organs that didn't get adequate supply before. >> brian: what does it do to you? did it change you at all, at 37 you have your first heart attack. you have heart disease that runs in your family. did that change you in the way you approached things and possibly the way you're able to absorb criticism and not have it effect you? >> i think it did. but the change, the biggest change i noticed happened back when i was 37, 1978, middle of my first campaign. i wake up in the middle of the night with a heart attack. i had a doctor then, i asked him, gee, am i going to have to give up my campaign, my hopes for a career in congress and so forth? and he said no, he said hard work never killed anybody. and encouraged me to go back to what i had been doing. he said the thing that will be hard is if you have to spend

your life doing something you don't want to be doing. frustration of a job that you don't care about. but just plain old-fashioned hard work, he said have at it. >> steve: there are so many stories about what went on behind the scenes and it's not only very telling about you, but there are parts of it that are very funny. when you were secretary of defense, you were called to the white house. it's your first meeting. you leave your special office. you hit the private elevator to go down to your waiting car. you hit the button, you're all alone, what happened? >> well, i went too far. i didn't know how to run the elevator and i ended up in the basement of the pentagon on a saturday morning, doors open, i stepped out, doors closed behind me. >> steve: where were you? >> excuse me. i was on the bottom floor of the pentagon. below the garage. and so i couldn't find my car. there was nobody around because it was saturday. there was no button to call the elevator back down to that floor for security reasons.

you don't want somebody able to walk in. so finally i walked back upstairs, found the stairs, looked out through a door and i could see the car out there and my military aide, secret service running around, what the hell happened to the secretary? and i just pulled up my society, tightened my tie and got in the car, they drove me to the white house and nobody ever had the nerve to ask where i had been all that time. >> steve: until today. >> brian: when you were secretary of defense, it's hard to -- grenada happens. one soldier wants air cover and to get ahold of the pentagon, he has to use his credit card number to call back to washington to get word to get to a ship in order to get air cover and that's when you realized we need a way to lace together all the armed forces and get our chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. correct? >> right. but that happened, the grenada happened while i was in congress, before i became secretary of defense. it led directly to decisions by

members of congress, barry goldwater was part of it, bill nichols from alabama, we passed the goldwater-nichols act that did a much better job of dealing with this problem of conflict between the services. >> gretchen: the book is "in my time," a collaboration with your daughter, liz cheney, the former vice president, dick cheney. so honored that you would sit on the curvy couch with us. thanks so much. >> it's nice to be here. >> brian: thank you for your service to the country. >> thank you. >> gretchen: coming up, are the teachers unions to blame for the trouble with our schools? we'll tell you. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the most legroom per dollar of any car in america. the all-new nissan versa sedan

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>> gretchen: welcome back. public education in america is a battlefield and two camps are duking it out for the future of your kids. unions, who are looking to keep the status weigh for the most

part, and performers, like michelle rhee whom we had on the show yesterday. >> it is very clear that we continue to have significant problems with our public education system in america. we are 25th out of 34 developed nations across the globe in mathematics and like you said, we are spending double the amount of money now that we were two decades ago and the results really aren't that much better. >> gretchen: so are the reformers having any impact on our children's education? joining me now is former washington, d.c. mayor, adrian fentie. good to see you. >> great to see you. >> gretchen: you hired michelle rhee because you wanted reform for washington, d.c., one of the worst school districts in the entire nation. you lost the election as a result over education reform! was it worth that? >> absolutely. the only way you're going to change the schools is being willing to put everything on the line. once you factor in getting

reelected, to be honest with you, you're never going to make the tough decision necessary. michelle and i and i think a lot of other quote, unquote, reformers think that the system is badly broken and needs to be gutted and needs to be done over with if possible. you can't keep going along this path where kids are three, four grade levels behind in reading and math and thinking it's okay. >> gretchen: once of the things you just said that i found the most important was being reelected. if you continue to think about that, you will never evoke change. now, one of the things that comes into play with schools are the teachers unions. your thoughts? >> well, getting reelected actually, with teachers unions, initially democrats focused a lot. i happen to be a democrat, but i think my party is wrong on this issue. i think we should separate ourselves from the teachers unions. i think they have shown over time that their interest is about jobs, which is a laudable thing to be concerned about, but education of kids is more important. so if i side with people who want better results for kids, if

