so how did those votes in 2011 impact 2012? full recap straight ahead. >> i hope i have as much to read as you and gretchen. first freddie, now fannie. the mortgage giant asking you to bail them out again. don't worry, it's only for $7.8 billion. i spent that last weekend. "fox & friends" starts right now. >> live from new york where we let the crew produce the show and pass the savings on to you. it's "fox & friends." >> $7.8 billion. i think we had that bet last week and i lost. >> i just want $1,000. that's it. >> that was where is the statue of liberty? in new york or new jersey? >> and the biggest story this week although the herman cain stuff is big and the election is certainly something to focus on is i get chris wallace's wallet. remember what he promised on

friday. >> i can't wait for that. >> all right. in the meantime, today is the post-game show for election 2011. it was defined by a number of ballot initiatives. let's start in, as you can see right there, columbus, ohio, in the buckeye state. the big one was issue 2, passed by more than 50, it repealed a g.o.p. backed law that restricted collective bargaining for public workers. >> and it also barred strikes initially. and allowed government entities to impose contracts in an impasse. governor kasich took a stand and took it a step further. he included police and firefighters and that could have been what ended up having this thing repealed yesterday because some people are saying, did it go too far? well, the voters spoke. >> yeah, boy was it repealed, gretchen? sp-5 went down 62-38.

that's significant. governor kasich says i hear you people, listen. >> frankly, i respect what people have to say in an effort like this and as a result of that, it requires me to take a deep breath, you know, and to spend some time reflecting on what happened here. >> my question is for every kind of law that passes in a state, does the public have the right to come out and repeal every particular law? >> yeah,>> i mean, that's really interesting. >> certain amount of signatures, i believe, it could vary state to state. >> exactly, if you can get it on the ballot and in this particular law, with this particular budget initiative, i think they got 915,000 signatures to put it on. now, we just heard from governor kasich and you know, he did congratulate labor but at the same time, he did sound a little defiant. he told the cities and counties of ohio.

>> they have enough people now. >> and the cupboard is bare. if you're expecting a bailout from the governor of ohio, i'm sorry, we're out of money. >> the same thing that governor cuomo said in new york. yeah, unions, you can get your own way but then i'll have to cut tens of thousands of you so you either have to come together and the way he did it may be up for debate but i believe and many experts believe, i should say, that this puts president obama back in play in ohio with labor. >> this puts other states on notice how far they were going to go if they thought the wisconsin and ohio plans work. will this be a warning so the that they won't attempt it? there are tons of political ramifications by this vote yesterday. at the same time in ohio, there was a different vote, that was health care and whether you should be able to opt out of the individual mandate, the mandate amendment. 66 approved being able to opt out. 34% were against being able to opt out so this sort of is the reverse of what the people were saying in ohio with regard to

political lines. >> exactly. republicans got one defeat and one win as well. what they want -- what they wanted to prove in ohio was simply you cannot have the state mandate you on stuff. they didn't want happened in massachusetts happen in the buckeye state. >> let's go to mississippi where it's very odd, when you see a lot of pro life person who is not for this personhood amendment, you have to wonder is there to it? is it too complicated and too much hooked into this initiative? the people of mississippi have said yes. essentially on the surface, it bans abortion in that state. but on further review, it goes further than that. >> the bill was so vague, that's part of the problem. people don't really know, does this all mean people who are going through in vitro fertilization to try to become pregnant, lots of people doing that now, they would not be allowed to do that. that would be technically illegal in that state. it also raised questions about the rapes of young children

because in that case, they probably would not have been able to get abortions. there were a lot of unanswered questions. they said it was going to be close. it ended up not being close at all. >> here's jennifer mason of personhood u.s.a. and she explains the purpose of the law down there in mississippi. >> this is about protecting all human life and i don't believe that women who are seeking fertility treatments as i have in the past are looking to kill the children that are conceived through those procedures. i think that women who are longing for a child will still be able to receive those fertility treatments, it simply will be illegal to have an abortion or kill a child created through the ibf process. >> by the way, governor haley barbour came out who is very pro life and said he wasn't so sure about this bill. the people of colorado gave them this initiative. >> governor barbour voted for it today. >> he was on hannity last night and said i have some questions

about it. >> anyway, it was defeated. more election results coming up throughout the morning. in the meantime, headlines for you. >> herman cain refusing to drop out of the race for president as he faces allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior from four different women now. he'll be in michigan tonight for the republican presidential debate. cain denies all accusations and says he'd even take a lie connector test on the facts. >> i absolutely would but i'm not going to do that unless i have a good reason to do that. that was one of the first comments that i made in washington to my staff and i've shared that with my attorney. of course i would be willing to do a lie detector test. there's a new report this morning about the latest accuser to come forward. associated press reports that three years after she settled a harassment complaint against cain, she filed another complaint at her next job. she claimed a manager was circulating a sexually charged e-mail but eventually dropped that complaint. now she's trying to get cain's three other accusers together

for a group press conference. penn state students rallying behind head football coach joe paterno after reports that his days at the school could be numbered. >> he thanked the adoring crowd outside his home. there were so many students, it was impossible to see him. >> hard for me to tell you how much this means to you, all right? you guys have lived for this place, i've lived for people like you guys and girls. >> critics say the 84-year-old paterno didn't do enough about former coach jerry sandusky currently charged with sexually abusing at least eight young boys over a 15-year period. paterno was reportedly told about one of those incidents by an eyewitness. paterno did not call police. instead, he told athletic director tim curley what happened. curley and vice president schultz are charged with perjury

and lying to a grand jury. first, freddie mac and now fannie mae asking for more of your taxpayer dough to bail them out. asking for $7.8 billion. from the federal government. it's a lot of dough. the mortgage giant reported third quarter losses at the same time of $5 billion. this comes just after a week where freddie mac asked for another $6 billion from you. executives at both companies will reportedly make $13 million in bonuses anyway this year and they both received $170 billion in bailout money. hard to do that with a straight face. >> has the president called a press conference to condemn those? narrow victory for the g.o.p. in virginia last night could cost democrats control of the state senate. if yesterday's election results stand, the senate would be split 20-20 between the parties. it would give republicans a working majority. virginia is considered a battleground state, of course, for the 2012 election. president obama made a historic

win there in 2008. this time, the votes couldn't save her. another star leaving the dance floor. >> nancy and tristan. >> nancy grace and the dance partner were booted from "dancing with the stars" last night just one week shy of the show's semifinals. the two were in last place with 34 points out of 60. she's proud of all of her accomplishments on the show. she did a cartwheel. that's impressive. >> your serve, robin meade. >> let's talk about somebody who is doing some cat dancing on capitol hill. we're talking about the attorney general of the united states, eric holder pictured right there. he got a grilling from a number of people and one of the first things he said is regarding fast and furious is yeah, you know what? that letter that was sent to charles grassley, the esteemed senator from the great state of iowa back in february, it was wrong and said the u.s.

government had not allowed weapons to enter mexico. it was bad program and it would never happen again, he said. >> senator john cornin is one of those who questioned him whole heartedly. here's part of that exchange from yesterday. >> i cannot be expected to know the details of every operation that is ongoing in the justice department on a day-to-day basis. i did not know about fast & furious. >> memos with your name on it addressed to you referring to the fast & furious operation or are you just saying you didn't read them? >> i didn't receive them. >> have you apologized to the family of brian terry? >> i have not apologized to them but i certainly regret what happened. >> have you even talked to them? >> i have not. >> ouch! >> he did, however, offer the family his condolences but nonetheless, he has not spoken to them. >> he feels responsible. a quick add. to your point, charles grassley, he said listen, you had a letter that you knew was inaccurate stay within our grasp and you said was accurate for a year

before you go you know what? i don't think this is really correct, there was such thing as gun walking across the border. >> exactly right. >> the senator will be joining us in the 8:00 a.m. eastern time hour. so we will, of course, have lots of questions about fast and furious and other things for the senator. in the meantime, new york city mayor michael bloomberg telling washington politicians to suck it up and just raise taxes on everybody? should we all bear the burden? charles gasparino from the fox business network is up next. >> and rock star gene simmons is here and he has an interesting prediction on who will be president. next year. [ male annouer ] juice drink too watery?

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>> just allow the bush tax cuts to expire at the end of 2012. not just for high income workers as the president has proposed. but for all tax brackets. >> wow, all tax brackets. but is raising taxes on, say, the middle class really what this country needs right now? >> is anyone listening to mayor bloomberg because he's rich? fox business correspondent charles gasparino joins us. your take on the content of that speech. >> he just proposed the largest tax increase ever. i mean.

historically ever. this is -- this would be especially now during a, you know, slow economic times, this would be one of the more absurd things i've ever heard. he's just not proposing higher taxes on families of five in staten island, that combined make $250,000 which i think is an abomination. he's talking about middle class people under that. it defies a certain logic that comes with tax reform. when you talk about tax reform, you talk about close the loopholes because you rationalize the tax system and you don't favor certain industries and you lower the rates because you want people to spend money. this goes against that. >> charlie, this flies in the face of what he has said, you know, a lot of millionaires and billionaires have left new york because of the punitive tax system here and he's said during a recession is not the time to go ahead and jack up taxes on anybody. >> we're not even talking about billionaires and billionaires. one of the bad things about what president obama wanted to do with raising taxes on that upper rate is it would hit families of four or five or six, combined income of 250, that's not rich in new york city.

that is not rich in california. that is not rich on any of the coasts. that's insane. and especially now when new york city is suffering from an economic problem. major economic problems, unemployment. why tax people that are still spending? >> you think this was his frustration in general with the economic scenario right now or he does not believe that the super committee is going to end up doing anything? >> i think it's his way of getting in there. it's more political. his way of trying to get in the economic debate and divert attention of what's going on in downtown manhattan with zuccotti park. mayor bloomberg has so many problems in new york city, we have rising crime and an education problem and these protesters which he absurdly keeps defending on first amendment grounds. who are violating the first amendment rights and the civil rights of the people who live in that neighborhood, the businesses in that neighborhood. and people are getting sick of it. so let's change the subject. let's talk about taxing and let's talk about making everything fair. i will say this, it's also hypocritical for a billionaire to be telling a middle class

person that he has to pay higher taxes. it is just absurd. >> right. and also on another note within his speech said hey, you know, if you rake in money on stocks, excuse me, if you're running a hedge fund, you should pay much higher taxes, maybe equal with the income tax scale. >> you know, i wonder if the economy would survive this. think about what he's doing. he's raising taxes across the board. someone should really add this up. that's what i probably have to do today. add this up to really get the figures because this is a gargantuan tax theory. tax reform is about not setting priorities, letting the system work, rationalizing. not creating favors. he's basically just raising taxes. >> all right, break out the calculator, charlie, you'll be busy today. thanks for joining us this morning. >> all right. >> give you a hand with that. >> sure. straight ahead, they're hiding in plain sight. serious criminals crossing the mexican border so they can live free and clear and the department of justice just lets that happen.

the reporter that exposed that story coming up next. >> coming up, the christmas tree tax? it just got the government's stamp of approval and wait until you hear what they're going to do with the money. >> ho, ho hold it! [ male announcer ] one-hundred-nineteen data points.

