>> venture. university? >> university! good job. >> very nice. >> good to see you, eric. you were working last night and working this morning. >> we work all the time. good to work, though. >> make it a great day. >> thanks, guys. >> bye! >> bye-bye. >> good morning, everyone. it is wednesday, april 11th already. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks so much for sharing your time this morning. start with a fox news alert. a magnitude 8.7 earthquake striking off the coast of indonesia triggering a widespread tsunami warning for the same region devastated by the 2004 tsunami. this as we get reports of more aftershocks. the latest just seconds away. >> meanwhile, rick santorum giving up his fight for the republican nomination and it didn't take long for the showdown between mitt romney and president obama to begin. the gloves are off. it's game on! >> plus, the hits keep coming. the geniuses who used taxpayer

dollars to make this videos got bonuses for their efforts and there's even more. "fox & friends" starts as soon as i point out that brian is not here but eric is in for him. right now! >> that's ok. from time to time, brian -- >> looked at my hair. is there something wrong with my hair? >> from time to time, brian has been referred to as the brown haired guy on "fox & friends" so you're the brown haired guy. >> ok! i'll take that. i'll take that. >> the name of eric today. >> you're the brown haired -- >> i was pointing out, i walked in and it was like oh, they crossed his name out and stuck my name down there. >> that's all it takes for a substitution. >> that's how i found out. i was walking in early. oh, my gosh! >> eric, great to have you brown haired guy who is not steve doocy. >> correct. i'll be the guy who is not steve doocy today. >> all right. and the blond haired girl will read the headlines and the fox

news alert this morning because a powerful 8.7 magnitude earthquake hitting off the coast of the northern indonesian island about an hour ago. tsunami warnings in effect now for 28 countries across the indian ocean. here's a look at video just in showing the tense moment as the earthquake hit. people were seen running out of buildings. electricity has been knocked out. we're also learning an aftershock of 6.5 magnitude has hit. that's a big quake in and of itself. rescue teams are on their way as people are being told to move to higher ground now. another developing story overnight. a korean air jet making an emergency landing after a bomb threat was called in. the flight headed for seoul with 149 passengers on board. it had just taken off from vancouver when the threat came into the airline's los angeles offices. two u.s. fighter jets scrambled from oregon to escort the plane to a canadian military base. korean air says it received a similar bomb threat on monday both reportedly delivered in

english. no word yet if there was actually a bomb on board that aircraft. self-proclaimed mastermind behind the september 11th terrorist attacks finally going to trial now. finally. khali shaikh mohammed and his four co-defendants will be arraigned on may 5th at guantanamo bay. they were first charged by a military commission back in 2008. but the case was suspended after president obama tried to have it moved to federal court. they face the death penalty for murdering 2,976 people in new york, d.c. and shanksville, pennsylvania. and they may be an odd pair but that isn't stopping burger king from putting them together! check out this advertisement for the new bacon sundae. >> huh? >> delicious! >> that's right. soft serve vanilla ice cream drizzled in chocolate and caramel sprinkled with bits of bacon with a strip of bacon for the finishing garnish. right now, it seems the bacon sundae will only be available in nashville, tennessee. yeah, they need a bit of a test market first.

if you live in nashville, tennessee, this morning, let us know if that sounds good to you. do you think it will be a hit down there? >> gretch, i had one of those at the minnesota state fair. >> oh! >> couple of years ago when we were up there for the big convention and it was fantastic. >> it was delicious. >> had to be great. >> did you follow it up with a deep fried bacon strip? i think they had those, too. >> fried butter. >> i remember the bacon and the chocolate bacon as well. we were in st. paul, minnesota, four years ago for the big convention, there's a big convention coming up this november and it is now clear it will be mitt romney vs. barack obama. rick santorum apparently decided on monday night that it was in the cards for him. so he has dropped out making way for mitt romney who wasted little time last night in wilmington, delaware, he made it very clear there is a war on women in this country and it is being waged by barack obama's economy. watch. >> you look at the experience of this administration in the

last 3 1/2 years and you can see that something is seriously wrong with his perspective. not only have 92% of the job losses been among women, but you've also seen 800,000 people overall lose jobs. home values decline. the median income of americans in the last four years has dropped by 10%! these have been tough years. you have failed. we have seen it. you can't hide it. we're going to change it. >> so officially, mitt romney does not become the nominee until he gets the 1144 delegates. keep in mind, newt gingrich still in this race. he continues to vow even though he's in debt with his campaign to take it all the way to tampa and to the convention. >> he's bouncing checks ooment auto ron paul is still in the race as well. the interesting thing about santorum getting out of the race yesterday is that he did not endorse mitt romney in that speech when he said that he was getting out. and he hasn't released his delegates yet. so 188 of the 200 some delegates

that santorum has, he could release. they become free agents so it would be up to them as to who they decide to follow at that point. >> right. almost 200, there's also 84 that were really free, they're committed to santorum but at the convention, they could actually vote for whoever they throw their support behind romney. so a lot of swing there but you're right. it looks very, very good for mitt romney at this point. but president obama has his own ideas on what things should look like. listen to what he had to say last night at a -- an event that we paid for. watch. >> they keep telling us that if we just weaken regulations that keep our air or our water clean or protect our consumers, if we would just convert these investments that we're making through our government in education and research and health care, if we just turn those into tax cuts especially for the wealthy, then somehow the economy is going to grow stronger! that's the theory.

and here's the news -- we tried this for eight years before i took office. we tried it! it -- it's not like we didn't -- we didn't try it. >> so there is the president yesterday at florida atlantic university talking about the -- >> go back to -- the unemployment, would people like to go back to some of those eight years? i mean, forget who was president. look at the economy! would people like to go back to a lower unemployment rate? i mean, i think this is what mitt romney now needs to start giving the counter opinion to that kind of a message. >> may i just point out, what he was trying to say is that was a taxpayer funded trip. that was supposed to be official business. you couldn't be more partisan than the comments he made right there. i mean, they took air force one down there and brought the entourage down there. we paid for it. you paid for it. what was it? it was nothing short of a campaign speech. >> but had he mentioned mitt

romney, then they would have had to pay for it. instead, we talked about that. he was unveiling as if we didn't know enough about the warren buffet rule and what that would do is that would make sure that if you are a person who makes over a million dollars a year, you pay at least 30% of your income in taxes but when you take a look at who pays the taxes right now, and apparently, if the president wants to talk about fairness, is this fair? look at that, the top 1% of earners in this country pay close to $4 and $10. and the top 10% pay 70% of the money. what the president says repeatedly is it's just not fair that warren buffet's secretary pays more than he does. but when you look at the facts, the average middle class person pays just under 15% whereas the average person who makes over a million dollars pays 26%. so already, they're paying close to double what the president says they are. >> but i think the heart of this issue comes down to this.

what is the purpose of calling for this buffet tax rule? >> politics! >> what is the purpose? because somebody needs to ask that question. here was the first example of why this administration wanted to do it. stablize our debt and deficit for the next decade. ok. but then somebody called him out on it and said, well, it will actually only give you less than .5% of the $1.2 trillion budget deficit for 2012. even if you have this tax in place, you don't begin to put a chink in the deficit we're currently experiencing. next reason they gave for wanting this was to establish a basic issue of tax fairness. so which one is it? if you want to check out "the wall street journal" editorial today, it's one of the best i read explaining whether or not the buffet tax rule is actually about fairness or is it actually about paying down the debt. >> it can't be about paying down the debt. if it's only helping $5 billion. up to $5 billion. could be a lot less than that on

a debt we're adding $1.2 trillion. it's not doing a dent or anything. this is a class warfare tool in the obama era -- in the obama era. let me do this, warren buffet, why don't you come to "fox & friends" and sit on the curvy couch right there and let us talk about whether or not you think this idea that president obama is pitching as the buffet rule should be called the buffet rule. i will tell you unequivocably right now, warren buffet doesn't think taxing people that make over a million dollars at 30% will do a darn thing for the economy. what he does think, though, and i've heard him say it is we need complex tax reform. we need simpson-bowles like tax reform and we need massive spending cuts but you don't hear president obama pointing out those other two. talk about the raising the taxes. >> and you don't hear warren buffet say i think rich people should pay their fair share. ok, my company berkshire hathaway owes close to a billion dollars in tax money going back

to 2002. he's been in a big squabble with the i.r.s. so while he's out saying rich people need to pay more, yeah, i'm currently disputing my taxes with my big company. so just keep that in mind as he calls for fairness. is that fair that he wouldn't pay a billion dollars for close to 10 years? >> keep in mind, come january 1st, the bush tax cuts will be no longer. so essentially if this buffet rule went into place, it would be like a double taxation happening come january 1st. remember, the president was against the bush tax cuts and then he was for them, voted them in, and then he was against them again. here is a snippet of that. remember this? >> and if the goal is private sector growth, you got to recognize that the best way to create that growth is to leave capital in the treasuries of the job creators. secondly, if you raise taxes -- if you let the -- i wish they weren't called the bush tax

cuts. if they were called someone's other tax cuts, they're probably less likely to be raised. >> he makes a good point. exactly. and you know, president -- now president obama ran on, i'm going to get rid of those bush tax cuts and they're scheduled to sunset at the conclusion of this year. >> it was great to see former president bush weigh in on it. it's been a long time in between and it's fantastic to see him up there weighing in. >> let's talk about the g.s.a., the general services administration, we've been telling you for the last couple of weeks about that $800,000 taxpayer funded boondoggle in las vegas. well, now, it's coming out more information as these things usually start to do just that, and employees apparently got bonuses for planning that g.s.a. event. $500 to $1,000 for taking part in planning those videos. >> one spent an extra night in a $1,000 suite and they only paid $93 and taxpayers picked up the rest and an official by the name

of martha johnson ran the agency, she's been squeezed out since. she was unavailable to go to las vegas but instead, they had to pay $3,500 for a video link. apparently, she was at solyndra and she was talking to solyndra about buying a whole bunch of solar panels to put on the roofs of federal buildings in what some are seeing as a last ditch effort by this administration to prop up solyndra that was bleeding money so if nobody else is going to buy them, have the federal government buy a bunch of them and putted them on the roof. >> can i .1 more thing out? by the way, you can't make these stories up, they're crazy. they make themselves up. g.s.a., you know there's 12,500 employees in the g.s.a. 12,500 employees we need to buy stuff for the federal government. really? that's a $20 billion boondoggle. >> we're writing a lot of checks. they got to spend it on something! >> continue to follow that story throughout the morning. meantime, coming up, we told you rick santorum is out of the presidential race. but does that mean conservatives will finally rally around mitt romney?

former advisor to bill clinton, dick morris has a good idea and he'll share it coming up next. >> all right. we'll be back. it's not uncommom "hero" to be bandied about. but does bringing a floor back to life really make us heroes? [ chuckles ] yes. yes, it does. ♪ call 1-800-steemer the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption.