that means that you have to be a more aggressive in firing people, holding them accountable, getting new things in the school, new technology, that's what i'm going to support. >> gretchen: one of the things you say is that will turn around the education in our country is the freedom to manage human capital. hire and fire whomever can do the job best. but that's not the way it works right now, mr. mayor! >> it's almost the exact opposite n. school systems you have two-year tenure. you can only fire people who are the last to come in. so if you have seniority, you automatically keep your job automatically get bonuses. where else in the world does it work like that? if you tell any fortune 500 ceo they didn't have control over capital, they would never take the job. you have to be able to hire principals and teachers who you think are doing a good job. >> gretchen: education is a passion of yours because when you were not reelected as mayor, you're now in the education field. what are you doing? >> i'm doing a lot of consulting with education technology companies and spending my time

making speeches because i want other people to take a little bit more risk. i'm tired of school systems like washington, d.c. getting progressively worse over the decades. i want them to get better. >> gretchen: mr. mayor, former mayor of washington, d.c., thanks so much for your time. >> thank you. >> gretchen: coming up, it's a coloring book meant to teach kids about 9-11. but it has some color some are seeing red. we'll report, you decide. it's a fact, pretty people make more money. so should ugly people get special protection from the federal government? the professor who says yes will join us live. how would they do that, by the way? your ugly. no, you're not. no, you're ugly. dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there? oh, there's a prize, all right. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those great-tting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholester. is it a superhero? kinda. ♪ every day is a new day on weight watchers.

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with travelocity's top secret hotels. [ gnome ] ahhh... [ male announcer ] the easy way to get unpublished discounts of up to 55% off top hotels. [ gnome ] your fingers are quite magical. >> i am not making this up. economists are saying that hurricane irene will actually help the economy. the idea being people who have been saving money during the recession will now use that money to buy things like windows and repair items. the economy is in bad shape, when the best plan washington can come up with is hey, how about more hurricanes and tornadoes? yeah. earthquakes? that's what we need. yeah. >> steve: the broken window theory. >> brian: whoever makes generators and batteries made a ton, too. >> steve: no kidding. >> gretchen: 10:30 this morning, president obama will be in the white house rose garden calling on congress to pass an extension

of funding, speaking of that, for road and airport construction projects and molly henneberg live now at the white house with all the details. good morning. so he's going to be giving a speech. >> he is. good morning. the president will be leaning on congress a little bit from the bully pulpit of the rose garden urging lawmakers to pass a transportation bill that would fund and continue to fund highway and mass transit projects. the president will be flanked today in the rose garden by his transportation secretary, ray lahood, as well as labor leader, afl-cio president, and business leader with u.s. chamber of commerce. the white house says renewing the transportation bill which expires at the end of september, will save about 1 million jobs. in part today's remarks from the rose garden will be a precursor to the president's economic and jobs creation plan that he'll talk about next week. this transportation bill faces a fight in congress. the democratically controlled senate is ready to extend the bill for two years at a cost of

$109 billion. but the gop-controlled house wants a six-year extension and they want it completely paid for with money already coming in in the form of gasoline taxes. this all likely will play into a larger battle on the hill this fall. the president wanting more spending. he says to help lift the economy. and republicans, including top senate gop leader mitch mcconnell, arguing that more spending is making the debt and economic situation worse. senator mcconnell said in texas yesterday, quote, if government spending worked, we'd be in a boom. he, meaning the president, cannot figure this out. he needs to quit what he's doing. the white house has hinted, though, that tax incentives for businesses to encourage hiring also will be a part of the president's jobs plan, that he'll talk about next week. and gretchen and steve, and brian, just a moment away from the white house for a second, did i tell you all that my husband and i are expecting a new redskin fan later this year? >> gretchen: wow! >> steve: great.