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>> all right. we got some quick headlines for you on this wednesday morning. an epic storm bearing down on alaska right now. destructive waves and hurricane force winds are expected.

some parts of the state could experience heavy snow and blizzard conditions. emergency officials say this could be a life threatening storm in alaska. and what a close call! check out the 1300 foot asteroid that roared past earth last night. nasa took these images of the aircraft carrier size rock that came within 200,000 miles of our planet. last time an asteroid came this close to the earth was back in 1976. i do believe bruce willis was scrambled to fix it. and maybe not. all right. >> steve, good job using my cell phone camera footage picking that up last night. investigation by the chicago tribune blowing the lid off dangerous laws in our justice system. two reporters identify dozens of criminals who committed crimes here in the u.s. and then fled to mexico and other nations. the reporters went down to mexico in particular and tracked down nine of those fugitives. here is one of their reports. >> we sought the whereabouts of

daniel carillo who was charged several years ago with sexually abusing two girls and we located him in a town. for a couple of years, he said i was afraid of the police picking me up but after a couple of years, he says, i realized that nobody is going to come looking for me anymore. i'm home free. >> that's why we brought gary marks on with us this morning, one of the journalists behind the investigation. gary, i was shocked to see that our extradition process is at the point where this guy, guys like him can live free and clear. how does that happen? >> you know, i think we were very surprised, too. really, there's so many breakdowns in the u.s. extradition process. we found that local authorities were not communicating with federal authorities. that law enforcement officials had information often within days or weeks of a homicide or a sexual assault about where these individuals were fleeing to overseas, to mexico, that's the one country where we looked at

closely. and yet, nothing was done. years and years passed and these fugitives were essentially allowed to live in plain sight. >> are you saying maybe the local authorities don't know that a guy like the one we just saw is guilty of a heinous crime or do you think they don't care? >> i think, you know, i think it's just a matter of priorities. but we found in a lot of cases, for example, the f.b.i. or the chicago police department had a fix on where these guys were almost immediately after they committed these crimes. but didn't pass that information on to local prosecutors who then according to the process is supposed to go to the justice department to seek extradition and that just didn't happen. there were breakdowns in communication all along the way among various law enforcement agencies. >> well, now we have a situation where you've identified them. you've done the hard work using government records and interviews. where do you think this goes from here now that the light has been shined on in a major city in a major publication like yours? >> well, you know, dick durbin

questioned u.s. attorney general eric holder about this yesterday. dick durbin is very strong on this issue and i think eric holder is going to follow up on it. you know, this is really about the victims' families here. these are humble people. these are hard working people. they've waited years and years for justice and yet, they've gotten no response from law enforcement authorities. you know, those were the voices, those were the people that really motivated us in this investigation. and we feel like they deserve justice for their loved ones who were killed and assaulted. >> so at what level does the interaction have to happen to make sure sex offender like that on a farm in mexico gets extradited? is it state department? is this law enforcement to law enforcement, what is this? >> i think this begins with law enforcement to law enforcement. when chicago police department or a local police department has information, they go to the f.b.i. or the u.s. marshalls service. u.s. marshall service needs to pass on that information to prosecutors who then go to the justice department.

it is a very complicated system and there's a lot of really good people, brave people working on this issue. but there just seems to be a lack of communication and i think it's not a really high priority for many people. >> all right. some of the people that they tracked down, five are escapees of murder. two were child molesters and another for shooting somebody and they're living happily in mexico where it's always sunny. thanks, gary. you did a great job. thanks so much for sharing your story and we'll continue to track it with you, all right? >> thank you so much. appreciate it. >> no problem. 27 minutes now after the hour. straight ahead on this show, the government just approved a christmas tree tax. wait until you hear how they plan on spending the cash they get from you. plus, he's a rock legend. gene simmons is here without his make-up and with his pick for president. but first, happy birthday to nick lachey. he could have never played in kiss but he's a good singer and a good host. he's 38. endless shrimp is our most popular promotion

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america. yeah, that's because it's created more jobs overseas than it has here in america. >> many people would say that's exactly true. >> yeah, we'll go overseas to talk to gene simmons right after the news. >> how do you know this? >> i know that, brian, we were just talking to him during the commercial. via satellite technology. >> you got to explain that to me. >> right now, it's 6:32. for folks just waking up, couple of headlines for you. police in washington state say nothing about the story given to them about a missing 2-year-old boy's mother. they say nothing adds up and they believe skye is a victim of foul play. he went missing sunday morning after being left in an unlocked car. the boy's mother told authorities she ran out of gas and left him sleeping while she and her 4-year-old daughter walked to a gas station to call for help. officials say there was no sign of forced entry or signs of car trouble. right now, police have no suspects but appear to be focusing on the mom. she and the boy's father are going through a divorce and custody battle. >> two al-qaida terrorists will

be arraigned at gitmo today in cuba. one is charged with the bombing of the u. s. s. cole in yemen 11 years ago. it's the first case held at gitmo since president obama took office. he was water boarded during the interrogation and lawyers are trying to have his confession tossed. our senior pentagon correspondent coming up at 8:00 a.m. with more on this story that. will be catherine herridge. >> meanwhile, another day, another atomic threat from iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad. in a televised speech today, he said iran will not retreat "an iota" from its nuclear program. but at the same time, he denies a new report from the united nations that iran is on the brink of developing a nuke that works. ahmadinejad says iran does not need nukes to confront the united states. and the u.s. would regret any confrontation with his country. >> just in time for the

holidays. the obama administration adding a christmas tree tax while the government grinching $0.15 out of your pocket potentially on the sale of all fresh christmas trees. the department of agriculture says it needs the money to pay for a new program that's supposed to improve the image and marketing of christmas trees. the majority of commercial christmas tree farms are in favor of this. they say it will help boost their sales. it declined a lot, i guess, because people are opting for the fake tree. >> the real tree is already up in my town square, believe it or not. take a look, actually across the street from the town square in front of the starbucks. look at this, we got a widely scattered thunderstorm activity moving through the ohio and tennessee valley at this hour. down through the gulf coast, up through portions of the great lakes states and even some snow right now according to the doppler moving through the hawkeye state of iowa. current temperatures, you can see where that cold front is if you're looking at the tv, notice the green right across the mississippi valley down through the gulf coast, that's a little

warm. behind colder air by about 10 degrees. currently, 39 in kansas city. 50 in chicago and 57 in memphis. here along the eastern seaboard, we've got it looks like 51 right now in new york. 40's once again this morning to start the day through the mid atlantic. later on today, mid atlantic, temperatures will warm up into the 70's as you can see, raleigh durham, that area, lower 70's. same for atlanta. 40's and 50's across the central and northern plain states. 60's and 70's along the gulf coast and if you're lucky enough to live down in florida which a lot of our viewers do, your temperatures will be for the most part in the 80's so a pleasant day on this wednesday. 4 all right. the republican party might still be undecided on a candidate for president. you may have heard that. gene simmons says he knows who should win the white house in 2012 as we get set for another debate tonight. >> rock icon and star of "family jewels" joins us live from london this morning. i should say good afternoon to you. in london time. >> cheerio. >> good morning. good afternoon. good day. it's another day above ground.

i'm a happy guy. >> well, one thing that i know that you have been good at predicting in the past is who ends up becoming president. and a while back, you tweeted this. i voted for president bush. i voted for president clinton. i voted for president obama. the next president will be governor rick perry. governor perry worked for al gore and then switched to republican. he will be our next president. i've never been wrong. i think that was a couple of months ago, right, gene? >> and therein lies the conundrum for all of us. politics is a moving target. texas is a model of economic and political sort of -- it's a wonderful place to go to do business where corporate entities aren't punished for being in business and creating jobs for people. it's a terrific model for america. the unfortunate thing is governor perry who whose

political and economic track record i'm a fan of isn't very glib. unfortunately to be a politician, you have to be able to get up there and wax poetic. he doesn't do very well. but intrinsically what he later, unfortunately what he didn't start off with, what he later proposed is precisely economically what this country needs, a flat tax, period. mayor bloomberg who is a powerful and attractive man in his own right and actually means well and was on both sides of the aisle and is now independent is actually got it butt backwards because the idea of taxing everybody and increasing everybody's taxes isn't the way to do it. first, cut trillions from our economy. do an emergency powers act. do whatever you have to do. stop building highways to nowhere. nobody two, flat tax. everybody pays 20% or thereabouts and then you won't have to raise taxes. governor perry -- >> gene, you should be in politics. what's going on with you? >> politics are highly overrated. i would prefer to be benevolent

dictator. by the way, i would get rid of -- auto i've auto seen your show. >> get rid of the drug problem immediately. public execution of all drug dealers, watch the drug problem go away. across the border in mexico, the drug cartels are terrorizing everybody. we declare war, the united states of america, the military declares war on the drug cartels. we cross the border, we send drones into pakistan, send our troops across the border house to house, take these guys and bury them in our backyard. >> that's pretty to the point. let me get back, are you still behind perry or somebody else? >> i reserve the right to see how deep and transparent everybody is. i like governor perry, unfortunately, mr. cain has had his other problems. he's probably out of the race. mitt romney, i believe, would make a good president. unfortunately, this country is still muck and mired in people's

religious beliefs. remember when catholics were not allowed to be president of the united states? >> you think the mormon thing? >> i think americans still have a big problem with the mormon issue and that's very unfortunate because they consider a person and what his religious beliefs are and i say separation of church and state, what you believe in, i don't care if you believe in aliens in other planets, are you -- is your loyalty to america and bettering everybody's life or to your church? make a distinction and then vote your conscience. >> good privilege we've had in hosting this show, we've been having you at this couch, you've been to israel, you're very pro israel. i want to get your thoughts caught on mike not knowing it when you have nicolas sarkozy saying that benjamin netanyahu the prime minister there is a liar. i cannot bear benjamin netanyahu, he's a liar. obama's response, you're fed up with him? i have to deal with him every day. your take on the -- >> let me -->> the reaction from

london. >> nobody one, president sarkozy who is actually hungarian and not french, i would tell him in hungarian because i speak hungarian and any other languages. what i'm saying is you're crazy! and other superlatives like that. you're out of your mind. if you have to pick one leader out of the middle east in which to lend your support to and believe that it's -- they're always going to be there to back you up, take one country out of the middle east, who are you going to go to? hamas led or hezbollah led governments or the people who are going to go and carry the flag of democracy everywhere? the best friend america has ever had in the middle east are the israelis. >> sure. >> period. >> gene, you just did some what sounded to us although we don't speak hungarian, sounded like it was very fluent. now if the three of us wanted to, for instance, go on line and speak to somebody in hungarian

or french, would you have any idea how we could do that? >> you're leading the witness, your honor and i appreciate it. you put it right over the plate and i'm about to hit it right out of the park. in the interest of full disclosure before the fact, i'm a partner in ortsbospoicom, largest universal language translater. do seek and get on your cell phone or computer for free and talk to somebody in iran and make sure they know that there's a free world out there. and go to ortsbo.com, get on facebook, pick your language and start communicating in fluent farsee back, they would answer you back in real time. >> that's really neat. i understand you speak eight languages fluently. another fact that you may not have know about gene simmons. >> a few but -- >> sorry, we got to go. >> thank you so much. >> we have time difference there. >> thank you so much. >> i think he should run for president.