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>> 17 minutes after the top of the hour. rick santorum giving up his fight for the g.o.p. nomination so what does this mean now for mitt romney? dick morris, former advisor to president bill clinton and fox news contributor joins me now with his thoughts. good morning to you there. >> good morning, gretchen. >> i noticed that in his speech, santorum did not mention mitt romney. he did not ask his supporters to move over to endorse mitt romney. what do you make of that? >> well, first of all, let's look at the big picture. it is very good for romney that santorum dropped out at this point. romney would have had to spend over $20 million between now and early june in california, new jersey, north carolina, indiana,

states where he might not normally be spending money. nobody believes we have a chance of defeating obama in california and yet, you would have had to put $7 or $8 million into that state. now he doesn't. and that money can be focused on defeating obama where it should be. in terms of the factor of real conservatives rally to romney, i think they undoubtedly and unquestionably will in massive numbers with tremendous enthusiasm. the anti-romney perception, the perception that there's an anti-romney feeling among the base and among conservatives and among tea parties and evangelicals has often been a creature of their leaders, not of the voters. remember that santorum lost all of the major primaries except for a bunch in the south and in the south, romney was very competitive. even with christian tea party voters. most polls showed him routinely getting 40%, 45%, 35% of the tea

party and of the evangelical vote. that's fine. he's going to get full support. >> but the obama campaign already coming out with this stinging response to santorum's exit and they're going to try to capture that whole idea of whether or not mitt romney can coalesce the conservatives. here's from jim mussina. it's no surprise that mitt romney was finally able to grind down his opponents under an avalanche of negative ads but neither he nor his special interest allies will be able to buy the presidency with their negative attacks. the more american people see of mitt romney, the less they like him and the less they trust him. there's some irony in that statement because you could argue that president obama would be the first billion dollar candidate and will buy his negative fair share of ads as well but be that as it may, what do you think about that statement? >> well, i think it's just regular political posturing. i don't think it's important. there can be no doubt that mitt romney is going to get the votes of more than 90% of self-described republicans and that there's going to be an

enormous turnout among republicans motivated by the fear of obama and the part of his presidency. i don't think there's a serious ch chance of any kind of major defection from romney. he's not -- there are no issues where conservatives and he disagree that fundamentally or indeed at all. it's a question of tone, substance and things like that. and he'll deal with that. >> ok. dick, if you will, stick around for this. reverend jeremiah wright and his hate speech back in the spotlight just in time for the election. why dick morris says he believes it's not a coincidence? in fact, it could be a campaign strategy. and a cow creating chaos as cops chase him through a town. you'll never believe what he's actually running from. right back. ♪ spread a little love today ♪

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>> quick headlines for you on this wednesday morning. you're getting a look inside a command center in north korea where scientists say they have started injecting fuel into a long range rocket. this comes after warning from the white house, launch a missile? and food aid will be cut off. the launch expected to happen sometime between tomorrow and monday. and the special prosecutor in the trayvon martin case set to make a big announcement as early as later today. this as george zimmerman's lawyers called it quits yesterday admitting he hasn't contacted them in days.

zimmerman also so far protected from legal action claiming he killed trayvon martin in self-defense. all right. pushing the buffet rule, president obama once again blaming bush and the bush tax cuts for the soaring deficit. listen. >> at the beginning of the last decade, the wealthiest americans got two huge tax cuts. 2001 and 2003. meanwhile, insurance companies, financial institutions, they were all allowed to write their own rules or find their way around rules. we were told the same thing we're being told now. this is going to lead to faster job growth. it's going to lead to greater prosperity for everybody. guess what? it didn't. >> but does that strategy work if the president is the one who has been in office for the past three years? we're back with dick morris. it looks, dick, like this is going to continue to be the theme at least one of them of this campaign strategy is to

continue to blame bush and the eight years previous to president obama. >> yeah, i've heard they're planning to rename the san andreas fault bush's fault. >> all right. so do you think it's effective? >> no, i think that it's the -- it's the last vestige of a president that can't at all begin to even approach his record. would america rather have the prosperity that followed the 2003 tax cut, you know, 2004 into 2006 and 2007 or the disaster that's been the obama term? i think we have to clear the contrast there. but i think the whole point is that obama is trying to get re-elected the same way he got elected which is by stoking the turnout among african-americans, latinos and young people and trying to tilt it disproportionately in his favor, overwhelmingly in his favor by fear. by class warfare.

he can no longer deal with by hope and change because there's no change and there's not a lot of hope left. >> right. >> his job approval among latinos is down to 41%. among young people, it's 54%. african-americans, it remains high but the prospects for an increased turnout are very limited. so what he's trying to do now is to get through fear what he got last time through hope. >> isn't it curious, dick, that just in the past week, reverend jeremiah wright has been resurrected. he's out and about. we'll play a snippet of one of the sermons gave last week in west virginia first and then your comment. >> there are politicians who are making decisions about you, about your life, about your future, about your family, about your children and the real tragedy is they live in a different world from your world all together. there are people in power right now who have opinions about you based on their privilege of skin color. >> why is he back?

>> well, first of all, has anyone told him that obama won the election? a black man who is president of the united states. when he said the world is moved by white supremacy, i really felt like i was watching a rerun. maybe he didn't have a new sermon every four years. and because it's totally ridiculous given what's -- who is running the country today. this entire concept of class envy on the one hand, the rich need to pay more and on the other hand, the fear that if you elect the republicans, they'll eviscerate all the programs and all the things that you need, the idea of using fear and class warfare to stoke a turnout is oxymoronic. fear and class warfare don't stoke turnout. they retard turnout. they depress people about the election. they encourage people to give up and to stay at home. sunny, optimistic, positivism

encourages people to vote and that's what romney really will be pushing while obama is on this negative, bitter kick. i think it's ridiculous mistake. >> all right. dick, thanks so much. and we'll be talking to you again next week. >> thank you. >> all right. so we're following a fox news alert. a huge earthquake and tsunami warnings for the same region devastated by the 2004 tsunami. we're live in thailand after the break. >> yep. stock market takes its biggest tumble in months. stuart varney says wall street knows something the president may be trying to hide? stu with a secret! >> ah-ha! >> happy birthday to alesandro ambrosio, the victoria's secret model is 31. [ female announcerr kids are getting a dependable clean in the bathroom?

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>> we've got a fox news alert for you if you're just getting up. a tsunami warning off the coast of indonesia this morning following a powerful 8.6. that's a gigantic magnitude earthquake. david piper is live in bangkok, thailand. how soon will they know whether or not a tsunami wave is going to hit?

>> good morning, yes. they should know very quickly because that earthquake of the province was only about 250 miles so we understand that, perhaps, this first tsunamis could be hitting there any time soon. there has been one report of a very small tsunami. but nothing like the 2004 quake and tsunami that killed over 250,000 people. but that's in the same region so massive concern here and lots of people have been evacuating the coast including here in thailand because they felt the quake here and they lost a lot of people back in 2004. back to you. >> did you feel the earthquake, david? >> i didn't personally. i was driving at the time but i understand that many people here in bangkok felt it. and also countries like singapore and malaysia and that was the same as what happened back in 2004. people don't usually feel earthquakes in this region. and a place like thailand is very nervous at this time

because this is the religious holiday, the water festival. everyone has gone to the coast to places and now with all the tsunami warnings, people have been told to go to higher land because there is a real danger still, the tsunami warning hasn't been dropped yet. >> all right. david piper live in thailand with the very latest. thank you very much. we'll keep an eye on that, obviously. >> now for the other headlines this morning. he's been denied parole 11 times but later today, mass murderer charles manson will try again. the notorious cult leader refused to leave his cell to meet with his attorney to prepare for the hearing. the state appointed attorney will argue that manson should be moved from the prison to a psychiatric hospital. >> and we're getting a rare glimpse into the lives of usama bin laden's family. this new video showing his three wives under house arrest in islamabad pakistan. you can see them praying and reading the quran. their children playing nearby. bin laden's wives and two of his daughters are serving 45 day

sentences for illegally entering the country. after that, they will be deported back to their home countries of yemen and saudi arabia. steve? >> meanwhile, eric, thousands of americans looking for work are missing out on jobs because of faulty background check information. that's according to the national consumer law center. it's releasing a report later today that states that new and inexperienced background check companies are causing sloppy handling of the data. oh, great! problems include arrest records showing up for someone with the same name who was never arrested. the group wants the government to let people know what possible employers can see so errors can be fixed before they're not hired. >> perhaps he knew what was coming. you're looking at a cow that's busted out of a slaughterhouse in paterson, new jersey last night. the cow weighs only 750 pounds. you can see it running through the streets, even banging into a cop car. eventually police and animal control officers were able to tranquilize the cow and send it

back. >> was that really the cow noise there or was that toba, the cow noise? >> that's definitely the cow noise. that sounds like a cow in paterson. >> it's a cow. >> you know that? you know that exact sound? it's a paterson cow? >> i live a couple of towns over. >> moo-ving right along. stock market seeing the sharpest decline in months. the dow jones, nasdaq and s&p taking a big hit but the president was out hitting the campaign trail yesterday. his message -- you guessed it, tax the rich. >> and finally, we've got to make sure that we've got a tax system that reflects everybody doing their fair share. all right. let's follow what we call the buffet rule. they may call it class envy and that's just being fair. >> well, he says it's fair but stuart varney says it's just a ploy to distract people from his record on the economy. so wait a minute, stu is calling the president's bluff this morning or is the stock market