congratulations. >> brian: was that beyonce's kid? >> gretchen: what's your due date? >> december 25, christmas day. >> gretchen: really? >> steve: have you thought of names. >> gretchen: then you should be in red for the redskins. >> right. if it's a girl, we'll name her jacqueline after my mom. >> steve: that's very sweet. congratulations to your family. >> thank you very much. >> brian: anything you need any time, baby-sitting, we'll come down there. that's why they have us. >> that's wonderful. i'll put you on my list. >> steve: molly henneberg who is reporting for two from the white house. thank you very much. >> brian: congratulations. >> thanks. >> brian: we have fox news alert. >> gretchen: that kicked off the headlines. >> brian: more stories now coming your way, not nearly as important. as much as $60 billion in your tax dollars have been lost to waste and fraud over in iraq and afghanistan. there's a new report that came out, 240 pages thick from the commission on war time contracting, it's being released

to congress this morning. lax oversight of contractors, corruption. among the remedies? an inspector general to monitor contracting. >> steve: maybe that will help. sarah palin's travel plans adding to speculation she's about to enter the race for president. she's expected to announce her decision at a tea party rally in iowa on september 3. we knew that. now comes word palin will fly to new hampshire for a speech on labor day. hmm. >> gretchen: a coloring book has some seeing red today. the publisher of we shall never forget 9-11 says the book is meant to honor the victims of the attacks and educate children. it shows the world trade center cross at ground zero saying it resembles the christian cross and is, quote, a sign of hope. there is also a picture of osama bin laden hiding hyped a woman -- behind a woman as he is confronted by navy seals. >> very clear that they had an

agenda and it is anti-muslim. >> gretchen: the book has already sold out of its first print run of 10,000 copies. the publisher plans now to print more. >> steve: meanwhile, there is no escaping shoe jokes for "married with children's" al bundy. remember him? >> too big! i'm swimming in them. >> that would explain the life preserver under your dress. [ laughter ] >> steve: i remember that show on fox. actor ed o'neil, who played al bundy for years spent more than a decade working in a shoe store on tv. now in a strange twist of fate, he's brand-new walk of fame star in hollywood is located right outside a shoe store. congratulations, he got the star. >> brian: for the second year in a row, i'll be in dallas. i'll be kicking off patriot golf day. it's my privilege to be playing

with president bush at the dallas national airport -- golf club. >> steve: don't play at the airport. >> gretchen: you need a wide open range. >> brian: i would not mind the room. i like the wide fairways. it raises money for those that give college scholarships to those of fallen or wounded troops. when he was president, he told captain dan rooney, i'm going to help you out, and he has. we're going to air it live and carry it for three holes. i got an e-mail earlier because i don't play golf almost at all. >> steve: only on tv. >> brian: and really poorly, from a guy named -- how do you pronounce this name? >> gretchen: greg. >> brian: greg norman, who is concerned about my swing, so concerned, he scrambled to the phone. greg norman, is that true you're there? >> i'm here, brian. i'll tell you what, i'm very concerned about you. but i think you should play because that's the only way you'll hit the ball more than 80 yards. >> brian: that hurts my feelings.