he certainly has the platform. >> he's got views. >> he also has some baggage. anyway, after the break -- >> who doesn't? >> exactly. >> me. >> helping the heroes on the home front, unprecedented new effort to get america's veterans back to work. >> then is this what our students need to learn, life sized "star wars" statues, one school bought them and they say there's a good reason why. it costs over $10,000. ford fusion has now been named the most dependable midsize car by jd power and associates. we go to kimberly. any thoughts on this news? i have no idea what's goin on. we are out. what was that? they told me it's the most dependable midsize sedan and

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got it? get it. good. fore! no matter what small business you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink >> veterans day, of course, just two days away now and today we want to help some of those brave men and women land a job and luckily, this year, it could be just a click away. kevin o'brien is the creator of milicruit.com hosting an on-line jobs fair for veterans tomorrow and lieutenant mike fisher serves in the army reserves and

the chair of the citigroup veterans network. they're both here this morning. i love this concept, i have to tell you and i don't know how you came up with it but it's fantastic because the unemployment rate for veterans is higher than even the national average. what can veterans do tomorrow? >> actually, what we're doing is hosting a nationwide virtual career fair for veterans, military spouses and service members. they can simply go to veteranscareerfair.com and sign up. go to the profile and meet with them from the comfort of home. >> i want to take a look at some of the companies tomorrow that veterans will see how many jobs are out there. so look at this, this is just 10 companies, g.e. offering 5,441 jobs. citi, 2,725 and down on the road there to u.p.s. to 500. wow, who would have known lieutenant colonel there was this many jobs out there for veterans? >> we've been a leader and have a strong track record in supporting the military veterans

and their families and particularly hiring. we have 2700 positions that are available to folks to view and we encourage military veterans to go out and reach out to the recruiters. >> those jobs are just at citigroup and you're in charge of this division so you're still in the military reserves. what is it about a former member of the military that makes them do so well in the job at citigroup. >> what they like about military veterans is the fact that they've already dealt with a large matrixed organization and seen projects through to completion and been in tough circumstances where they've dealt with complex problems. >> so kevin, tomorrow, if somebody goes on line, take me a little bit more through the process. what will they do? they'll send in their resume on line, they'll chat with people. how will it work? >> actually, take the traditional career fair, all we've done is bring that on line so each employer as their own booth. their staff is in their booth.

the booth links to their career page. there's live chat. there's videos on each company so they can research the employer ahead of time and actually go in today and complete their profile and do some homework. tomorrow, they'll actually experience all the recruiters will be on line and available to chat with them and answer questions about the company and individual positions. >> so lieutenant colonel, will you be the one doing the chats tomorrow? >> we'll have a wide variety of recruiters looking to chat with perspective candidates. they'll be looking to not only help people with positions and finding the right fit for the right job for those viable candidates to come to the career fair but also to help in counsel those who -- counsel and provide advice to those folks how they might advance themselves in today's market. >> it's a great opportunity. we will link that to our web site, foxandfriends.com if you would like more information. pleasure to meet the two of you. good luck with the career fair

tomorrow. coming up on the show, a school blows 10,000 bucks on life sized "star wars" statues. tucker carlson is here with a wasteful spending story that's literally out of this world. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition? ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8. 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.

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>> wait until you hear this one. one school's decision to spend $10,000 being called out of this world. literally. south florida polytechnic has spent $10,000 on four sci-fi related statues of darth vader,

storm trooper, captain kirk and e.t. the university says the purchase is a way to encourage creative culture. look at that stuff. tucker carlson is the founder of the daily caller and a fox news contributor and joins us live. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> i'm a little exhausted from our light saber battle. >> me, too. >> what do you make of the fact that this is a state school and they've used over $10,000 to buy this movie stuff? >> they're all state schools in the sense that virtually every college and university takes federal money and a lot of it which is one of the reasons they're so expensive is because they're taking federal subsidies, the cost is passed on to the rest of us. while the rest of us are not spending our kids to summer camp or wondering about the vacation or mortgage payment, there's not one school i'm aware of making real budget choices. prettiest building in town is the college. they're figuring out should we build a new frisbee center. it's a medieval church.

you set up and don't complain because it's sinful to ask why and they thrive while the rest of the country rots. >> while they did spend over $10,000 on this movie memorabilia stuff, they spent $1,000 to have it appraised and it's worth over $20,000. >> so actually, it's a net gain for the taxpayers. >> wait, if you're a taxpayer in florida and you're looking, hey, look, i'm having trouble making ends meet and i don't know if i'm going to get canned this year and you see that those -- those bureaucrats or whomever at the university spending this kind of money, and i know that some have said it's private money. but it's -- at the state level, it's all fundable. so who's in charge? >> the truth is schools have never by in large been asked to account how they spend their money. there isn't widespread outrage over this. there isn't a grassroots movement to ban it from schools. until there is, there's going to be a ton of waste. >> i did read in one of the -- i think one of the tampa papers yesterday that apparently there

are a couple of state lawmakers, republicans who say that they're going to have to an audit to see how this school is spending their money because they don't like the idea of e.t. stuff and darth vader. >> if you audited your average college for all the stories about the $3,000 toilet seat at the pentagon, if you audited your average community college and figure out where the money went, you'd have a week worth of stories but nobody does. >> why? >> because it is the medieval church. it is that part of our society. we believe in education. that's true. it doesn't mean the people providing the education should be above scrutiny and they are. >> one. -- one of the things the school has said we bought this stuff to make the students creative. how is that possible? and they said they modelled it after something at google. >> almost nobody is creative until they have to be. discipline makes you creative. sitting around and playing frisbee golf does not. >> thank you, sir. >> thanks so much.

>> good morning to you. by the way, we did reach out to the school for a statement but have not heard back from them. what do you think about this state school spending over $10,000 for that stuff? e-mail us, friends at foxnews.com. meanwhile, eric holder in the hot seat over a border agent's death. >> you apologized to the family of brian terry? >> i have not apologized to them but certainly regret what happened. >> a friend of agent brian terry here live to sfond this morning. and first freddie and now fannie. billions of dollars in the hole. should taxpayers have to bail them out again? we're going to report. you're going to decide.

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>> hey, good morning, everyone. it's november 9th. hope you'll have a great wednesday. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks for sharing your time. huge win for unions in ohio. how did the results and others as kro the nation change the outlook now for 2012? we'll break it all down for you. >> herman cain fights back insisting he did not sexually harass anyone. and he'll take a lie detector test to prove it. one of his accusers says she's got a different idea. >> oh, boy. meanwhile, you watch the federal government bail them out and then you watched them collect big, fat cat bonuses, now some of the folks at fannie and freddie need another favor. another gigantic billion dollar plus bailout take two. "fox & friends" hour two for a wednesday starts right now. >> i'm gene simmons and you're

on "fox & friends." but of course you are. >> thank you very much, gene. by the way, to those -- to that school down in florida that bought the $10,000 worth of -- movie memorabilia and stuff, if you want to buy this $1,000. >> i almost had it. >> listen, they paid $10,000 for that other stuff, $1,000 for this. let me know. >> could you see what you could find out about this on american pickers? could you call those people over there? and let's find out, ok? thank you. >> we want to get our best person on it! >> thank you. >> i'll bet you $1,000 that's not worth $1,000. >> let's talk a little politics, shall we? yesterday there were elections in many, many states and there was a big one in ohio and this had to do with governor john kasich's law that he put into effect along with the legislature that would basically take away the bargaining rights for public unions and not allow them to strike. this one across the board from teachers to firefighters to police officers. but it was rejected.

>> yeah. it was sb-5, 61% rejected it. 39% did support it. john kasich himself after the defeat and he, you know, it is a crushing defeat for him because he really put a lot of his political -- >> he balanced the budget. >> absolutely. he did go on and hinted a little defiant and said look, local and county governments, don't look to your state capital to bail you out and we are out of money. nonetheless, he respects the voters' decision. >> frankly, i respect what people have to say in an effort like this and as a result of that, it required me to take a deep breath, you know, and spend some time reflecting on what happened here. >> there you go. what's interesting is republican leaders still hold a strong legislative majority in ohio.

so even though this particular measure was defeated, they still have got to balance the budget and the problems that led to the bill still exist in the hawkeye state. >> let's bring in ed gillespie, a former advisor to president bush and chairman. >> and we have a live shot of him now walking our direction. >> it's going to be great. not only did he run the rnc, he was a security advisor to president bush and a major role to play on the ground, he's in charge of making all the statehouses go republican so he's very intrigued about what happened in virginia because virginia seems to have beat 2020 in the senate there. giving them the power. >> come on over, where have you been? >> it gives the republicans -- maybe you can help us. this is live tv. >> hey! >> we're just discussing what happened. >> he was pricing out on e bay that light saber. >> and it was 2020 in virginia. >> it does give some sort of an edge to republicans. can you explain that to us? >> the lieutenant governor is republican and he casts the tiebreaking law, be able to organize and cast tiebreaking

votes and effectively control of the general assembly there. >> what does that say to you with regard to the 2012 presidential election because we know that president obama won virginia, first time in a long time it went democrat. >> since 1964, yep. i think it's a harbinger, the fact is he's going to be hard pressed to win virginia. bob mcdonald is the most popular republican governor in the country today. this will only be the second time since reconstruction that republicans have controlled the house, the senate and the executive branch in virginia. >> let's back up to what we were talking about a moment ago, ed, that's what's happened out in the state of ohio regarding the unions, collective bargaining thing. that's a defeat for the republicans. they did get a win regarding the health care initiative. >> right, so they had one in the plus column and one in the negative column. what does this mean for ohio? >> that it's split. ohio is a battleground state. you had it yesterday. you had a conservative side win on the repudiation of the health care, the obamacare bill and it will be again, i think, in 2012

the consummate battleground state. >> you like to learn lessons from victories and defeats and one of the lessons could be keep cops and firefighters out of it. is that the lesson? 340,000 people affected by it. >> significant difference between wisconsin and ohio in that regard. >> wisconsin did not -- >> the recall elections in wisconsin and we weren't able to do the same in ohio. lot more spending advantage, spending advantage for the unions in ohio than there was in wisconsin. >> if you were back running the rnc, though, would you advisory -- other states to follow in the footsteps of governor walker in wisconsin and governor kasich in ohio now that ohio has fallen to defeat. >> i would. they would not only be following in those footsteps but following in the footsteps of the governor from massachusetts and andrew cuomo of new york who have had to get their hands around these public employee, government union costs that are killing the state budgets and so i would say yes, they have to in order to balance their budgets and be able to, you know, keep our