doing that? >> wait a second, step back a moment. the economy has just started to turn south again. we don't have 3% growth. we've got much less. we don't have strong job creation. it's been cut in half. we don't have strong disposable income, it's flat and it's being eaten into by high food prices and high gas prices. we're getting worse off so what does the president do? does he come up with a new policy that gets the economy going, manage the debt and get things working again? bring us back to prosperity? no, he comes up with class warfare. beats up on the rich. that's the way to prosperity. i don't think so. >> ok. how does the stock market factor into that? >> ok. i'll answer the question. >> it took a nose dive after that jobs report came out. >> the stock market has taken a nose dive in the past four or five sessions because it perceives the economy now getting weaker all over again. yeah, there are problems in europe with spanish debt. that's true. but the economy in america is heading south. and we do not have an administration that's prepared

to deal with it. >> well, let me give you a little bit of a silver lining. the stock market did take a little bit of a dive and lost 400 and 500 points in the last four or five days but on very low volume. i know when the volume is low like that, that's not necessarily an indicator of things to come. it feels to me, 23 years in, that things are getting better in the stock market. not because of anything president obama has done, in spite of everything that president obama has done. >> are you long on stocks? >> no, it has nothing to do with the trading position at all because i don't trade anymore, stuart. it's essentially, look, an average recession is, what, 18, 20 months. 30 months into what is a recession. >> if the stock market has done well so far this year, up until the last four or five days, you're right. it has. that's because american companies are making record profits overseas. not in the united states but overseas and as our currency gets less of value, the dollar goes down, those overseas profits are better because

they're in foreign currencies which again are more expensive. >> and one of the reasons that the stock market has floated to this level is the fact that ben bernanke & company have made so much free money available to the banking system, it's quantative easing but that's artificially brought it up to where it is right now and he's trying to back off from that. >> i'm sorry, eric, but now the economy is heading south again for the third time in three years, all those spring fresh green shoots of recovery trampled all over again. >> it's about 12,900 or so. >> it's going to go up. >> we'll come back and revisit this one month from today. and we'll take this as the base line, stuart and the loser buys dinner. >> if it's below this level, i buy you dinner. if it's above this level, you buy me dinner. >> i'll reverse that. if the economy is getting weaker, you buy me dinner.

if the economy gets stronger, i'll buy you dinner anywhere you like. >> oh, my gosh. >> i know one thing for sure, though, i'm going to leave it a secret where that dinner will take place. >> yeah. ok, stu. thanks a lot. we'll watch you at 9:20 a.m. on the fox business network. coming up on "fox & friends", we've been following this one closely for you here on "fox & friends." one university forcing christian groups letting anyone, even atheists join their clubs like run a christian club. up next, we have an update on that story. >> and recycle or else! wait until you hear one city's bright idea to improve the cycling rate. some say it stinks literally. how can you just stand there?

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>> another delay for the titanic memorial cruise ship after a passenger got really sick. a 56-year-old bbc cameraman was air lifted off the boat by the irish coast guard. his condition is not life threatening. the ship first ran into trouble on sunday hitting rough seas and a plan that really stinks, seattle now forcing people to recycle cardboard and other types of trash and they're considering outlining plastic bags and foam containers. yep, and here's the part that really wreaks. the city wants to cut trash pickup from once a week to once every two weeks. steve? >> make it every month. save even more money. all right. we've been telling you about the religious firestorm at vanderbilt university over that school's anti-discrimination rule. the policy says student groups cannot take religion into consideration when students apply for leadership positions and now, 11 faith-based student

organizations are banding together to protest. >> joining us from nashville is anld rube -- andrew harris, a baseball player at vanderbilt and leader of the fellowship for christian athletes, one of the 11 organizations that are protesting. how are you doing? >> good, how are you? >> i'm doing ok. we've been following the story for a couple of months now but we're a little concerned. what's your main concern with the fellowship of christian athletes that i used to be a member of that going forward, vanderbilt would require f.c.a. to do what? >> well, the main issue is that we have with the new policy is that we cannot -- we cannot require our leaders to affirm their faith. and at f.c.a., we allow anybody to come and we'd like to keep it that way and because we allow anybody to come regardless of religion, sexual orientation or anything, because we allow anybody to come, we believe it's really important that the

leaders do affirm the faith. so that they can be a light to those people. >> right. because the way the university wants it to be is any organization, anybody from the outside can join the organization and eventually wind up the leader. for instance, the leader -- and we talked to the folks from vanderbilt catholic a couple of weeks ago. under these rules, by vanderbilt, an atheist could wind up running vanderbilt catholic and so they've decided to step out of the group. what's the fellowship of christian athletes going to do? >> we have banded together with 11 other organizations on campus and we actually had to apply for -- to be a registered group, i think, two nights ago and we all submitted a similar document saying that we do abide by the nondiscrimination policy. yet, we did add another clause

saying that we would -- we are asking the administration to reconsider and say it's ok for us to require our leaders to affirm their faith. >> sure. you know, also, under the same ruling, i would imagine a republican could wind up being the head of the young democrats and vice versa. >> exactly. right. >> have any atheists to your knowledge tried to join the fellowship for christian athletes? >> not to my knowledge. i mean, i do know that we do have plenty of nonbelievers who do come to our meetings. again, f.c.a. is open to anybody and we would -- and we believe that's the reason for christianity, that anybody can come and learn and learn about the love of christ. and we believe that that's why it's so important that our leaders are grounded in that faith. >> sure. so going forward, if you're not going to be one of the recognized groups on campus,

will you meet off campus? >> we meet pretty much off campus already. i think some of the ramifications would be -- i know for other organizations on campus that they would not get funding. also, i know that we would have issues with people -- with our -- one of our leaders -- some of our leaders having meetings with coaches or we would have issues trying to get space on campus. >> sure. >> logistical here. >> if you're not a registered group, i think that that could -- that could have some problems. >> thank you very much, andrew harris for dropping by and telling us your story from nashville. he, of course, a member of the fellowship of christian athletes. thank you very much, sir. >> thank you very much. >> you bet. >> what do you think about that? e-mail us, friends at foxnews.com. good idea? bad idea? let us know. up next, weight loss solution that much of america has been waiting for. a diet specifically for short people. and coming up, talk about going

to the dogs. a ton of government cash going to the dog training school? but the money is supposed to go to help train military spouses but instead, it's going to the dogs? details straight ahead. this is delicious okay... is this where we're at now? we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's worth of fiber in every ... why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic. are you done sweetie? yea [ male announcer ] fiber one.

>> all right. let's hear it for short women! all right! nearly half of all women are 5'4" or shorter making it harder to lose weight. that's the down side. >> so how do petite stars like reese witherspoon, kelly ripa, dolly parton and natalie portman

do it? luckily, our next guest has it down to a science. a lifestyle and weight loss expert and the author of "the petite advantage diet." good morning to you. >> good morning. >> what is the petite advantage? >> the petite advantage is how smaller women, half of the women in america are 5'4" and under, can really use their height to their advantage to lose weight. >> how? >> it's been a disadvantage in the past. you know what's interesting? if you're smaller, every pound you lose really shows. so with a program that i put together that the combination of eating and exercise, you can really shed the weight and you can really see the difference in your body. that's exciting and it's motivating. the disadvantage of being a petite is that you can't eat like the big girls which actually was the first working title of the book. and if two women are both 45, both 160 pounds, one is 5'9" and one is 5'3" the difference in your daily calorie needs is only 40 calories. doesn't sound like a lot. but when you look at it over a year, you can gain four pounds of fat. over 10 years, 40 pounds of fat.

over 30 years, 120 pounds of fat just because you're a smaller statue. >> with your diet, you have high calorie days and low calorie days. it's breakfast time. >> what you do at breakfast is front load the biggest meal of the day. mistake most women make, they want to save their calories. that's the recipe to gain weight. by front loading, this is eggs, the whole eggs, by the way, i love whole eggs with the yolk. it's vegetables, avocado, the good fat. cottage cheese. 40% of your daily calories should be in your breakfast. >> that's psychologically hard to do. >> it is, gretchen, but boy, does it work? it lets you eat less later in the day. it tips your mechanisms, your feeling of fullness. if i can keep you full and you should only be hungry first thing in the morning. if you're hungry later in the day, you're behind the eight ball already. >> interesting. >> salad, spinach, chicken, lots of vegetables great dressing, and you're getting 30% of your calories at dinner. that's your protein and your

vegetables, the right carbohydrates. carbs should not be maligned. they're necessary for your body. >> i can eat that piece of salmon in one bite. >> that's a great comment. the thing is you'll be full because of your bigger breakfast which exactly is most women don't do. they save their calories and then you're starving at night and let's face it, if you're doing that strategy a lot of times you're gaining weight. i want to bring the weight back down. >> love this book and so many other women will love it, too, because half of all of us fit into that. >> no cardio when it comes to your exercise. strengthen to lengthen. do the strength training exercises and i'll give you a full body workout three times a week for 31 minutes, most women are shocked. i only ask you for an hour and a half of exercise a week and it gets the job done. >> check it out, the petite advantage diet. >> we hit "the new york times" bestseller list. very excited. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> a big two hours of "fox & friends" straight ahead. we're talking about this. is hybrid fever stalling out now? >> and the dramatic video you have to see to believe.

armed robbers using an 80-year-old woman as a human shield in a police shootout. come on!