>> steve: do a little analysis. brian has 21 hours to completely change his game or appear in a body cast. what will you suggest he do here? >> well, when i saw it, i wondered what he had under his waist, he needs to get his legs moving. he looks like he's stirring spaghetti there. >> brian: you want my weight to shift from back to front and you want my knee to turn into my front leg and me to follow through and look a lot like you? >> oh, my gosh! [ laughter ] i tell you what, if that's your analysis of your own swing, then you are in deep trouble. >> gretchen: greg, here was my advice to him. the most important thing is just to keep his head down and watch the ball. >> you know what the most important thing is for brian to be brian.

he's going to make a fool of himself. he's doing the right thing for a great cause and i know dan rooney and i'm going to be doing the same thing for president bush on october 9. so he's doing a great cause. but you know what, brian? you do need to get your happy butt down here so i can give you a couple of lessons and outside of that, we can go drink a few glasses of wine and a nice piece of steak and then cry all night long about how bad you really are. >> brian: that sounds great. we were supposed to do it and the hurricane got in the way. >> yeah, that's correct. i had it all teed up. we were going to spend four hours on the driving range. now i think we need to spend four months. >> brian: if it does well over the four months and if i could get the time off, could i go pro? >> no. >> steve: in a word. thank you for your honesty. maybe, mr. norman, we could check in with you tomorrow after brian actually does the swinging and you could give an assessment for all of us on how well he's doing with the president.

>> brian: and how much better i am. >> steve: yeah, maybe. >> brian: we're going to play three holes. >> i'd love to hear the report, brian, i really would. >> gretchen: thanks so much for calling in and giving your advice. >> you're welcome. >> gretchen: you're not too nervous about it all, are you? >> brian: no, not really. i've done it once before. as long as the right people get the money and i can finish the 18. meanwhile, coming up straight ahead, rick perry is surging in the polls. but for how long, especially now that mitt romney is coming out swinging? dr. larry sabitow who predicted 99% of the races correctly. >> gretchen: pretty people make more money. so should ugly people get special protection from the federal government? the professor who says yes joins us moments away. >> brian: wait, these are the pretty ones? f!

>> steve: some quick "fox & friends" headlines. college tuition, a bargain! what? a new study says that in 36 states, one year of daycare for junior costs more than one year of public college. daycare is the most expensive in washington, d.c it costs parents an average of $18,200 a year. wow. a terrifying moment for teenage girls across the country. justin bieber got into a fender bender in l.a the 17-year-old reportedly driving his starter car, a ferrari, when another driver in a honda bumped into him. both justin and his ferrari are just dandy, as we can see from the tmz photo. >> brian: texas governor rick perry surging in the polls and is possibly the front runner to

the gop presidential nomination in a matter of weeks. the latest poll has perry 13 points ahead of mitt romney. it's early. it's still months before the first primary. what does romney need to do to soap soaring perry? university of virginia director larry sabito joins me. the good news for romney is we don't elect presidents on the popular vote, correct? >> yes. but of course, we do have the popular vote for the primaries and look, romney is in trouble. there is no question about it. perry is the new front runner. the good news for romney is the voting doesn't start until, well, we don't know yet, but probably january or february with iowa and new hampshire. so he's got time to recover and this process is a roller coaster. but look what's happened in the last two weeks. you have had seven major surveys, national and in key states, showing perry shooting up, rocketing into the lead. that's got to be a great concern

to the romney people. >> brian: what i meant is, we don't have a national poll for a primary. you go state by state. and state by state, the picture is muddled because in iowa, you look at rick perry, he's got to be favored there. but in south carolina, that's the only other state he's really favored in. correct? >> yeah. although he's becoming the southern candidate, brian. and there are a lot of delegates connected to the south. they get a lot of bonus delegates because they vote republican in so many elections. so you're right in the sense that in iowa, i'd say it's perry versus bachman. but you go to new hampshire and romney has a big lead there. but then you go to south carolina and again, perry is now in the lead. one poll has him in the lead that came out yesterday by 20 percentage points. florida could be the key primary. that's the one that could be the ultimate matchup between romney and perry. >> brian: i can't imagine it. florida a key state. it doesn't make sense. and nevada as well goes to