schools functioning and get roads running. >> one small point to bring up about ohio. they say with president obama's low profile with so much at stake, it shows to a degree he's still radioactive in that state. >> without a doubt. >> pass without him and any work they were doing was under the radar. >> and in fact, you saw that really in all of these state elections, you know, no one on the democratic side wanted to show up with president obama. we saw every step of the way. >> all right. a year from yesterday will be election 2012 and there's going to be another republican candidate, presidential debate tonight. let's take a look at the very latest poll out. shows that mitt romney and herman cain are tied at 21%. newt has really surged at a dozen and rick perry is in the top four at 11%. when you look at those numbers, what's gonna happen? >> very fluent. i think it's exciting. we're less than two months away from the first votes being cast in iowa. things are going to accelerate very rapidly at this point. a lot of these candidates don't

defer to the state elections but they watch them and this is like labor day for, you know, in a typical election going forward, it will really accelerate and i think it's up for grabs and i think it's very fluid. >> can i make a prediction? >> yeah. >> remember when perry jumped in the race, he was attacked. cain went up, he got attacked, you know, from friendly fire but they had questions about 9-9-9 all of a sudden. guess who is surging. newt. now i look for newt's record to get an examination because people realize he's legitimate chance. >> i think that's a fair assessment, i think newt has been rising and obviously, there's been somebody who has been the not romney candidate throughout this process and it does look like newt is the next one. >> it's interesting to see where they place him position wise in this debate tonight, too, because, you know, they've been doing the two frontrunners in the center. now i'm assuming that rick perry may not have that positioning tonight. i don't know. it will be interesting to see where they put him -- >> if he's in the parking lot, he's in trouble. >> phone in. >> they have been focusing on

the two frontrunners with the questions. interesting to see with the whole herman cain situation how they decide that position tonight. >> i haven't seen but i'm interested to see. this is important relative to iowa caucuses. >> speaking of watching something, the dnc has got a new ad out as you can see right there where they blast governor romney over his positions in the past. what do you think about that? >> they talk about the bailout of the car companies in particular. >> i'm not sure they're right about this. they seem to have made an assumption and i do think that governor romney is probably in the strongest position at this point but it's fluid and people haven't yet voted but the democratic national committee seems to have assumed he's going to be the nominee. they've been on him for about a month now constantly putting out releases, constantly -- >> they're practicing. >> do they want that fight or not want that fight? the democratic party? >> the only fight they have is to disqualify the republican nominee.

if they assume it's him, they're going to right away because they can't run on president obama's record. just this last week alone, we've seen, you know, the poverty rate is at 16%, 46 million americans now below the poverty line. 1 in 5, 25 to 29-year-old males living at home with their parents because they can't get a job. >> so they got to distract. all right, ed, always a pleasure. >> thanks, steve. >> you can go now. >> rush him in, rush him out. >> thanks for having me. >> and when ed takes off, we'll do some headlines for you. let's talk about herman cain now because he's not dropping out of the race for president as he faces accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior from four different women. he's going to be at the republican debate in michigan tonight and peter doocy is live now at our washington bureau with the latest. good morning. >> good morning, gretchen. herman cain's wife gloria was not by his side yesterday in scottsdale. the candidate mentioned her saying when he spoke to the woman he's been married for over four decades, she told him she's known him for 46 years and her

description of events in the 90's doesn't sound like anything he'd do to anyone. cain was strong in his denials saying he's never acted inappropriately with anyone period and he would take a polygraph to prove it. >> i absolutely would. but i'm not going to do that unless i have a good reason to do that. look, that was one of the first comments that i made in washington to my staff. i've always shared that with my attorney. of course i would be willing to do a lie detector test. >> we now know at least two accusers' identities because 55-year-old blew her cover. now that she's out in the open, she wants to have a press conference with all the other women who were allegedly harassed and their attorneys if her employer will allow it. her employer is the treasury department and the obama administration. she previously worked for the clinton and bush administrations as well and she has a history of problems at work because according to the a.p., three years after she complained about cain she filed a complaint at her next job for unfair treatment there as well but

eventually dropped that complaint in 2003 when she went to work for the treasury department. gretchen? >> all right, peter doocy live for us in d.c., thanks very much for the update. couple other headlines for you now. penn state students rallying behind head football coach joe paterno after reports that his days at the school could be numbered. >> joe paterno! >> paterno thanked the adoring crowd outside of his home. there were so many students, it was nearly impossible to see him. >> hard for me to tell you how much this means to me, all right? you guys, i've lived for this place and lived for people like you guys and girls. >> critics say the 84-year-old paterno didn't do enough about former coach jerry sandusky. sandusky currently charged with sexually abusing eight young boys, at least eight, over a 15 year period. paterno was reportedly told about one of those incidents by an eye wnwitness.

he did not call police but told athletic director what happened. curley and vice president schultz are charged with perjury and lying to a grand jury. new video into fox news, police busting occupy houston protesters overnight. >> want democracy. >> six protesters under arrest for camping out on a city sidewalk. four others in custody for interference. they gave the protesters four warnings before they moved in and offered them to let them move their tents on to the grass. don't be alarmed if you hear a loud noise coming from your television or your radio today. fema and the fcc conducting a first ever nationwide test of the emergency alert system. so it's set to happen at 2:00 p.m. eastern time and will last, i think it's been downgraded now to about 30 seconds. the warning system allows the president to address the public during extreme emergencies. they just want to check it out to make sure it works.

originally they were going to let it be three minutes long. they thought that would be a little scary for people. i believe they've downgraded to 30 seconds. >> i love the loud beeps -- >> you'll hear them today. >> thank you. >> that's the old fax machine sound. >> yep. >> straight ahead, air he can -- eric holder in the hot seat over a border agent's death. >> have you apologize to the family of brian terry? auto i've not apologized to them but i certainly regret what happened. >> have you even talked to them? >> i have not. >> a friend of agent brian terry here live to respond next. >> then a close encounter with a chain saw. tense moments caught on live tv as a worker falls within inches of a spinning blade! oh, my goodness. straight ahead. the best approach to food is tkeep it whole for better nutrition.

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>> welcome back, everyone. attorney general eric holder testifying yesterday on the botched gun walking operation, fast & furious. he said some controversial remarks about slain border patrol agent brian terry. >> it is not fair, however, to assume the mistakes that happened in fast & furious directly led to the death of agent terry. again, my feelings of sympathy and regret go out to the terry family. >> lana domino was a good friend of agent brian terry and she's my guest this morning. good morning to you. >> good morning to you. >> i'd like to give you the opportunity for a moment to remember brian terry for the members of our audience today who maybe don't know that much about him. >> brian terry, he served as a marine when he was 18. he served as a police officer. and lastly, he served as a border patrol agent. so his whole life was dedicated

to his country. mr. holder's comments as far as he has regret and sympathies, i think, are very insincere. he never contacted the family. he could have written a letter. he never wrote a letter. he could have attended a memorial. there was plenty of memorial services. there was one in tucson, arizona, there was a funeral in michigan. he didn't attend those either. >> it sounded yesterday as if he didn't really even want to admit that fast & furious, the botched gun situation had anything to do with border agent terry's death, was that the impression you got? >> that's the impression i got. he says his regrets are the tactics of the program. he still has not taken accountability for the program should never have been created. he thinks the program, there was just tactical errors in the program and the program was fine. guns walking with no tracking devices?

two dead agents, 200 plus dead citizens of mexico? is ok? it's just a few errors and it's just -- it's just -- you can't even imagine guns being walked, dead agents and it being ok and saying, well, they're collateral damage and it's just a few errors. >> of course, brian terry was shot in december of 2010 and two of the guns found at the scene were part of this whole fast & furious operation. the other thing that struck me about the testimony yesterday was, i believe it was senator john cornin when he asked attorney general eric holder whether he wanted to use that moment in time to apologize to the terry family. he didn't do it. he said he regretted it and gave condolences but did not say the word apologize. your thoughts? >> this is personal for me. eric holder is not accepting any type of accountability.

and he doesn't want to admit that the program was wrong. he doesn't want to admit that the fast and furious guns found at the scene of his murder were the guns that actually were the reason why he was killed and what he was killed by. he is still saying to focus on don't lose sight and focus on the focal point of we have a gun problem and we need to implement gun laws rather than focusing on that you have a dead federal agent so the focal point to him is still about gun control and implementing new laws. >> right. >> well, if guns weren't walking, we wouldn't have as big of a problem, would we? >> we appreciate your time this morning remembering brian terry and, of course, you can go to your web site, rememberbrianterry.com. it will be linked to our web site as well. thanks so much for remembering your friend this morning. >> thank you. and we're having a benefit in his honor november 12th in

scottsdale at the scottsdale international auto museum. so they can go to the web site. >> thanks so much, lana. we'll be right back with more "fox & friends." [ male annouer ] juice drink too watery? ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fru and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8.

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>> welcome back. the plan was to build a new federal courthouse in the city of los angeles. the project has taken 20 years and cost $150 million so far. get this -- not a single shovel has hit the ground. and there's $400 million set aside for the project somewhere. so why are tax dollars going to be thrown away for this? joining us right now is the chairman of the house subcommittee on economic development, public buildings and emergency management, california congressman jeff denham joins us from the city of angels. good morning to you, congressman. >> good morning.

>> ok, 10 years ago, it was projected that the city of los angeles was going to need this and we've got a big graphic we're going to show people, why did they think they would need the extra courtroom and courthouse? >> they were planning on judges but never came about. we've had these not only vacancies but projections, projections that every year they're changed and yet, we've gone actually backwards in l.a. on the amount of judges that we have and we have vacancies in the current courtroom. >> that's just crazy. and you just had a tour, i understand, of the new -- the newer secure courthouse. and it's clear to you that there's plenty of space there. >> absolutely. in fact, you know, even by general services' own estimation, we should be doing courtroom sharing which means these courtrooms that are used an hour and a half a day could be utilized three hours a day. in l.a. not only do we have any courtroom sharing but we have

vacancies in the current building that we could move more judges in today. so even the government accountability offices come out and said this $400 million expenditure is not needed and we ought to be selling one of the other courthouses that has vacancies as well. >> that would make sense. why haven't they done that? >> you know, it's a challenge that we face across the nation where local congressmen will fight for this district. here in california and l.a., the local members have all come out against this. they want to see the expenditure. new courthouse at any cost. i want to do things smarter. i want to do things better. i think the people have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent and this is a problem that we have across the entire nation where we've built a courthouse and then we have hundreds of thousands of square feet that is sitting vacant next door in these cities. >> sure. and like you said a moment ago, a lot of these courtrooms are only used an hour and a half a day. this thing would cost close to a half a billion dollars and you

don't need it. this essentially is the courthouse to nowhere. >> absolutely. and in fact, again, the government accountability office has come back and said we don't need this. i mean this is $400 million that should be going back to the treasury and then we could, you know, if you want to create jobs, here's a vacant piece of property in downtown l.a., you know, sell it to the private sector. allow somebody to come in and redevelop the land and not only create the construction jobs but the ongoing jobs, you know, in downtown l.a. it can be replicated across the nation. >> here's what your colleague in the u.s. senate says. she says this courthouse has been on the drawing board since i came to the senate. a new facility is necessary for a properly functioning justice system. it's time to get it done. well, i guess we've got money to burn, according to her! >> yeah, at any cost, whether it's needed or not. i mean, that's the frustrating point is we've already proven it's not needed and there are those that want to go out and spend the money regardless. >> all right. congressman, thank you very much for getting up so early out

there in los angeles today. >> my pleasure. thank you. >> all right. how crazy is that? they don't need it and it's still on the books. e-mail us, friends at foxnews.com. how can they change that? meanwhile, what happens at gitmo today would never have happened if president obama got his way to shut it down. the very first military tribunal for an accused terrorist is about to get started again. and have you heard about the christmas tree tax? it just got the government's stamp of approval and wait until you hear what they're going to do with the money. ho ho hold everything! [ male announcer ] have you heard? it's bring your happiness to work day. campbell's microwavable soups. in three minutes -- the deliciousness that brings a smile to any monday. campbell's -- it's amazing what soup can do.