>> good morning, everyone. today is wednesday, april 11th. hope you're going to have a great day. thanks for spending part of it with us. people running for their lives after a magnitude 8.6 earthquake hits overnight. now a tsunami warning for the same areas devastated in 2004. we will have a live report for you. >> and rick santorum forfeits his fight for the g.o.p. nomination and it didn't take long for the showdown between mitt romney and president obama to begin. right now, the gloves are already off, steve. >> all right, eric, and meanwhile, a masked gunman in a shootout with cops uses an 80-year-old woman as a human shield. the wild video you don't want to miss and we've got the story. hour two for a wednesday, "fox &

friends" live from new york starts right now. >> using an 80-year-old woman for a human shield. come on. >> that's desperation. something we're not desperate over is having eric bolling here. >> it is a good day. there's a lot of information come out today. you get it? you have it? 411. april 11th. information. >> you're too quick for us, bolling! >> all right. >> even on little things. >> unless you're in europe and it's 11/4. >> that's true. what does that mean? >> while those true to figure out the mass equations, let me bring you the headlines. start with the fox news alert. tsunami watch in effect for the entire indian ocean this morning following a powerful 8.6 magnitude earthquake that hit off the northern indonesian island of sumatra about two

hours ago. 28 countries will be affected now by those watches. but right now, there are no signs of a major tsunami hitting. meantime, new video showing the tense moment as the quake hits. people seen running out of their homes and offices. electricity has been knocked out. there are also reports of several aftershocks. people being told to move to higher ground now. at this time, there appears to be little damage. another breaking news story to tell you about right now to sky fox, first on the scene of a fire in paterson, new jersey. you can see firefighters trying to get water on the flames right now. that's a warehouse that's gone up in flames. a commercial building behind a loews store. no word of any injuries. we're keeping an eye on this one and keep you posted. more shocking details out of the general services administration, the g.s.a. spending scandal. not only did they blow massive amounts of taxpayer dollars for a conference near las vegas but now it's coming out that they got bonuses to come up with that plan. 15 employees of the g.s.a. got

between 50 or $500 and $1,000 for their work planning that lavish bash. we know from testimony martha johnson, the former head of the g.s.a. didn't attend that conference because she had meetings scheduled with all companies allegedly solyndra. solyndra got a loan from the obama administration before going bankrupt. we've learned that the g.s.a. planned to return to las vegas for a conference coming up on april 25th but now that conference has been canceled. some terrifying video out of ohio. a masked gunman using an 80-year-old woman as a human shield all while he shoots at police. the whole thing going down at a dollar store. the suspect and his cousin just robbed the place when the cops showed up, guns drawn. that's when the guy grabs the 80-year-old woman and drags her out with him through the back door before shoving her to the ground near a dumpster. both suspects managed to escape but they were caught two months later. >> special place in hell for guys like that. >> all right.

we're probably watching it live now on the fox newschannel yesterday after a long night on monday night, rick santorum there in gettysburg, pennsylvania, decided that he was going to suspend his campaign. apparently, he realized, you know, texas was not going to be a winner take all state. newt gingrich not getting out of things. his daughter ill. he decided that it was time to call it quits. and some aides told abc it had nothing to do with the fact that there's a potential that mitt romney wins his home state. he said look, you know what? he has lost that state before. a loss again would not devastate him. >> it was interesting timing because the primary in pennsylvania, his home state is not until april 24th. so, you know, you're looking at two weeks away, maybe he just felt like the pressure would continue to mount and the polls would continue to show he was maybe going to be slipping and the pundits would continue to say hey, if he loses his home state, it's really all over. i think it's interesting timing and you have to wonder about who got to him, you know, who got to

him to try to convince him? was it just his family? maybe so. or maybe there's some sort of a back room deal going on. >> let me play devil's advocate and let me say that rick santorum did the right thing for the g.o.p. and he got out before, you know, mitt romney or the -- who will probably be the presumptive nominee, before he spends too much money and we've heard about a $2.9 million ad buy he has to make for pennsylvania. he may be able to get some of that back, i'm reading, but why not? if it's going to be mitt romney, why not get out now and -- >> a big winner here. >> behind the one that's going to be president obama. i find the timing interested. in the last 10 days or so, rick santorum seemed to be energized and seems to have an extra bounce in his step. maybe things changed over the last 10 days. >> santorum had a big gap over romney and it was starting -- >> it was growing. >> yeah, it was -- >> in the gap in pennsylvania and, you know, that -- >> if you're going to spend money, you want to make sure you're winning.

if he's not going to win it, that would have been tough for everybody involved. >> it looks like it's going to be mitt romney unless, as brit hume said last night, mitt romney falls into the orchestra pit or breaks his neck or something like that. karl rove was on the sean hannity program last night and said what does this now mean for the campaign? look for the president to get even more partisan at events that we pay for. >> this now makes it clear that the general election has begun and we're likely to see the president's rhetoric tonight in florida, you know, he made two appearances. he made an appearance at a campaign fundraiser and then he went to the florida atlantic university where, if anything, his rhetoric at a taxpayer sponsored event was more harsh, more negative, more partisan and clearly connected to the campaign. he literally talks about candidates running for president. he all but -- the only thing he didn't say was romney but everything else in this taxpayer funneleded event was a direct attack. >> it was. >> so now you have mitt romney

and barack obama going after one another but let's not forget, we still have ron paul in the race and we still have newt gingrich in the race. newt gingrich who has fewer delegates still deciding to be in. he said he's going to take it all the way to the convention in tampa which is at the end of august. i guess money will play into that. >> very interesting you say that, money, because within minutes after rick santorum stepped aside the podium, newt gingrich tweeted, hey, it's down to a two-man race meaning the g.o.p., he completely ignored ron paul, by the way, how about a donation and asked for donations so he's apparently -- >> because he announced a check yesterday to register in utah. brit hume talked a little bit with greta last night about what's going to happen. will the party coalesce around newt? here's brit. >> he still thinks that there's some extreme possibility that lightning could strike, romney could falter in some way and that the -- that the party would turn to him. my sense about that is if lightning struck and romney were

not able to go forward, that the party probably would not turn to him. but hey, a guy can hope! >> so it looks like it is now game on as rick santorum said, and it's mitt romney vs. barack obama. >> all right. let's shift gears, no pun intended right now. and talk about hybrid cars. we know that there's been a big push to try to get electric cars, more of them, out on the road but there's a new study out that shows that people who actually purchase a hybrid car, hybrid drivers, do they really end up liking their cars? so in other words, do they go back to those dealerships and purchase another one after they've had the experience? well, here's the question. how much do hybrid drivers really like their cars? 35% who bought a hybrid purchased another one. 2.4% of new cars are hybrids down from 2.9% in 2008. 35% of those who bought one purchased another one. i don't know, that's 1 out of 3. i guess you could determine maybe they weren't completely happy. >> and of course, the number does go up as gasoline prices do go up.

$3.92 a gallon today approaching the record of $4.11, all time high so they may start to like their hybrids a little better. i drove the new toyota camry hybrid. they've had hybrids before. this is a new car. there it is right there. >> you're a tough critic. they let you do that? >> i drove the volt and i liked the car. it needs a lot of work. this one right here, this camry now, the difference between an electric car and a hybrid is this. the electric car, the volt, drains all the electric power first and then it switches itself over to gasoline. the hybrid, this toyota uses both so when you're idling it goes back to electricity and when you take off, you need the extra power, you use gasoline and when you brake, it throws energy back into the battery. it charges its own battery. fantastic car. i really, really liked the car and it was about -- the one i drove was about $13,000 to $14,000 less than the chevy volt and this car on a full tank of gas and power gets somewhere around 650 to 700 miles going.

>> my neighbor has one of those cars. so if you had one of those and then, you know, it was time to buy another car, would you buy another one of those? >> i would. only question i have and something we need to address is what happens with the battery technology? do you have to replace -- some people say around 100,000, you have to replace it and it could get very expensive. i don't know that. but as far as the drive, the ride, big fan of the hybrid. >> wow. so the harsh critic is giving a positive response to something. >> there you go. >> back in 2009, the united states government started this great program to help military spouses. and the spouses of some enlisted personnel where they would get $4,000 over three years to help earn a certificate or some sort of professional training. as it turns out in this program, it's helping a lot of people but there is very little scrutiny, very little oversight because when you look at the list of organizations that have gotten money, the number 5 recipient of funds for this military spouse

program has gone to a dog program. >> the animal behavior college in 2011, $2.7 million came from the federal government. for people there to earn certificates, licenses and associate's degrees. here's the interesting thing. you have a democratic senator from iowa, tom harkin, who says this -- the program is a terrific proposal designed to help meet president obama's goal of america once again having the highest proportion of college educated citizens in the world by 2020 but taxpayer funded dog walking classes do not help meet that goal. so maybe there should be a little bit more oversight. i mean, how many more stories like this do we have to do before we realize that one way to cut all the spending in this country is to actually get rid of the fraud that's going on. >> oversight is good. but so is a program like this. also happens to be good. i'm in favor -- i'm in favor of these programs. >> but the money is supposed to go to military spouses and so -- >> supposed to get education to go to college. i'm not sure -- >> gretchen, i have a very soft

spot for the animals and the service dogs. >> i believe it does train people to train dogs and stuff like that so it trains them in this. >> i don't mean to be the dissenting voice on the curvy couch. >> believe me. >> this guy has looked at what the requirements are and he has fulfilled them and he said, the owner of this dog college says he understands why the program might raise eyebrows. he says this is not a fly-by-night organization. he has followed the rules so this dog college has wound up the number five recipient in the military spouse money. >> extremely important program, the service dog program. just pointing it out, that's all. >> another important thing to point out, 26% of military spouses are unemployed so that is the reason this program may be necessary. coming up on "fox & friends", a perplexing new poll finds independent voters like president obama but agree more with mitt romney. how do you please those all important swing voters? mark sanford here to sort it out for him.

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>> 16 minutes after the top of the hour. a new poll shows 44% of independent swing voters or voters who don't have strong views of any of the candidates favor president obama compared to 38% of mitt romney. >> the same poll finds the majority of these voters agree more with romney's politics than obama's. isn't that a contradiction? former governor of south carolina, fox news contributor mark sanford joins us. how do we -- parse that out for us, will you?

>> i guess i'd parse it out this way which is to say that obama has a winning personality and he needs a message and romney has a winning message and he needs a personality. and i guess it's game on with santorum getting out yesterday as to the beginning of that tug of war on who wins. there's clearly an empathy gap. i mean, obama seems to win on that front understanding or at least being perceived to understand more one's hopes and dreams and romney has the message but it's a tug of war and it's going to be a long contest between here and november as that tug of war takes place on who -- which side wins. >> it's interesting to me, governor, because it seems as if when you're talking specifically about the economy, that both of these candidates have divergent points of view. it's interesting that a swing voter could still be undecided on that. don't you see them as totally opposites, obama, romney, on how they would handle the economy. >> yeah, but, you know, i think you got to look at where we are.

for, i mean, having left politics, i mean, for those of us who watch it closely, we watch every phrase and every soundbite. for the vast majority of folks out there, not watching this stuff like we do. one, we're very early in the process. what this poll really says is independents aren't focused yet on the race. i suspect they very much will be come november. two, it says a little bit of trouble is out there for obama both from the standpoint of message. it says that basically, opportunity trumps equality as a message and right now, you know, obama was down in florida, i guess, yesterday talking about the buffet rule and equity. those independents are looking more for opportunity than they are for equity. it also, i think is important -- >> i'm sorry, go ahead. i think it's also important, though, to look at where obama stands with independents. that poll suggested he was at 44%. he won last in 2008 with almost 60% of the independents out

there and says there's been a drop with him and independents. >> if he has 44% as the poll states with independents and more of the poll -- same people polled prefer romney's politics, is that a likeability issue? >> absolutely. and again, if romney doesn't close that likeability issue, that empathy factor, i think he's got real problems in november. i suspect, you know, he needs to bring out one of his giant guns which is ann romney. ann romney comes across as very likable, very much able to relate and i suspect we'll see much more of ann romney in helping to close that likeability gap. >> that might be better than singing again. which was another way to show that you're likable but i think you hit the nail on the head this morning. governor mark sanford, thanks so much for your thoughts. see you again soon. >> my pleasure. take care. >> coming up on "fox & friends", a video that will make you think twice before texting and walking. a man comes face to face with a

300 pound bear? in his own backyard. >> and it may be tempting to spend your tax refund but there might be some big benefits to saving it instead. financial expert dave ramsey dips into his mailbag to answer your last minute tax questions. that's coming up. [ male announcer ] introducing a powerful weapon in your fight against lawn weeds.