romney. i want to talk about the senate because senator imhoff said it's did -- let's begin in massachusetts. scott brown shocked the world. will he again? what about the rest? >> i think scott brown is favored. he's one of only two republican incumbents. the other being dean heller in nevada, who are really at all challenged in 2012. right now both brown and heller are leading. so that means republicans need to pick up either three seats if they win the presidency and vice president city, or four seats if they don't win the presidency and vice president city. as i count the races, they are either even or ahead in about eight senate races. that gives them an excellent chance to take control of the senate in 2012. >> brian: and perhaps the sexiest senate race, i believe, virginia. that should be quite

interesting. >> it's going to go the way of the presidential contest in virginia. remember obama shocked the world and carried virginia going democratic for the first time since 64 in 2008. if it doesn't go democratic again, then republican george allen will win. if it goes back to obama, then democrat tim kane will win. >> brian: interesting. ohio, michigan and pennsylvania, also something to look at. either way things are going to change. you got the sense a year from now, we'll watch it happen gradually here. i know you will go to your crystal ball and you predict so often so accurate. we'll be going there over and over again. time to stop life guarding, get back to school. labor day is here. >> i'm in school, brian. i really am. >> brian: i keep hearing that. thank you so much. straight ahead, did you get short changed in the looks department? you might be -- i'm not looking at you. you might be in a new protected class when it comes to getting a job. our next guest introducing affirmative action for the ugly. we're not kidding. let's check in with the very

handsome bill hemmer to find out what's happening at the top of the hour. >> martha and i were talking about how lucky you are. greg norman offers you a free golf lesson and you get your second round with a former president, president bush. you are living right, man. >> brian: i am. and i just can't screw it up, bill. thank you very much. >> we'll see you. >> brian: nice to know you and martha talk about me. >> we will see you on the radio today. if you don't get a flu shot, you could be fired. true story. should we minimize al-qaeda on 9-11? former new york governor george pataki responds to that. the flooding effects of irene are still with us. is the next white house jobs plan the last chance for president obama? we'll see you in ten minutes right here. [ female announcer ] so you think your kids are getting enough vegetables?

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>> hi. that's me. i have a hard copy of my resume if you need it. should i follow you? >> actually there has been a mistake. >> steve: a scene from "ugly betty." being less attractive is unfortunate and probably won't help you get a job. but in the end, does your looks, do your looks impact your economic opportunities? our next guest says yes and that is why we should make a protected class for ugly people. professor daniel hammingmash is a professor at the university of texas in austin and author of a brand-new book "beauty pays." good morning to you, sir. >> good morning, thanks for having me. >> steve: so ugly people earn less money over their lifetime and you want to help them. >> they earn less money, they get less earning spouses. they have trouble getting loans.

i think helping them is at least justify fias >> steve: you are suggesting that ugly people get legal protection, the same as certain ethnic groups or handicapped people as well. what's the argument for making that case? >> the argument is that it's very hard to change your looks. it's hard to change disabled status or race. and logiccally therefore, given disadvantages that the ugly person has, i see very little economic differences between the groups in terms of who deserves protection. political issue more than anything else. >> steve: professor, in reading your column in the "new york times" the other day, i was amazed that already people in the district of columbia and also california, they are already protected. you can not discriminate while hiring based on somebody's looks, right? >> that's right. and also in housing, same thing. >> steve: okay. here is what it comes down to,

though. who is ugly? how do you figure out what an ugly person -- whether a person is so unattractive they would qualify for this protection as being ugly? >> that's a pretty easy thing. we agree, all of us, pretty closely on who is ugly. if you think somebody is ugly, the odds are very good i and everybody else around here will come pretty much on the same side of that issue. i don't think that's a problem. >> steve: is there any possibility, professor, this could actually happen? >> look, as you know, it's already happened in some jurisdictions in california, dc, france. i don't think it's going to happen in the next few years, but i can see some day when the economy gets going real well again, yeah. there will be a push for this and it may eventually happen in some form. >> steve: interesting stuff. folks, e-mail us. what do you think. professor, the new book is called "beauty pays." thank you for joining us from austin, texas, on this hot day. >> thank you. >> steve: we'll be back in two

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