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a new kind of broadband company committed to providing honest, personal service from real people... 5-year price-lock guarantees... consistently fast speeds... and more ways to customize your technology. ♪ >> all right. time for your shot of the morning. it looks something like this. talk about getting too close to the razor's edge. >> this was the scene all over illinois. many trees uprooted right out of the ground. >> yikes! >> wow, if you missed it, take another look. this is the result of storm damage in illinois. the remains of a downed tree almost threw that man right into the chain saw. the blade coming within inches of his face. luckily, the guy is just fine and that reporter might have had to change topics real quick. >> no kidding. >> move real quick. >> yikes! >> that guy is lucky. >> let's do some headlines for your wednesday morning and an

accused al-qaida terrorist will be arraigned at gitmo today. that's in cuba, of course. abd al nashiri is charged with planning the bombing of the u.s.s. cole in yemen 11 years ago. that attack killed 17 american sailors and wounded 37 others. it's the first death penalty case at gitmo since president obama took office. he was waterboarded during his interrogation and they are trying to have the confession thrown out. our chief correspondent catherine herridge is coming up live the next hour with more on this story. >> police in washington state saying nothing about the story given to them about a missing 2-year-old boy's mother adds up. nothing. they believe he is a victim of foul play. he went missing sunday morning after being left in an unlocked car. the boy's mother told authorities she ran out of gas and left him sleeping while she and her 4-year-old daughter walked to a gas station to call for help. officials say there was no sign of forced entry or signs of car trouble. right now, police have no

suspects but appear to be focusing on the mother. she and the boy's father are currently going through a divorce and custody battle. >> all right. first freddie mac. now fannie mae asking for more taxpayer money to bail them out. fannie mae is asking for $7.5 billion, that's the life line they're begging for. this comes as the ceo of freddie mac asked for $5.6 million. they got $13 million in bonuses this year. let's do that math. they received $170 billion in bailout money. that combined and everything since the collapse three years ago. >> house minority leader nancy pelosi in the "60 minutes" cross hairs? pelosi expected to be the subject of a report airing this sunld. cbs news magazine is reportedly investigating legislative action he pelosi oversaw that may have

benefited her husband's stock investments. steve cross grilled pelosi about the matter at a press conference. >> in time for the holidays, the obama administration is adding a christmas tree tax. government grinching $0.15 out of your pocket on the sale of all fresh christmas trees from farms that raise at least 500 trees. the department of agriculture says it needs the money to pay for a new program that's supposed to improve the image and marketing of real christmas trees. majority of commercial christmas trees farms are in favor of this. they say it will help boost their sales. they should get $2 million to help promote the smell of christmas. all right, mr. kilmeade, time for the stories. >> the situation is getting very dire for the nba lockout negotiations. propos they're probably not going to have a season. they want another meeting with the owners before tomorrow's 5:00 p.m. deadline to accept -- to look at the current offer. commissioner david stern has said if the players don't accept, players can expect much worse offers in the future. union executive billy hunter

says he might be willing to accept a 50/50 split of revenue but other players say no way. last week, eli manning in dramatic fashion threw a game-winning touchdown to beat tom brady and the patriots in new england. it was a stunner! and it was a lot like the 2007 super bowl when michael strahan was on the giants but now he's a fair and balanced analyst there to call football games, not to be a fan and not to be a giant. let's see how it went on the set of fox "nfl sunday." >> check out michael strahan during the end of the giants-new england game. watching it. hey! i wonder what just happened. you think the giants just scored to go ahead? >> michael getting a chance to stomp out new england like the old days. >> you know what? my reaction is look at everybody on the show. you guys are up there because you're hating on me because you wanted me to lose that game. >> that's having fun. the other guys didn't even move as the guy that's 6'6" jumping

up and down next to him. he'll always be a member of the big blue on and off the field. it's only been three years. rides the wave of a lifetime, this guy. this is garrett mcnemara riding a 90 foot wave off the coast of portugal. this wave could have come down on him at any time. he breaks the world record for biggest wave ever surfed. his mom must be so mad at him. these waves are considered some of the best in the world. i will say that's the best wave ever. by the way, coming up on radio a little bit later, we'll analyze the debate with mark mckinnon. looks at the reality of the situation on the ground. an army veteran who knows how to get army veterans a real job in the real world and joe garner, the best football players of all time he'll be joining me in the studio. >> let's talk about another story happening in florida. that is over the jail system, the prison system down there. one prisoner is suing, get this, for cruel and unusual punishment

because half of the food that they eat down there is based in soy. why? because to give meat at most of the meals would be doubly as expensive. right now they're working on a $47 million food budget and the prison officials say that would double if they had to give up the soy and actually serve more meat which, of course, is more expensive. >> so the inmate's name is eric harris. he's serving a life sentence down there. he's suing to get some meat in his diet. he doesn't -- apparently, now think whether or not this sounds good to you. apparently, they're serving currently inmates soy ladened entrees called southern barbecue, meatloaf and meaty macaroni which does not have any meat in it. >> they have a stroganoff there? >> they do have a stroganoff. i saw that somewhere. but i think it's the real stroganoff. >> because the last time i had stroganoff, hamburger helper which we nicknamed hamburger herder, you're like what did i do? let me just say this on top of

it. this guy is a heinous criminal, too. >> where in the world are prisoners guaranteed a right to meat? >> right. >> or even -- well, i guess we got to give them three meals a day. i don't know. what do you think about this? is this lawsuits gone amok that somebody would actually be able to sue over this? and what will it do to the florida taxpayers if in fact they win this lawsuit? get ready to pay more taxes. right now you're giving $47 million a year to the food budget. >> does your heart go out to the sex offender? >> the ironic thing is some nutritionists say if you eat less meat, you'll actually live longer so if he eats more soy, this guy, serving a life sentence could actually live longer. >> could point, steve. >> you're welcome! >> right. 21 minutes after the hour. would your money be better off if you abandoned the big banks and went for gretchen's pillowcase? financial expert dave ramsey is answering your e-mail. put it under the bed under the mattress. >> ok.

i thought there was something else going on with that analogy. then he knows washington is broken. after all, he helped break it. one of the most well known lobbyists turned criminal will be here live telling us in his new book. >> we're going to the mattresses. what's better than gold ? free gold ! we call that hertz gold plus rewards. you earn free days, free weeks and more fast. that's a plus. upgrade your ride. that's a plus. rewards with no blackout dates so you can redeem anytime. and it's easy to redeem your points online. already a gold member ? just select gold plus rewards in your profile and start rewarding yourself now. just go to hertzgoldplusrewards.com to join. hertz gold plus rewards. journey on.

>> if you're fed up with bank fees, you might be tempted to take your money and run but would you cash your checks at wal-mart? their money centers allow customers to cash checks, pay bills and wire money overseas. >> ok, is it a good idea to say good-bye to your bank all together? dave ramsey is a personal finance expert and author of "entree leadership" and he joins us live today from nashville. good morning to you. >> good morning, guys. >> well, explain how this wal-mart thing works.

>> well, wal-mart has been trying to enter the banking space for sometime and, of course, they're very good about entering about any space they want to, they have such a huge number of distribution points and such brand recognition and a lot of customers that go in there are not banking customers. there's a percentage of our population that doesn't have a bank. and so they were trying to open up themselves to that. they've decided not to get formally in the banking business but instead just do the things like you were talking about. >> gotcha. >> good idea to choose a smaller bank situation? are you recommending that? >> absolutely. absolutely. big is not bad. big is bad when it loses its connectivity to its customers and that's what's happened with the citibanks and the bank of americas and the wells fargo. that's why people's reaction to this is. if you don't like fees with any organization large or small, hey, it's america. it's capitalism. go shopping. and in the banking world, what you'll find is your small community bank still has its soul and still will sit and talk to you, knows who you are. it's like friends where everyone

knows your name. same thing is true with your local community bank. >> t.d. bank always says hello to me when i walk in. they don't my name. they have a person just to say hello. >> then they have the change counter that's fantastic. >> which the kids can go to. >> we have e-mail for you this morning. mark from idaho writes, dave, we are trying to get a mortgage through a big bank. we are debt free and therefore, don't have much of a credit history. we clearly qualify for the loan. do you think it's worthwhile to try a credit union in our hometown instead? >> well, absolutely. or again, your small town community bank. your regional bank because they're going to actually look at you not just as a number called a fico score, they can do what's called manual underwriting. if they choose to keep the loan, that's called portfolioing the loan, they can write the loan however they want to write it. if they're going to sell it, they have to write it to those underwriting guidelines regardless of the size of the bank. >> all right. madison from tennessee has this question. dave, i'm about to graduate in december and move to a new city

with a job thankfully. i will need to open a new bank account. i've researched banks in the area. can i negotiate the fees on the account? are there deals for recent college grads? good question. >> there's deals for everything. there's student accounts. anything else you're buying, banking, it's interesting that everyone is waking up and saying we need to go shopping finally instead blindly walking in and paying whatever they say. like anything else, do your homework and make a good purchase. >> excellent, we made a great decision to call you to join us today. great dave ramsey joining us from nashville. thank you, sir. of course, if folks have questions for them, e-mail us at friends at foxnews.com. >> our next guest knows washington is broken because he's one of them that helped to break it. jack abrahamoff will be here live next. >> but first on this day in 1976, the number one song "island girl" by elton john.