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>> now for your news by the numbers. first, $4.50. that's how much a gallon of regular gasoline could cost by june. national average is clearly $3.91 per gallon. next, more than 2,000. that's how many people have come to see the so-called jesus

shadow in the past week. the mysterious shadow emerging at a chapel in new orleans and appears to show the face of jesus christ. finally, number 1. that's where paris ranks in the list of world's rudest cities according to a recent survey of tourists survey, number one city. >> it's that time of year again. tax time. while the process can be daunting and sometimes confusing, personal finance expert dave ramsey has some easy to understand strategies for saving some dough. i got to hear this, dave. he joins us live from nashville. you're going to let the secrets out of the bag today? >> i don't know if there are any secrets. maybe an election year. >> let's dive into the bag. the mailbag. mary from dallas wants to know -- dave, we get back about $10,000 each year for our tax return. this year, i'm afraid it will be less than that because of a change in income. how can we figure out our withholdings so we continue to get a large return, mary wants

to know. >> mary, wrong question! >> exactly. >> santa claus does not live in washington, d.c. this is your money! you had too much withheld. you are loaning the government $830 a month, $10,000 a year and then they're giving it back to you in april and you act like they did something fun for you. no, no, no, you need to go the other way and calculate how to bring home an extra $800 a month so that at tax time, you owe no additional taxes in addition to what was already withheld. >> careful not to go under so you don't owe penalty and interest. >> that hurts. >> well, if you go under a little, it's not a problem. you don't want to go way under. it creates a cash bind. you want to try to hit it at about zero. >> here's john in philadelphia. i would like to take advantage of putting some money into an i.r.a. to offset my earnings for 2011. which is better, a traditional i.r.a. or a roth? depends on your income, doesn't it, dave? >> well, neither -- i mean, the roth i.r.a. will not offset your

income. it's not tax deductible this year. it's an after tax investment. only thing that will offset income this year is the traditional i.r.a. and in spite of that, i'm going to say hey, pay a little more in taxes now and do the roth i.r.a. for most everyone. unless you're a little bit older in your 60's or something, the map on the roth works out beautifully because most of what is in your account at retirement is growth and with the roth, the growth is all tax free so i would give up the tax break this year. >> can anyone get a roth? i thought if you made a certain amount of money, you're not eligible for a roth. >> you're right, if you make over $154,000 married filing jointly you can't do a roth or $95,000 as a single, can't do roth. those of us who make more than that we're evil and must be punished because of buffet's secretary. >> dave, we're trying to pay down our debts but we have little in savings. my wife wants to put all our tax return money in savings about

$8,000. i would like to pay off a couple of credit cards. how should we use this refund? i know what's coming. go ahead. >> well, you should pay off the credit cards as long as you're going to work an overall plan to finish getting out of debt so that then you can do what your wife is saying which is build up the emergency fund. so the answer is you're both right as long as you work a game plan. i would do the credit cards first so that, i've got more money later to build that savings, that emergency fund in what we call baby step three but both are right. it's a matter of the order you get at it. >> and the final e-mail in our order is from anita in baltimore. she said we've been blessed this year and would like to make a contribution to a local charity. we don't know where to begin. how do you determine which charity to donate money to? that's a great question. >> thank you, anita. you're a great american. this is how we put the government out of business. we outgive them. this is what you should be doing. when you get ready to do investments in into a charity,

that's how you should look at it. study the charity as if you were studying an investment. is it a quality charity? is there bang for the buck? if i give them $10,000, do they spend $9,700 of it on a luxury office or do hungry children get fed with most of that? so look at the ratio of administrative fees to actually what goes to the ministry or to the actual use of the people. and study the quality of the character and the leadership just like you were studying a company to invest in it. >> very quickly, you can donate property and stocks below market value and get a tax writeoff, right? >> absolutely, huge tax writeoff. you can write it off at market value, not what you've got in it. not your basis. good point, eric. >> great to talk to you. we'll see you next week. >> hey, good to be with you. thank you. >> thank you. >> straight ahead, the president wants the rich to pay more as dave just mentioned. but the facts show that won't help our deficit barely at all. so why make that his main message? peter johnson jr. knows and he'll spill them beans coming up. >> and imagine this, we've

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morning. this is definitely one strange bird. you're looking at a duck literally playing fetch like a dog. as you can see the woman in the video throws her flip-flop across the yard. the duck then goes waddling after it picking it up with its bill. and waddling all the way back. the video becoming a huge hit on you tube. >> that's the quackers! that's fantastic. >> very nice. my grandma used to have a squirrel that lived in the tree behind her house that would not fetch stuff but she'd just stand in the tree and go rocky. what are you going to name a squirrel? and jumped down on her and would just climb through her hair. >> what? >> walk -- >> i'm telling you. >> i thought you were going to say she admired the squirrel from afar. does she realize that squirrels bite? >> this one never did. climbed on her shoulder for years. watch this, rocky! >> that might explain a few things.

>> she was a great lover of animals. >> gotcha. >> oh, my goodness. let's go to california and tell you about this story. ucla apparently has a big problem on its hands right now because they accidentally sent wrong admission letters to a bunch of students who were really excited about being able to go to ucla. so what should happen now? we told you about several of these kinds of stories. should the kids be allowed to get into the school even though they weren't supposed to or should they just accept the mistake and say sorry, i got to choose another one. >> this is one of the toughest times of the year when you're waiting for the big envelope to come from the school. the little envelope, you don't really want. for these 894 high school seniors to get this note that says congratulations you're in, a lot of people are saying look, the admission class is 15,500, what's another 894? come on, figure a way, pull the chairs together. admit them all! >> that's a lot. >> it is a lot.

let's see what ucla said. we sincerely apologize for this mistake that may have led some of them they were admitted when they remain on the waiting list. spokesman for ucla. >> says you're in. yeah, that would lead to believe you're in, right? >> bigger question if you dig a little deeper. this is much more controversial and folks in california have been talking about this is whether or not there were a lot of illegals who were allowed to come into that school vs. citizens. now, that might be a serious argument. as far as just on the surface, those 800 kids, i mean, i don't see how you do it. california is so strapped for cash right now, i don't know if they can increase their class size to accept those extra kids. >> let us know what you think. >> i wonder if somebody is going to get fired. a lot of kids' hearts broken. in the meantime, fox news alert for you. we've been following this this morning. a tsunami warning is in effect for the entire indian ocean following a powerful 8.6

magnitude earthquake. it hit off the coast of indonesia. our man in that region is david piper live in bangkok, thailand, where the night there. any idea that if a tsunami wave is going to come ashore it will? >> well, there's still great concern at this moment. indonesia has now issued a second tsunami alert after an 8.2 magnitude aftershock which is a large earthquake in its own right. a few hours ago, there was that 8.6 quake but it doesn't seem to have created any tsunamis. but there was panic on the streets particularly in a province of sumatra in indonesia. they were trying to get to higher ground and getting people out of hospitals, just like that, in order to escape a possible tsunami. you have to remember that area was devastated back in 2004 when there was a great indian ocean tsunami that killed over 230,000 people. now, this 8.6 quake was so

powerful, it was felt here in thailand, malaysia, and singapore. and there were tsunami warnings and people have been told to evacuate areas like puket and here in tie land, a lot of thais have gone to the coastline, this is the start of the water festival and they really want their holidays but now many of them have had to escape possible tsunamis but at this time, we haven't seen any tsunamis but there is still alerts in place. back to you guys. >> all right, david piper live in thailand with the very latest. thank you very much. the worry is, of course, you've got a warning and night is falling. it will come in the night. >> and maybe a little more warning this time than last time. all right, we're giving you a rare glimpse into the lives of usama bin laden's family. this new video showing his three wives under house arrest in islamabad, pakistan. you can see them praying and reading the quran. their children playing nearby. bin laden's wives and two of his daughters are serving 45-day sentences for illegally entering

the country. after that, they'll be deported to their home countries of yemen and saudi arabia. >> the special prosecutor in the trayvon martin case down in florida will make a big announcement as early as today. meantime, george zimmerman's lawyers calling it quits. saying zimmerman hasn't contacted them in days. one person who has spoken to zimmerman, fox news anchor sean hannity. >> yesterday, i was contacted by an individual that we thought was george zimmerman. he reached out to me and we spoke on the phone about his case and i agreed not to report on the contents of that conversation. that's it. i know nothing about his relationship with his now former attorneys. >> so far, zimmerman is protected from legal action saying that he killed trayvon in self-defense but we'll await that big announcement from down in florida later on today. >> meanwhile, goldielocks has nothing on this guy. take a look at a black bear roaming a southern california neighborhood when he comes face

to face with a guy texting on his phone. the guy hightails out of there as fast as he can. the bear -- thanks, scott. the bear eventually tranquilized and returned to jellystone forest. i'm kidding. back into the woods. >> i will not fight a plan that adds one dime to our deficit either now or into the future. >> the obama administration continues to tout the so-called savings obamacare will bring as well as the benefits of his buffet rule adding more taxes on the rich. is he making promises he just can't keep? joining us now to discuss, fox news legal analyst peter johnson jr. >> good morning, you know, eric, i think the president is pushing aside harry houdini and david copperfield. he has become the master illusionist. this is about cynical misdirection and redistribution not only of wealth but of blame. he's saying listen, i can't

create jobs. i can't instill confidence in america and their economy. i can't reduce gas prices. but i can blame the rich. and i can incite americans to say listen, i don't have a job for you. i can't reduce the gas prices. but look at what these rich have done! look at how they're not paying their fair share and we know through the tax policy center and others, that in fact, most millionaires are paying what they're supposed to pay under the law, we know based on statistics we saw yesterday what the true cost of all of this is going to be. let's talk about obama and what he's dealing with, there was someone who said yesterday based on his study, a great conservative economist, he said that spending under obamacare is going to increase by as much as