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>> the nation's premier political insider at one point until a scandal involving some of the country's most influential lawmakers sent him to jail and now he's talking about it in his brand new book. jack abramoff and his business partner got rich scamming their native american clients and pocketing the cash. that according to a jury. tens of millions of dollars were missing. he pled guilty in 2006 to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion. now, he says he wants to make amends starting with exposing what really goes on behind the scenes in washington. his new book is called "capital

punishment" it's excellent. good morning, jack abramoff. >> good morning. >> almost from the moment you went to jail, people wonder what does jack abramoff know? this book lets you know what you did and what you do know. first off, jack, did you do wrong? >> yes. yes. i crossed lines. >> how? >> you know, where i -- i crossed a number of lines. basically i was engaged in a battle constantly on behalf of my clients and eventually i stopped seeing where the line in the sand was drawn. and so i crossed those lines and i was punished for it. >> and if i'm a client of yours and i want to make sure that my issue gets if front of the right lawmaker that's going to get my issue forward whether it's my company or my passion, i have to go look for a lobbyist. so i might go look for jack abramoff because i heard he's the best. what's wrong with that chain? where did you get off -- where did you get off base and where's the system corrupt? >> well, i think both the system is corrupt and certainly what i was doing was corrupt. in terms of the system, you had a system where basically people can go to public officials, people who work for the congress, people who are in the

congress and the administration and give them gifts and give them gratuities and ingratiate themselves to them and affect a decision that should be made on merit only. that's a problem. >> you think it's still happening today even though they said they've reformed the system. in what way have they reformed the system? >> i think the reforms are basically bandages they put on the system. they're there to make sure they can pat each other on the back and say they reformed the system but real reform that separate the corruption out of the system has not been done yet. >> what did you do wrong? if you were just being a great lobbyist, you were an effective lobbyist and being a great lobbyist, did you actually take money that didn't belong to you from these indian groups that needed your influence? >> what i -- >> where's that money now? >> what i did is i worked on behalf of my clients, indian tribes included and i didn't let them know that i was sharing in the profits of the companies that i was working with for them. i did a lot of work for them and saved them billions of dollars but at the end of the day, it was my duty and obligation to

inform them exactly where the money was going to go. and ultimately, where's the money today? i gave about 80% of the money i made away to charity and to communal efforts. so, unfortunately, i don't have a lot of it myself or hardly any of it. but , you know, i was -- i did a lot of good for the clients and unfortunately, wound up crossing some lines. >> when we see scandals like what seems to be a scandal like solyndra where somebody has incredible influence and incredible amount of money and they go bankrupt, why did we give the money to begin with? i thought it was an emergency stimulus bill that was supposed to help our country get back on its feet. since when are we venture capitalis capitalists? is that a symptom of what you write about? >> every stimulus bill stimulates lobbyists and creates more opportunities for lobbyists and when there's money there, they go for the money and i did as well when i was a lobbyist. when the pot of money out of the american public's pocket is available, people are going to compete for it and that's the problem. >> are people still in the system today that you believe are corrupt?

>> yes. >> who are they? >> i have a list. no, i think the problem is this, there's illegal corruption and then there's legal corruption. most of the corruption is not illegal. most of the time people don't cross those lines. the problem is that it's legal to do certain things there that it shouldn't be legal to do! i mean, one is basically able to control congressional offices through these various lobbyist techniques and it shouldn't be allowed. one is to leave public service and cash in and become a lobbyist. all of that perverts the system. >> in the big picture, i look at a guy here who had millions and millions of dollars and go to any nfl and basketball game around the world and most of the people around the world are calling you for advice. and the next thing you know, three years ago, a prison door closes behind you and you're all alone in a cell. what was that like being you at that point? >> horrible. horrible. when one is taken away, you lose your freedom, you lose your family, you lose everything.

it's indescribable how terrible it is. i talk about it in the book. the experience of going into the prison, first question they ask you is where would you look your body shipped if you die in here? you know, it's a stunning moment in one's life. >> wow. and jack, at what point in your prison stay did you say wow, have i screwed up and i want to fix the system and write my story. >> it started really at the beginning. as soon as i realized that i crossed lines, as soon as the 2 x 4 -- >> before the jury verdict? >> sure. before i pled, before i was probably under -- before i even went to the senate hearing. as soon as i sat down and i was out of the business and i looked at my life and i said what was i doing? i had the opportunity to start the process. but in prison, i was able to find out a way with ways to reform the system putting myself in the shoes of those who would, perhaps, oppose it. >> right now, you unfortunately are comfortable in saying there's no politician that's immune from lobbyists. >> there are a few. there are a few. but most of the politicians,

most of the people in politics, unfortunately, it's part of the system. the entire system just needs some changing. so that the american people come first and not the special interests. >> and when will that happen? how do you plan to make that happen? >> i'm not going to plan to make it happen. i'm done being a lobbyist. >> you want to fix the system. >> yes, i want to educate people what's going on. you can't change something until you know what's actually happening. and that's the purpose of my book is to tell people what's really going on in washington. >> that's exactly what you did in "capital punishment". jack abramoff in the studio, thanks so much. meanwhile at 4 minutes before the top of the hour, the fast & furious scandal landing eric holder in the hot seat yesterday. did he duck the questions? the senator who was asking them or one of them, senator john cornin of texas will be here live at the top of the hour and then reports that the president was caught on an open mike rumbling about israel's prime minister, could that cost him your support? we'll report, you decide. looking good! you lost some weight.

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>> gretchen: good morning, everyone. hope you're going to have a great wednesday. it's november 9. i'm gretchen carlson. a big victory for big labor. unions winning back the right to bargain in ohio. crucial battle ground state coming up. so what does it tell us about 2012? >> steve: meanwhile, herman cain fights back, insisting he did not sexually harass anybody. he's willing to take a lie detector test to prove it. one of his accusers says she's got a different idea. we'll explain straight ahead. >> brian: what happens at guantanamo bay if president obama got his way and shut it down? we're live at gitmo for the very first military tribunal of an alleged terrorist. "fox & friends" starts right

now. >> it's "fox & friends." >> steve: welcome aboard. military tribunal at gitmo? that was never going to happen under this administration. >> brian: we're finding out how it goes because i still think if the president is going to pull us out of afghanistan and iraq, does he want to make it three for three and say i'm closing gitmo before i'm done? >> gretchen: i'm not sure because we still got to find out what's going to happen to khalid shaikh mohammed. >> steve: he's there now, isn't he? >> brian: yes. he's not going anywhere. we have better accommodations than those at zuccotti pork. >> gretchen: herman cain refuse to go drop out of the race for president as he faces allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior from four different women. he'll be in michigan for the presidential debate. he denies all allegations and says he'd take a lie detector

test. >> i absolutely would. but i'm not gog do that unless i have a good reason to do that. that was one of the first comments i made in washington to my staff. i've also shared that with my attorney. of course i would be willing to do a lie detector test. >> gretchen: there is a new report about the latest accuser to come forward. the associated press reports that three years after she settled a harassment complaint against cain, she filed another complaint at her next job. she claimed a manager was circulate ago sexually charged e-mail, but eventually dropped that complaint. now she's trying to get cain's three other accusers together for a group press conference. two big ballot issues rejected in yesterday's elections. voters in ohio threw out a law that would have limited collective bargaining rights for unionized public workers. it would have set new minimum contributions for health care and retirement. more than 55% of voters in mississippi rejected the so-called personhood initiative. it would have declared life

begins at conception. the proposal came from a colorado-based group. personhood usa. its co-founder says he plans to renew efforts in the state. penn state students rallying behind head football coach joe paterno after reports that his days at the school could be numbered now. he thanked the crowd outside of his home. there were so many students, it was nearly impossible to see him >> i can't tell you how much this means to me. i've lived through this place, through you guys and girls. >> gretchen: critics say the 84-year-old didn't do enough about former coach jerry sandusky. he currently is charged with sexually abusing at least eight young boys over a 15-year period. paterno was reportedly told about one of those for instance an eyewitness. he did not call police. instead, he called athletic director tim curly what

happened. cully and school vice president are charged with purge and lying to a grand jury. the votes couldn't save her. another star leaving the dance floor. >> nancy and tristan. >> gretchen: nancy grace and tristan booted from "dancing with the stars" last night. just one week shy of the show's semifinals. the two were in last place. they had 44 out of 60 points. grace says she's proud of all of her accomplishments and doing a cart wheel like that. pretty good. not sure i'd want to try doing that right now. >> brian: she got this far, that's a tremendous accomplishment. >> steve: now she's back on cable. let's go down to gitmo where one of the alleged master minds of the uss cole bombing will stand in front of a judge today. >> brian: the death penalty on the table. chief intelligence correspondent katherine live for us. what's the mood? do you get the sense this is the

first of many? >> well, you get the sense this is really a test case as to whether the u.s. government will be able to pursue the death penalty. also in the 9-11 prosecution. that will begin an hour from now in the high security courthouse 50 yards over my shoulder and for some context, this is the first time anyone outside the military or the intelligence community has seen the suspect in the cole case since captured in 2002. >> i really want to see this guy get the death penalty. >> of course news first met john and his wife, gloria, nearly three years ago at arlington national cemetery. >> he's buried there. >> their son, 21-year-old kenneth, was one sailer killed when terrorists attacked the uss cole. the blast was so strong, they buried their son three times because the navy kept finding more of his remains.

>> we got a daughter-in-law, this is her husband. then you got your grandson and he doesn't understand why his mommy cries all the time. >> the al-qaeda attack happened three months before bill clinton left office. it was overshadowed by 9-11 and then put on hold by the obama administration. >> we thought this day would never come. >> 11 years later, john will fly with other families to the military court. >> he would more or less say go get him, dad. go get him. i'm telling him, i'm doing the best i can. >> he was one of three high value detainees to be water boarded in the secret prison and subjected to at least one mock execution and evidence in this case was destroyed, guys. >> gretchen: all right. thanks very much for the live report all the way from gitmo in cuba. thank you. to washington, attorney general eric holder is feeling the heat.

john cornyn grilling him over his handling of the atf gun running operation, fast and furious. >> i cannot be expected to know the details of every operation that is ongoing in the justice department on a day-to-day basis. i did not know about fast and furious. >> there were memos with your name on it addressed to you referring to the fast and furious operation. are you just saying you didn't read them? >> i didn't receive them. >> have you apologized to the family of brian terry? >> i have not apologized to them, but i certainly regret what happened. >> have you seen talked to them? >> i have not. >> steve: senator john cornyn joins us from our nation's capitol. good morning to you. that was something. >> good morning. it's unfortunate that the attorney general continues to basically not cooperate with congress in doing our oversight responsibilities. this is a program that went terribly wrong, resulted in the death of at least one american, 119 weapons ended up in texas alone, and the attorney general has not cooperated with congress

and indeed, has misled congress about what this program consisted of and seems unwilling to help us get to the bottom of it to make sure it never happens again. >> gretchen: when you ask him whether or not he has apologized to the terry family, what were you hoping or expecting him to say? >> i was trying to give him an opportunity to do the right thing, but even then he declined to do that. i think the united states government agency that is part of the department of justice that facilitated the shipment of these weapons into mexico to be used by the drug cartels and ended up being used on brian terry, u.s. law enforcement officer, is absolutely inexcusable and i gave the attorney general an opportunity to apologize and he still didn't do it. >> brian: is it plausible to you, and you're a judge, you understand when people come up and -- you're a judge, in your background, could the attorney general possibly have not known about this until recently?

do you think he was there in on this from the beginning? >> brian, he either knew or he should have known. i'm not sure which is worse. we know that they intentionally misled congress with a letter saying this program did not exist on february 4, 2011. the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, lainy brewer, testified november 1, 2011 that, in fact, february letter was false. but nowhere during the interim did the attorney general cry to correct the false impression left with congress that this program did not exist. so i think -- i'm not sure whether the intentionally misleading congress is the worst part or the imcompetence at knowing what is happening within the agency and holding no one accountable. >> steve: you're referring to the letter that he sent -- the department of justice sent to chuck grassley in february. do you, senator, feel the attorney general of the united states in his testimony

yesterday before you was truthful and honest? >> well, i'm still trying to sort that out. again, he's not a stupid man. he's an intelligent man and i think he should know better. but he displayed a singular lack of curiousity about what is happening within his own department and his held no one accountable. i think there is still a lot more questions that need to be answered before we're through with this and the attorney general i did not think acquitted himself well. >> gretchen: can i ask you one question about the super committee? >> sure. >> gretchen: a lot of americans are waiting with baited breath to see whether or not there will be any kind of an agreement on this $1.2 trillion by november 23. it's less than two weeks away. what are you hearing and are you optimistic? >> well, of course, typically what happens around here is we approach a deadline and looks like things are all jammed up and then all of a sudden, something breaks and there is a negotiated outcome. i hope that's what happens here. failure is not an option.

it will send a terrible message that congress is unable to solve the nation's biggest problems and this is indeed not a solution, but it's just a start. the outcome with the automatic sequestration, automatic cuts are unacceptable to most of us here. so i hope they are successful. we're all waiting with baited breath. >> brian: failure isn't an option, there is a strong feeling among your colleagues that the president doesn't want a deal? >> unfortunately, the president's quit governing and taking to campaigning full time. and he's campaigning against congress saying we're unwilling to work with him. but in fact, when we try, he rejects even reasonable alternative solutions. the american people are going to have to sort this out in november 2012, but it's a shame that we're losing so much opportunity to do so much good to hopefully get america back to work in the interim. >> steve: the texas senator, john cornyn, we thank you for joining us from capitol hill. >> thank you.

>> gretchen: big labor scored a big victory in ohio. what does that mean for labor unions in other parts of the country? will they make a comeback? our panel is going to tackle that issue coming up next. >> brian: then this christmas the government is slapping a taxen on your tree. they claim it's for a good cause. what do you think? we're reading our e-mails and our lips will start moving and we'll start talking out loud. [ male annouer ] juice drink too watery? ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm!

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and i swear by it. [ male announcer ] osteo bi-flex, the glucosamine chondroitin suppment with 5-loxin advanced. shows improvement in joint comfort within 7 days. osteo bi-flex, my knees thank you. [ male announcer ] osteo bi-flex. the #1 doctor and pharmacist recommended brand. >> gretchen: voters in ohio overwhelmingly rejected a new law last night that restricted collective bargaining rights for public sector workers and force workers to pay at least 15% of their health care costs. it's a defeat for republican governor john kasich and a big victory for organized labor. is this a preview of president

obama's chances in 2012? our political panel is here, linda chavez a fox news contributor and former labor secretary nominee. robert george is a columnist for the "new york post." and john is the white house commentator and u.s. political analyst for sky news. good morning, panel. >> good morning. >> gretchen: so linda, you just debated this exact topic at harvard yesterday. are you surprised by the results? >> not at all. first of all, this was a do or die issue for the labor unions. they spent $30 million, put in 17,000 troops on the ground to go door to door to work this issue. they outspent the opposition four to one. so i wasn't at all surprised. they had to do this in order not to basically lose the ability to collect dues in the state of ohio for public sector employees. i wouldn't read too much into this in terms of the national issue. >> gretchen: you wouldn't? >> and keep in mind, since the wisconsin law went in, which sort of energized the labor movement over this, they're

really only one and one because they tried using recalls to take back the state senate in wisconsin and ultimately failed. so as linda said, they didn't want to be down. they didn't want to be down 0-2 on something like this. actually as far as conservatives and republicans are concerned, they're not necessarily, even though they would have liked to have actually won on the law, the fact that labor is spending so many of its resources on these things means it has less money to go to candidates. >> gretchen: that's an interesting analysis. john, here is my question: do you believe that in ohio, they overstepped their reach, because it was a different law than what wisconsin put on the books. >> absolutely right, gretchen. and this time the republicans, as ofttimes democrats do, overreach their mandate. governor kasich has really taken a public and humiliating political spanking on this one. >> gretchen: do any of you believe this will be, though,

sort of emblematic of what we might see in 2012? >> i don't think so, gretchen, because i really do think that this was an off year election. you had an issue on the ballot which for one group of people really mattered. those are the people who turned out for this issue. it's not going to be big. >> gretchen: but ohio is such an important state for the presidential election. >> keep in mind, there was also another big measure on there which basically repudiated the idea of a health care individual mandate. so you've got mixed signals there. on the one hand the voters were in a sense going pro- going left, pro labor and so forth. but also going against one of the president's signature accomplishments. >> gretchen: john christopher, one of the ramifications could be governor kasich will say you have to cut jobs now. >> as linda will say, as my honored guests will also say, this we now live in a global borderless economy and it's about time the unions and businesses got together at the table and worked out a solution

because instead of creating job, we are losing jobs and this is a key state not only for obama, but for america. this is a state where people who belong to these organizations, firefighters, et cetera, are part of the community and people need to understand that it's not the fat cats they're fighting. it's the average working citizen. >> gretchen: stick around panel because coming up next, the president's open mike moment. if he was caught grumbling about israel's prime minister, will -- he was actually caught. will he lose the jewish support as a result? then a prison inmate sues 'cause he doesn't like the food behind bars. should he be able to do that? we're reading your e-mails and your tweets coming up.

>> steve: you want some headlines? six occupy houston, texas protesters under arrest for camping out on a city sidewalk. four others released with tickets for interfering with police officers. cops say they gave the protesters four warnings before they moved in. even offered to let them move their tents. there they go. moscow, we have a problem again. the russian space program's mission to martian moon declared a failure after lift-off. the launch went as planned, but then a $163 million unmanned space vehicle veered off course due to engine problems. that is a problem. gretch, over to you. >> gretchen: beware of the open

mike, especially if you're a world leader and you're bad mouthing another world leader. reporters allegedly overheard what was supposed to be a private conversation at the g-20 summit between french president sarkozy and president obama. so here is a snippet of it. sarkozy says, i cannot bear netanyahu, he's a liar. he's speaking about the israeli prime minister. obama says, you're fed up with him? i have to deal with him every day. so will this cost president obama the jewish vote? we're back with our political panel. i'm going to go to linda chavez because she said something to the point in the commercial break and that was? >> i think this is the most anti-israel administration in the history of the state of israel. >> gretchen: why? >> i think president obama just -- he does not have the same kind of viceral for the state of israel. there is no love lost between those two men, but i think it goes deeper. he has gone into the arab world and said things that i think have just been really beyond the

pail in terms of what an american president should be doing in terms of the state of israel. >> gretchen: i know somebody who agrees with you and that is senator john mccain. listen to this. >> israel is under more pressure and probably more danger than they've been since the '67 war and that kind of comment is not only helpful, but indicative of some of the policies toward israel that this administration has been part of. >> gretchen: so john christopher, what should the president have said to sarkozy when he said netanyahu is a liar? what should he have said? >> it's rude. >> gretchen: shut the mouth? >> i'm not saying a word. look, we all know the president and hillary clinton, this white house has come up with a two-state solution. that's what they're proposing. what linda said is there is no love affair going on between netanyahu and barak obama. that's clear. but this administration, as since harry truman's administration, has been a staunch ally of the state of

israel. they believe in the two-state solution. they're not letting the french push them around and they're not letting the u.n. push them around. this is what it is. the republicans will use it as a reject issue. >> gretchen: the jewish voters might disagree with you because i want to show you in june 2009, 83% of the jewish voters were in favor of president obama. in september 2011, that dropped to 54%. robert, what do you make of that >> part of that is obama's collapse on a whole lot of issues. but we saw it right here in new york, in the 9th congressional district, which has not gone -- had not been republican since the 1920s and it has one of the largest segments of the jewish population in the entire country. it went republican. obama, i think, pivoted at the u.n. general assembly, had really strong statements in support of israel, but this story is definitely going to

fritter that away and i think it's costing -- linda was saying in the break as well where it's going to really hurt is in fundraising for democrats and for the president. >> this story is in ado about nothing. the alternative for the jewish vote is perhaps a mormon? i don't think so. >> gretchen: i think, frankly, this -- >> this country will always be pro-israel because the american people are pro-israel and congress is pro-israel. so as bad as president obama is, there is not a whole lot he can do with it with even democrats and republicans in congress supporting the state of israel. >> gretchen: all right. thanks very much. interesting discussion today. coming up on our show, last week it was freddy. guess what? now it's fannie. billions in the hole and wants more of your taxpayer money. should we have to bail them out again? we'll report and you decide. plus, the government slapped a tax on your christmas tree but say there is an important reason why. what do you think? we're reading your thoughts on this one coming up. are you in the christmas season already? you feeling it? [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu uss chose prego.