$1. $1.25 trillion and that federal deficits will be as much as $530 billion. so on one hand, the president is talking about saving $50 billion in benefits by taxing a few thousand people more but we're talking about a half a trillion dollars in new deficits at a result of obamacare so it's a cynical misdirection in my view and it doesn't go to the heart of what we need to be doing in this country. >> well, it doesn't attack the debt at all. none of these programs attack the debt at all. what they do is attack the fairness or the class warfare or enabling the class warfare rhetoric to continue forward. >> it does. and so what it does, it provides that satisfied for a target for their anger and recrimination other than the white house. that's the body that's supposed to help create jobs and reduce the deficit. but if you can create a target and misdirect people's emotions and anger, that's an effective political tactic for centuries. >> the target that they -- the

redirection they create is on about every corner in america, there's a gasoline station and most of them say $4 and something a gallon. that will be a hard one for them to redirect. >> i think it is a one and to reach out to an audience of a few thousand people and say blame the rich. blame the rich. those folks still leave without a job. and they still go to the gas station paying the prices that you talk about. and that's the unfortunate part about what we're seeing. >> thank you very much. >> good to see you, eric. why wait for the t.s.a.? one woman stripping down at the airport on her own. really? plus the veep stakes are on and denial is the name of the game so when does no really mean no? a look at the frontrunners coming up next. [ male announcer ] every day thousands of people

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>> quick headlines for you. the state of tennessee will protect teachers who speak out against the theories of evolution and global warming. the bill is set to go into law april 20th. the governor says the bill had strong bipartisan support. and how's this for a strip search? an airline passenger taking all her clothes off right in the middle of denver international airport. she was also reportedly caught smoking a cigarette at her departure gate. she was taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation. go figure. gretch? >> with the republican convention away now, the clock is ticking for mitt romney to choose his running mate. when it comes to the veep stakes, denial seems to be the name of the game. >> no, i'll stay in the state

and continue doing what i'm going to do. >> i won't rule it out only because i think that i owe it to governor romney if he would ask me the question to sit and listen to him. >> i would have to consider it. it's not something i'm even thinking about right now. >> so why are they playing so coy? joining me now, dr. larry sabado, professor of political science at the university of virginia. denial is the name of the game if you're a possible v.p. pick, is that how it goes? >> for the most part, look, they don't want to be embarrassed if they're not picked. if they're out there actively campaigning for the position and then romney doesn't pick them for it, you know, it is embarrassing to them and they get a lot of ribbing for it. so the right position to take at least for most of them is to say oh, it's all theoretical, why, i'd never be called anyway and i just love my current job. i wouldn't dream of giving it up except they'd accept in a nanosecond if they were asked to join the ticket in the vast majority of cases. >> all right. so let's take a look at some of the possible v.p. picks. i guess we're going to be

parsing through this list for the next couple of months, larry, because this will be the next suspenseful thing. so you have governor haley, south carolina, senator rubio, governor chris christie, congressman paul ryan, former senator rob portman of ohio and then the governor of virginia, bob mcdonald. now, the only difference there, bob mcdonald has actually been very forthright in saying he'd be up for the job. >> yes. my governor has been very, very forthright and we have nicknamed him "i'm available". bob "i'm available" mcdonald because he's been so forthright about his willingness to accept the vice presidency. there's a reason. keep in mind, virginia is the only state left that has a one term -- one consecutive term limit so he's out of a job at the end of 2013 regardless and he's looking to the next thing as most politicians do. >> so what do you think with all the history that you've looked at, what's the most important thing, the number one factor that the nominee would

look for in picking a v.p.? >> this is not necessarily conventional wisdom but gretchen, i'm convinced having studied the vice presidential selection over many, many cycles that a presidential nominee is best off when he ignores all other factors and picks a person who is clearly, clearly qualified to step into the presidency on day one. >> wow! >> that's what most americans want to see. now, it's wonderful if you get a packet of electoral votes along with that. >> right. >> it's wonderful if you get new appeals to a certain demographic groups that a candidate may have to attract to win the presidency. that's great. but you can't forget the fundamental of picking somebody who is qualified to be president. >> yeah. very interesting. one heartbeat away from that top job. before you go, real quickly answer this for me. is it any different this year around because there appears to be this split in the republican party. if romney is the nominee, he has

to pick a more conservative v.p. any logic to that? >> well, we hear that. and, you know, honestly, gretchen, we hear it every four years because there's always a split in the republican party, there's always a split in the democratic party and people play these games and i'm as guilty as anybody else. but in the end, it will -- it will be mitt romney's judgment. he is singularly responsible for this decision. we'll be held accountable for it. >> ok. very interesting. dr. larry sabato, see you again very soon. thanks so much. >> thanks, gretchen. >> coming up on "fox & friends", no desire to have kids? are you missing a maternal gene? dr. keith ablow will rule if that's normal or not. but first on this day in 1974, elton john had the number one song with "benny and the jets." sing it. wake up!

that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. fohalf the calories plus vgie nutrition. could've had a v8.

>> normal or not? do you ever wonder if your zany hab habits, impulses and unique behaviors are crossing the line from normal to nuts. this is our favorite segments, weekly analysis of the quirks and fears that make us human. good morning to you, sir. >> hey, steve, how are you? >> i'm doing fine. >> first e-mail, i have no desire for kids. i didn't have a bad childhood and i certainly wasn't abused but i don't want children. am i just missing a maternal gene or is something wrong with me? they want to know. >> well, here's the thing. look, people make all kinds of life decisions. and the one thing you would want to do because look, the viewer is very careful to say look, i wasn't abused. you don't have to be abused in

order to decide my family was too stressful. i don't want another family. and if that's the case, then a little therapy might help you to see hey, you could create a very different kind of family and free you to have kids. look, you can give birth to lots of things in your life. parts of yourself, businesses, ideas and you can take care of other people. no, that's normal. >> ok. we got one normal. next up, how about this? my wife is crazy for "star wars" figurines, especially darth vader. she has tons of them in the den and they're showing up in the bedroom mantle as well. she spends a fortune on them. more than we can afford. normal or nuts? >> number one, sleep with one eye open. you have darth vader in your bedroom, you have to be careful. bottom line is this guy and his wife can't afford these. this is a sign of a kind of obsessive compulsive hoarding mindset. we got to call this what it is. it's focused. it's about figurines you can't

afford. it's nuts! >> ok. there you go. and finally, guy writes in. my business partner is the most suspicious person i've ever met. he thinks everyone is either against us but now i worry he can burn bridges. >> there's that famous saying in psychiatry even, you know, paranoid people have some enemies. so sure, your partner helped build the business and he's got a sixth sense for when people are against you folks. but the bottom line is now it's overgrown and you're getting the downside from it. paranoia is paranoia. that's nuts! >> that's nuts. all right. always entertaining and interesting as well. dr. keith ablow joining us from boston. thank you very much. if you have a question for the doctor, log on to foxandfriends.com or e-mail him right here. he'll answer them every week. meanwhile, the hits keep on coming. the geniuses who use taxpayer dollars to make these videos apparently got cash bonuses for their efforts. and that's not all.

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>> gretchen: good morning, everyone. it's april 11. i'm gretchen carlson. rick santorum forfeits his race for the gop nomination. now mr. cain. where is your yellow tie? he's here live. >> eric: don't shoot the messenger, your tax dollars being wasted again. time for signs along the border. wait until you see what they say. >> steve: and don't be a chicken. throw away that crummy breakfast. how you can eat more of what you love without putting on the pounds. how about chicken? chicken fried steak for breakfast? abc delicious. "fox & friends," hour three for

delicious wednesday starts right now. >> steve: who wants a bite? it's delicious. >> gretchen: wow! looks delicious. >> eric: i saw them make that last night and it's been sitting on the table. [ laughter ] >> gretchen: i think it was fresh this morning. >> steve: the author of this cookbook, it's the number one hottest cookbook in america. how to make the recipes you love, like chicken fried steak with far fewer calories. >> gretchen: that's not chicken fried steak. >> steve: yeah, it's going to be. chicken fried chicken steak. that's one of the keys on how you make it even less. don't give away all the secrets. >> gretchen: i don't want to. >> steve: how you can put white gravy is coming up. >> eric: chicken fried steak chicken and the squirrel. oy. >> steve: been a busy morning.

eric bolling in today for brian. >> gretchen: that's correct. and we have to get right to the headlines now with fox news alert. firefighters in new jersey working desperately to contain a three-alarm fire rage not guilty a warehouse right now. at least one firefighter has reportedly been hurt. the flames first erupting a little while ago. we're told the warehouse is behind a loews home improvement store. a stretch of the road closed in both direction. two powerful earthquakes hit off the northern indonesian island of sinatra. it happened earlier today. a 8.6 magnitude, then 8.2 magnitude nearly two hours later. the entire indian ocean under a tsunami warning now. it's affecting 28 countries. video in the short time ago to fox shows people running out of their homessen their offices. electricity has been knocked out. so far, no reports of major damage. people being told to move to higher ground.

master mind behind the september 11 going to trial after more than ten years. khalid shaikh mohammed and the other defendants will be arraigninged. in the middle of a court case when mohammed said i did it, the case was suspend after president obama tried to have it moved to federal court. now they face the death penalty for murdering 2976 people in new york, dc, and shanksville, pennsylvania. this may not be the best use of your tax dollars. the department of homeland security spending your money on ads warning mexicans not to enter the u.s. illegally. >> steve: about time. >> gretchen: they focus on dangers of trying to cross the border illegally. there has been a surge of violence near the border. most blamed on drug cartels. it's not clear how much of an impact the outreach campaign has had on thwarting the crossing.

if you come over lyrics you have a better life. race right over. >> steve: danger of dying out in the desert. four minutes after the top of the hour. there was good news and bad news in politics yesterday. the bad news, newt gingrich apparently bounced a check. he was trying to register for utah. the good news for mitt romney, that guy right there, rick santorum, who did a great job wage ago great campaign against mitt romney, mr. santorum yesterday said it's the end of the trail for him. he's going to suspend things and now the question is what is going to happen with all of his delegates. >> eric: very quickly, what happens to his delegates legally, or according to the gop, is 84 of them are free to vote whoever they want to at the convention in august. 197 or so, ballpark, if rick santorum releases them, they have the option to vote for who they want. get their support behind who they want. but rick santorum has to -- i

have a hunch he will for the good the party. it's important to note, money wise, he's suspending the campaign because if he were to quit the campaign, he'd have to come up with the money to pay all his -- >> steve: i think that's when hillary did. >> eric: when you suspend, you can bide more time. >> gretchen: i find it interesting timing that he chose yesterday to do this. it was somewhat viesing to me, pennsylvania's home state works weeks away, even though people were saying that would be horrendous if he lost his home state. but also his daughter was ill over the last couple of days. maybe that is what made his family sit down and look at priorities. but also i felt like he had sort of a spring in his step the last ten days or so. he seemed to be more fired up in the last two weeks than previous. so the timing was a little surprising. the other thing is that newt gingrich has vowed he's going to stay in this race. so had he gotten out, maybe then santorum could have edged --

picked up some of the gingrich supporters and edged along a little more. but the timing is a little interesting. >> steve: dick morris says this is a net gain for mitt romney because at the end of the contest, the republicans will all get on the romney band wagon. listen. >> there can be no doubt that mitt romney is going to get the votes of more than 90% of self-described republicans and that there is going to be an enormous turnout among republicans, motivated by the fear of obama and his presidency. i do not think there is a serious chance of any kind of major deinfection from romney. >> gretchen: i think that's interesting because if you ask conservatives that today, they might not agree with dick morris. >> steve: they want obama out. >> gretchen: maybe eventually they would come over, but you have to somehow, if you're mitt romney, you have to somehow get that base behind you because why? you got to get them out to vote!

>> steve: they don't like the president. they want the president out. i think that's going to be the motivation for tuesday in november. >> eric: watch these polls. lately the last few polls are showing president obama with between a 5 and eight point lead over mitt romney. now that rick santorum dropped out and some of the conservative emphasis going toward mitt romney, i p bet you that tightens and you start to slip a little bit. i would agree, steve. i think the true conservatives are so concerned about the obama policies, fiscal policies that they're going to get behind anyone and it looks like it will be romney. >> steve: mitt romney knows in his heart it's going to be him and he continued yesterday in wilmington, delaware, the thing he has been doing. he hasn't been attacking his fellow republicans. he's been going right after the president of the united states and he uses for the first time we have heard a statistic that is absolutely jaw dropping. he's going to mention that 92% of the people who lost jobs during barak obama's 3 1/2 years

have been women. listen to this. >> you look at the experience of this administration and the last 3 1/2 years and you can see that something is seriously wrong with his perspective. not only have 92% of the job losses been among women, but you've seen 800,000 people over all lose jobs, home values decline, the median income of americans in the last four years has dropped by 10%! these have been tough years. you have failed. we have seen it. you can't hide it. we're going to change it! >> steve: 92% of the women of the people who lost jobs on barak obama's watch have been women? that's big. >> gretchen: it seems impossible. >> eric: yeah. >> gretchen: 'cause i thought all along that more men had lost jobs. >> eric: he may have misspoke a little bit. there may be another qualifier. >> steve: i think the gop put out something talk being okay, mr. obama says that the republicans have a war on women?

now the republicans have turned it around to say, who has got the war on women. look how many women lost their jobs during this administration. >> eric: we'll see if there is a clarification. but again, the one thing that was important that he did say is that median income has dropped over the three years that president obama has been president. clearly the policy he's put in just aren't working. >> gretchen: what you need to focus on really is just the unemployment rate in general. it's still 8.2%. >> eric: and the cost of gas. >> gretchen: you have to look at the jobs created. >> eric: the cost of gas. >> gretchen: even though the employment rate has come down by a point from 8.3 to 8.2, the jobs created were fewer than expected and that's really where you see the pulse of the economy. >> eric: there is still almost a million fewer jobs in america today than january 20, 2009. so no matter how you spin it, you can call it the last six months, pick a few months out, job creation is coming back, but there is still fewer jobs in

america right now and the population is growing. so they're not work. just not work. >> steve: something that the president hopes works is class warfare and yesterday he went down to florida, atlantic university in boca to talk about the buffet rule. this is supposed to be nonpolitical. supposed to be just policy. it sure sounds political. >> they keep telling us that if we just weaken regulations that keep our air or water clean or protect our consumers, if we would just convert these investments that we're making through our government in education and research and health care, if we just turn those into tax cut, especially for the wealthy, then somehow the economy is going to go stronger. that's the theory. and here is the news: we tried this for eight years before i took office. we tried it.

it's not like we didn't try it. >> steve: especially policy, it was all politics. >> eric: you know what else we tried? we pride spending $6 trillion in deficit spending and that's not working either, president obama. i think you need a new victim, a new villain. >> steve: you're speaking directly to the president? is he watching right now? >> eric: yeah. >> gretchen: as long as that populist -- internal polling must be showing that message is work 'cause he keeps saying the same thing. it's a story we've been following closely. one university forcing christian groups to let anyone, even atheists, run their club. up next, we'll have an update on that story. >> eric: and the king train is here. the former presidential candidate on where the race goes from here and his pick for the vice president. that's next ♪

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>> top miff wish is allen west. >> steve: earlier this week, sarah palin went on hannity and gave her pick for vice president, colonel allen west of florida. but colonel allen west and mitt romney are pretty far apart on some major issues, even the colonel thinks so. >> look, i think that governor romney and i definitely have a different vision for this country, a vision that gets us away from debt, despair and the horrible situation you see with our economic security, our energy security and our national security. so i think that we will be able to come together as a team. >> gretchen: former presidential candidate herman cain also believes west is one of the guys

or gals on his list. good morning to you. >> good morning. happy to be here. i made the statement allen west, marco rubio, representative paul ryan and i have been consistent saying those three, based upon how the race was shaping up, i could be excited about either one of those being the vp pick. >> steve: you're leaving an important name off that list that you would be excited over. herman cain. >> well, i don't ever try to point myself to anything. if that comes up, we'll -- >> steve: if the phone rang, 'cause mitt romney has got your number and he said herman, i need your help. >> i would say let's talk. >> eric: it's not a slam dunk. >> gretchen: how did you come to the other three names? >> paul ryan's reputation for being very good at budgets. he's very good at that whole financial area which you're going to need. plus he knows how to navigate the legislative process. marco rubio because he's an excite young senator that everybody loves in florida and the other thing is you got rubio and west both from the state of florida.

that does not hurt. but i just happen to think that even though as west indicated, he feels as if he's far apart in some ways from mitt romney, they can come together on some of those things. that's part of the process if he is selected. >> eric: you left one name off the list. he needs someone to invigorate the party, a guy who does a lot of that ask he's a couple miles across the river, chris christie. >> no way. i think that that would be perceived, with all due respect to chris christie, i think the rest of the country, which i see a lot of speaking around, they would perceive that as two northeastern governors, president and vp candidate. i don't think perception wise that would be a good thing. >> steve: you mentioned a couple of guys from florida, marco rubio and colonel west. what about a third guy from florida, jeb bush? >> i don't think so, because that would also create a perception -- you know, unfortunately, in politics, perception is a big part of it. >> steve: is it just too soon? >> it's too soon for another

bush. i'm just going to say it. this is what what i'm hearing. no disrespect, but i just think from a perception standpoint, that would not be good. >> steve: he's a good leader. >> good leader, good manager. did a good job as governor of florida. but i think for the rest of the country, they wouldn't evaluate it on that. >> gretchen: what about newt gingrich? you endorsed him for president. we just had larry sabato on the show, professor at the university of virginia who studied this type of thing and he said that most important factor is who can step right into the role and become president. so could newt gingrich be a good pick? >> newt gingrich could step into the role, but i believe that that is 50% of the decision. the other 50%, who is going to bring some excitement to the ticket? with all due respect, i don't think newt would bring that excitement because he has been one of the candidates and where he is right now. >> eric: governor palin is a good friend of pipe and i asked her, true conservatives are looking to get behind the person that's going to beat barak obama. with rick santorum dropping out

l the real conservative, far right conservative finally get behind mitt romney? >> if -- let me give you two ifs. if governor romney continues to clearly delineate the failed policies of the obama administration and clearly talk about what he would do instead, the second is if he adopts many of the good ideas that came out of this primary process, some of the things that ron paul said, some of the things that newt gingrich said, like the 2.50-gallon with the plan. if he adopts some of those ideas, their followers and supporters could get excited about mitt romney. that's how he brings the party together. >> steve: one of the things you spoke out against is government waste. i'm sure you've seen the video of the guys from the gsa out in vegas last year living it up, spending close to a million dollars. now the report is apparently some of those people got cash bonuses. 500,000 bucks for doing such a good job wasting our money. >> the obama strategy, based upon the class warfare, snippets you all showed.

instead of hope and change is turning out to be more like waste and welfare and fear. fear, welfare and waste. this is outrageous. the american people are going to make note of it. they're trying to slough it off and worse, they're trying blame the bush administration! the american people are not that stupid. >> gretchen: you got to wonder if we're exposing that, how much more waste. >> it's probably a lot more than that. >> steve: tip of the iceberg. >> you got it. >> steve: thank you, cain train for dropping by. >> gretchen: in person, the tie is yellow. >> it's gold, gretchen! >> gretchen: better yet. good to see you. >> thank you. >> gretchen: coming up, should our kids be admiring today's celebrities? are they the right kind of role models? are all the true heros gone? our next guest has a plan to bring them back. >> eric: former president george w. bush once again entering into the debate over tax cuts. he says leave my name out of it. [ tires squeal, engine revs ]