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but when they come home, they don't want a parade; they want a job. the postal service employs more veterans than any other civilian employer. but congress is debating a bill that would force the postal service to fire tens of thousands of vets, close post offices, shut mail processing plants, and disrupt mail delivery. drastic cuts won't fix the postal service

and aren't needed. tell your representative to vote "no" on house resolution 2309. it's time to deliver for our veterans -- and america. here's one story. [ regis ] we love to play tennis. as a matter of fact it was joy who taught me how to play tennis. and with it comes some aches and pains and one way to relieve them all is to go right to the advil®. i have become increasingly amazed at regis's endurance. it's scary sometimes what he accomplishes in a day. well i'd rather not have time for pain but unfortunately it does comes your way every now and then. and that's when i take my advil®. [ male announcer ] take action. take advil®. >> steve: welcome back. we told you a little while ago about this guy who is serving a life sentence down in florida. he's upset because the penal

system down there is trying to save some money and so what they're trying to do is integrate more soy products in their diet rather than meat. >> brian: you're talking about eric harris. >> steve: eric harris. >> brian: he's suing! >> steve: he says the soy is causing problems and he wants meat. >> gretchen: except that the budget right now for food per year is $47 million. it would double, according to prison officials, if they add more meat to the menu down there. so what do you think about this? should the prisoner who is a pedophile and serving a life sentence have a right to sue the prison over this? >> brian: i have an idea where the viewers are heading with this. >> gretchen: read the first tweet. >> gretchen: prisoners don't have right. they have the ride to a bed and obey the laws. no sympathy. >> steve: scott says of course he should be allowed to eat meat. that's cruel and unusual punishment. you act like prisoners, don't have no rights. >> gretchen: david from massachusetts, let him have road

kill. no innocent cows or chickens have to die. >> brian: squirrel for lunch. >> steve: maybe while they're out on the chain gang. >> brian: they don't do that knee more. >> steve: yeah, they do. >> brian: they still do chain gangs? >> gretchen: maybe in arizona. i think sheriff arpaio was doing a program like that. >> brian: we have a special guest. police in washington state say the story from the mother of a missing two-year-old just does not add up. they believe sky is a victim of foul play. he went missing sunday morning after being locked in -- left in an unlocked car. the boy's mom told authorities she ran out of gas and left him sleeping while she and her four-year-old daughter walked to a gas station to call for help. officials say there is no sign of forced entry or signs of car trouble. right now police have no suspects. they appear to be focusing on the mother. she and the father are going

through a divorce and custody battle. >> gretchen: another day, another nuclear threat from ahmadinejab. in a televised speech, he said iran will not retreat from its nuclear program. but at the same time he denies a new report from the u.n. that irrelevant rap is on the brink of developing a nuclear bomb. ahmadinejab says iran does not need nukes to confront the u.s. and the u.s. would regret any confrontation with his country. >> steve: first freddie mac, now fannie mae asking for even more of our taxpayer money to bail them out. fannie mae is asking for $7.8 billion worth of life lines from the feds. the mortgage giant reported third quarter losses of about $5 billion. i think last year that quarter it was about $1 billion. this comes about a week after freddie mac asked for another $6 billion. executives at both company also reportedly earn $13 million in bonuses this year. they both received, so far,

$170 billion in bailout bucks. >> gretchen: just in time for the holidays, the obama administration adding a christmas tree tax. the government grinching 15 cents out of your pocket on the sale of all fresh christmas trees. the department of agriculture says it needs the money to pay for a new program that is supposed to improve the image and marketing of christmas trees. the majority of commercial christmas tree farms are in favor of this new program. they say it will help boost their sales. we asked you what you thought. one woman from wisconsin says, i didn't think we were allowed to buy christmas trees anymore. aren't they holiday trees? therefore, there should be nothing to tax. jim from florida writes, might as well tax easter eggs while we're at it. those are your headlines. >> steve: mr. kilmeade, over to you and a special guest. >> brian: hey, new york city is the largest veteran's day parade in the nation and this year will be better than any we've seen before. fox is doing it. it has to be.

joining us is the producer of this year's parade, vince mcgowan. welcome. >> good morning. >> brian: you've been here before. how excited are you for this parade as opposed to other parades and not just because it's on fox? >> other than the fox piece, which is certainly been a big partner in this, the date this year, 11-11-11, is something that will stick in everyone's mind as an important time. it's the 50th anniversary of vietnam. it's the -- this year is the tenth anniversary of 9-11, and this is the year when we're paying a lot of attention to how our troops in the middle east are being handled and hopefully they'll be coming home pretty soon. we want to celebrate that. >> brian: we know it's very different when you served in the '60s, how the military was when there was a draft as opposed to a volunteer force in now. can you talk about that? >> i came home in 1968 to new york city where i was born and raised and was shocked at the lack of respect that we have for service in the city and country

wide at the time. the demonstrations that were the largest ever denouncing not the war, but in particular the troops, were totally focused on the wrong issue. what people believed to be important should be the care and maintenance of our military because they are an all volunteer citizen army now in the last 33 years and need to be kept strong so that our way of life is protected here. >> brian: absolutely. in the '80s, they were saying, let's get rid of the veteran's day parade. thankfully that's gone out the window and people are really -- have a respect for people like what you have done and continue to do. amongst the dignitaries which you sent out the invitations to, general petraeus will be there, lieutenant general jeff mulholland there. this is some of the many people on the floats going down 5th avenue. >> they will be out there and troops and the veterans community will pass them and receive honors that we've all earned and that many times over the course of the years have not

been delivered. this is a unique time in america. >> brian: when you look at the unique time in american history, you know there was a time in which you had to fund this parade yourself. correct? >> that's correct. myself and my chairman, harvey bag. >> brian: you said you will not let this stop. >> we will not let it stop and we got out there and we made the phone calls and applied for the permits and bought the insurances and fielded the troops and rounds of beers to make sure everybody showed up and kept it alive and grew it into what it is today. >> brian: marines like beer? i did not know that. so you want to salute all areas, from world war ii, to korea, first iraq conflict? >> we're bringing in the navaho code talkers and others. these men are national treasures. they're dwindling. the oldest 92-year-old medal of honor recipient, in bad health,

insisted to come and participate full board because he doesn't want to miss it. >> brian: in every daily news there will be a salute to the service pullout. in new york city, there is 100,000 of them. >> one of the things we're doing this year is our corporate sponsors like chase manhattan bank are talking about how the new job programs that they're bringing, 100,000 jobs to veterans, all the corporate entities that are now focusing on how to use the talent and skills of our veterans and how it transfers into civilian success are part of the new mantra. >> brian: my lunch is if you can take down fallujah, you can't run and be head of any company in the country. thanks for what you did. we look forward to the parade on fox. >> i'd like to give you a vip pit from the parade that shows the logo of the parade, our iconic liberty head. it has the twin towers in there. maybe show it to the camera. >> brian: thank you very much. now you're directing. >> i want to make sure we get it out there.

we hope all new york comes to 5th avenue on friday to make sure we honor our event. >> brian: thanks a lot. thank you very much. let's go over to me. i'm going to tease out. i thought steve was but he's laying down on the sofa. i'll do it. voters in ohio took the union side in yesterday's election, so is this a preview of president obama's chance in 2012? larry sabato looks into the crystal ball next. then the fastest fiddler in the world is here and today he's cracking up his instrument for a love song. love doesn't stink here in the morning. ananannouncer ] just how many appliances

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>> steve: as we look into sabato's crystal ball, it was a big election day yesterday and results in three states may provide a glimpse into the political future one year from now. joining us right now with a look in his political crystal ball is professor at the university of virginia, larry sabato. good morning to you. >> good morning, steve. >> steve: let's start with the buckeye state of ohio. issue 2 passed by more than 60%. that was the one that restricted collective bargaining rights for public workers. so this was a big defeat for the republican governor and a big win for organized labor. >> yes. it's good news for president obama, moving into the election year. look, it gives momentum to labor, which is the big organizer for democrats in most of the midwestern states. they're really energized by this. who knows whether the momentum will last a full year to the election, but democrats have to take some solace in this. they're very happy about this.

>> steve: in the meanwhile, the governor himself congratulated his opponent and said, good job on your -- he wished things would have turned out the other way, but at the same time he was defiant and he said, hey, local and county governments, don't come crying to the state of ohio when you're out of money because we're out of money, too. >> yeah. that's the consequence that some of the local government also face. that's going to happen all over the country. it's another budget crunch that we'll see play out in the next year. >> steve: okay. so the buckeye state is a swing state, as is the commonwealth of virginia and while they got bad news in ohio, the republicans did, they got good news in the state of virginia. right? >> they did indeed. the republicans picked up seats in the lower house of the legislature, the house of delegates. in fact, they're going to control about two-thirds of the seats in the house of delegates, which guarantees them control of that house for at least ten years. i could go beyond that, but

we'll stick it ten years. in the state senate, bowling, who will break the tie for organization in favor of the republicans. that's great news for governor bob mcdonald who you may have noticed is a candidate for vice president. >> steve: yeah. i've heard that a couple of times, although he's been on the show and he backed away from that. but he haven't been asked that. but larry, it's good news for the republicans, you got to figure that win for the commonwealth of virginia, bad news for david axelrod because the president of the united states won that last time and he would like to win it next time. >> look, they got a lot of repair work to do because after obama's big breakthrough for the democrats in 2008, the

republicans swept statewide offices in 2009. the republicans gained three congressional seats in a single election in 2010 and now they've done well in the state legislative elections in 2011. three strikes and the republicans hope the democrats are out in 2012. >> steve: sure. let's travel down to the gulf coast state of mississippi. on the ballot was initiative 26. voters blocked this particular initiative 58% voted no. it had been called the personhood bill because it would define a person at the time of fertilization. >> look, people were surprised at that margin. remember, that amendment had been endorsed by not just incumbent governor haley barber, but by both the democratic and republican candidates for governor, the republican won 59-41% in mississippi. here is the reason, steve. it went too far. it included women who had been

the victims of rape and incest and even in a very conservative state like mississippi, that just went too far. >> steve: okay. let's talk broadly now as you look into the crystal ball, which you're an expert at. you mentioned repair work a moment ago. what does the white house have to do if they expect to keep the keys to 1600 pennsylvania avenue for another four years? >> they got to have a better economy. look, the three top issues are jobs, the economy, and maybe jobs and the economy. it's all about the economy unless something big happens internationally. at this point, as we all say, they're out of bullets. what they have to hope for is good luck because that has a great deal to do with election results, luck. >> steve: all right, larry sabato joining us from the university of virginia. commonwealth of virginia. thank you, have a great day. >> thanks so much, appreciate it, steve. >> steve: great analysis. when we come back, speaking of great, the fastest fiddler in

the world right over there ready to perform. ♪ [ male announcer ] where's your road to happiness? what ithe first step on that road is a bowl of soup? delicious campbell's soups fill you with vegetable nutrition, farm-grown ingredients, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's -- it's amazing what soup can do. but think about your heart. 2% has over half the saturated fat of whole milk.

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>> the real story of last night's ohio vote, we're going to talk to karl rove, doug schoen and others, also we'll talk about herman cain as he fights to weather the storm. how about that christmas tree tax? what do you say? ho, ho, ho, or ba humbug? bill and i join you at the top of the hour.

>> brian: guiness book of world records named him the fastest fiddler player in the world. i'm not going to dispute it. he leads a renowned irish folk band. >> gretchen: they a new album out. frankie is here. good morning to the band. >> good morning. >> steve: if you're going to be in a world record book, the guiness book would be great for you guys, right? >> the appropriate one. >> gretchen: how did you become the fastest fiddler in the world? >> i played as fast as i could. >> gretchen: but what does that mean? >> 150 beats per minute. >> steve: you're good. we got to see you in action. what are you going to play? >> we're going to do a nice slow piece. >> steve: we'll get out of the way. here they are, folks. ♪ when first i saw love light in

your eyes ♪ ♪ i thought the world held not but joy for me ♪ ♪ and even though we drifted far apart ♪ ♪ i'd never dream but what i dreamed of you ♪ ♪ i love you as i've never loved before ♪ ♪ i saw you on the village green ♪ ♪ come to me in my dreams of

love ♪ ♪ i love you ♪ i love you when you are free ♪ when you are free ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ last night i dreamt i held your hand in mine ♪ ♪ and once again you were my bonnie bride ♪ ♪ i kissed you as i did in you would lange syne

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