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>> eric: growing up everyone has a hero. you remember yours? mine was roberto clementi. >> gretchen: one father doing everything he can to make sure his daughter and millions of other american children have the right kind of hero to call their own. brad, the author of heros for my daughter joins us now. he was the author of the "new york times" best seller "heros for my son" first. now you're doing it for your daughter. how did you pick the heros that went in this book? >> you know, you know a hero when you see it. when my daughter was born, i said i'm going to write a book

that lasts her whole life. what i realized is i have to give her heros. i can't just say be good. i look at people like alex appearedder scott. she's a young girl. there is rosa parks, christopher reeve, abigail adams. but alex scott was a girl who when she was a-year-old was diagnosed with cancer. she said let's open up a lemonade stand in our front yard and raised $2,000 because she wants to help other kids with cancer. then she says, you know with a? new goal. a million dollars. and hundreds of lemonade stands open up all across the country with her name on it. she die when is she's eight years old, but says let's raise $5 million. to this day, her lemonade stand is going strong, raising over $45 million for kids with cancer. that's a hero for my daughter. >> eric: let's talk about the next one, lucille ball. where is the hero? great performer, comedienne. >> you're right. i say to my daughter, just because you're famous, doesn't mean you're a hero.

she said unhappy child ad. she covered up all the mirrors in her house because she said it would lead to vanity. lucille ball used to learn to smile by showing her reflection in cable cars. it's the lesson of every episode, which is humor can take on anything. i want my daughter to learn that lesson. it's vital one. >> gretchen: dolly parton. >> one of my favorites. she helped us with the book. she had a little shack when she grew up. right now she has all the money in the world to buy a big mansion, plow that shack over. she bought the land. you know what she built there? same size shack. i love that she never forget where is she comes from. and to me, the most important hero in the book is the last hero, 'cause the last page is blank of the it says your hero's photo and story here and you take a picture of your mom or grandmother for mother's day. you write a sentence of what they meant for you or military member of your family, that's the most important hero. >> gretchen: you have shirts that accompany this. >> yeah. when i was shopping for my daughter, i kept finding

princesses. so i said i'm going to design an inspiration she can wear. so we did shirts like amelia earhart. when you get it and go to ordinary people change the world.com, it says on the back, i know no bounds. i want my daughter to know that. we did my favorite, abraham lane lincoln. his says, i will always speak my mind and speak for others. if you go to ordinary people change the world.com, i said, that's what i want to inspire people with. not with the dumb heros we have on reality television or some sports figure we hate, but real american heros that we can all stand for. >> gretchen: heros for my daughter, great to sigh. thanks so much. >> always. >> eric: thanks. coming up, never before seen video. we'll take you inside the bin laden home where his wives and children are under house arrest. >> gretchen: attacked by 100 enemy fighters for 14 straight hours, now captain barry crawford about to receive one of the air force's highest awards for doing something most people would never do. he shares his story next.

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wanda sykes: gain apple mango tango is inspired by all you women who hit the dance floor and shake what your mommas gave you. and because apple mango tango smells so good, it comes in a fabric softener too. without the stuff that we make here, you wouldn't be able to walk in your house and flip on your lights. [ brad ] at ge we build turbines that pothe world. they go into power plants which take some form of energy, harness it,

and turn it into more efficient electricity. [ ron ] when i was a kid i wanted to work with my hands, that was my thing. i really enjoy building turbines. it's nice to know that what you're building is gonna do something for the world. when people think of ge, they typically don't think about beer. a lot of people may not realize that the power needed to keep their budweiser cold and even to make their beer comes from turbines made right here. wait, so you guys make the beer? no, we make the power that makes the beer. so without you there'd be no bud? that's right. well, we like you. [ laughter ] ♪ >> congratulations to american bubba watson who won the masters golf tournament. did you notice that? [ applause ] did you notice on the news they say, american bubba watson. you ever met anybody named bubba who wasn't an american?

i mean, what are the odds? please welcome from london england, sir bubba windsor, ladies and gentlemen. who else but an american would be named bubba? >> steve: he's got a point. >> eric: bubba gump, bubba clinton. americans. >> steve: 28 minutes before the top of the hour. president obama set to make yet another attempt this morning to sell the buffet rule to voters as he tries to shoot down criticism he's engaging in class warfare. >> eric: doug is live at the white house with more. what's the latest? >> the president will be speaking at 10:15 on the buffet rule. very clear at this point that he's going to make this a major campaign theme regardless of its potential political liabilities. after all, when was the last time you heard a president campaigning on a tax increase, even on millionaires? under the so-called buffet rule, people making more than a million dollars a year would pay a tax rate of at least 30%. it would result in $36.7 billion per year in additional tax

revenues. yesterday in a campaign rally, an important swing state of florida, the president again championed the buffet rule. >> and finally, we've got to make sure that we've got a tax system that reflects everybody doing their fair share. let's follow what we call the buffet rule. they may call it class envy or -- that's just being fair. >> with mitt romney freed up from his intraparty battle with rick santorum, it appears he is welcoming a battle over the buffet rule, which he considers to be a tax on small businesses and on job creators. here is mitt romney. >> and the president is going to use all sorts of terms oh, we're going to be more fair in the model that he has. and yet, it is my viewing, a model which does not designate fairness when the government takes from some and gives to others. >> some analysts believe the president's emphasis on the buffet rule is tailor made for opposition to a candidate like romney. warren buffet is a billionaire who is willing to pay a 30% tax rate on his income.

mitt romney, a millionaire, who is for the past two years o'clock paid an effective tax rate of about 14% on his investment income. but what you won't hear from the white house is that mitt romney's investment income is taxed at least three times. first when he makes the money, secondly, when it's taxed as investment income, and thirdly, he'll be taxed again when he dies on an estate tax or death tax. so the battle has been joined, gentlemen. >> steve: doug live on the north lawn. he's absolutely right. it's double taxed. they don't bring that up. i had forgotten about the death tax, which is substantial, going up. >> eric: this is class warfare because it's clearly not attacking the debt because even if you were to do what's called -- what president obama is using as the buffet rule, you're only going to come in around $4 billion a year. we're adding $1.2 trillion this year and maybe about a trillion dollars next year on to the national debt. it's really not about solving the debt crisis. it's all about pointing out a fairness kind of doctrine, if

you will. so is it fair. >> steve: let's talk a little about who actually pays taxes in this chrism we've got a graphic right over there that shows that the president is trying to get people who are the job creators to pay more in income tax. but the top 1% pay close to 40% of all the taxes in this country. and the top 10% pay 70%. and eric, about half pay zero. >> eric: keep that up there for a second 'cause that top 1% not only accounts for 36.7% of all taxes paid, if you add in the 4045 or 46% of the people households who don't pay tax, that 1% pays the same amount as 95% of the bottom half. so if you go from the bottom up to 95% of the people in america, that 1% is paying the same amount of taxes. >> steve: the president -- how is that fair? it's not. the president has been using warren buffet because he says he pays less in taxes than his secretary. but when you look at the facts

about the amount of money that -- let's say his secretary is probably highly compensated. but the average person in the middle class, according to the irs data, pays under 15%. we're talking about people, 50, 60, $70,000. they pay 15%. whereas the average person who makes over a million dollars a year pays close to 30%, which is -- they're already paying that. clearly the president is not interested in policy. he's interested in pushing politics. >> eric: let's talk with warren buffet for a second. he says he pays less than his secretary. what he's saying is not in dollars, he's saying that the rates he pay social security lower than his secretary. that's because he takes advantage of tax loopholes. >> steve: all legal. >> eric: also because he pays 15% tax rate on capital gains and dividends. you don't hear him talking about that. i did this a couple hours ago. i'll do it again. warren buffet, come on to the curvy couch, let's have a discussion about whether or not president obama should call his

plan of taxing people over a million dollars at 30%, should he call that the buffet rule because i know and i've heard you say it before, you've said it's got to be a revamping of the tax code along the lines of simpson-bowles which also includes massive spending cuts. so is it fair to use the buffet rule as a name when it has almost nothing to do with what you would do to solve the debt crisis? >> steve: from the buffet rule to the bush tax cuts, george w. bush was in new york city yesterday and he wanted to talk a little bit about what the president is doing and how the president wants to end the bush tax cuts. here is w. >> if the goal is private sector growth, you got to recognize that the best way to create that growth is to leave capital in the treasuries of the job creators. secondly, if you raise taxes -- if you -- i wish they weren't called the bush tax cuts.

they're called something else, they're probably less likely to be raised. >> eric: good point. barak obama tax cuts and maybe they'll stick around. >> steve: okay. you can start that. >> eric: i shall. he was caught in a 14-hour battle against insurgents in afghanistan before calling in air strikes, clearing the area and ultimately saving the lives of his fellow service members. now this brave american hero is earning the air force's highest honor, the air force cross. joining us now, captain barry crawford. captain, first of all, thank you for your service. you're a hero. can you break it down? i was reading that, you actually within into an open area, exposed yourself to incoming fire and helped remove some people, some casualties. is that right? >> that is correct. first thank you for having me and the special forces teammates and i attached to the afghan commandos were completely surrounded and were in a dire

situation and my teammates, as well as myself, did the actions that needed to be continue to take flight to the enchristmas eve get out of there as best we could. >> eric: set the scene for us. so you go out there. there is some casualties that you need -- that need to be air lifted. you get out there and you start helping a helicopter that lands to pick up the casualties. you helped them remove the casualties from the area? >> my job as a combat controller, as the helicopters are coming in, everyone under fire, so i knew i had to get their eyes on me and once they were able to see me, i was able to get the eyes on the hlz. so i had to move out into the open so they could see me. i knew i was going to be a giant target, but it was worth it 'cause we were able to get the commandos out and save their lives. >> eric: at one point you took incoming fire. is that right? did i read a bullet had taken

off one of the antenna on one of your devices? >> correct. when i moved out into the open, i became a large target, as well as a helicopter's and it took it right off my shoulder. >> eric: tell us about the award. what does it mean to you? >> it's an immense honor. at first it came as complete shock and i thought people were joke. but once it was confirmed, it was a humbling experience, but even though it's an individual award, it's team effort. it's about the commando, my teammates that were fighting that day because if everyone didn't go above and beyond what was needed, we would have suffered catastrophic casualties and i wouldn't be here today. >> eric: do you have any injuries from your service? >> few scratches here and there and swollen joints. but other than that, nothing significant. >> eric: all right. we did a segment a couple minutes ago, a gentleman with a book who said that he left a back page empty, blank for your

hero, fill in your hero right here. i got to tell you, before i give this to my son, i'm gog put your name here. we thank you for your service and glad you're on our side. thank you so much. >> thank you very much. it's my pleasure. >> eric: thank you. coming up, while the president is talking about raising taxes on top earners, ohio's governor is busy lowering income taxes for his state. john kasich is here next. then how to eat more of what you love without packing on the pounds. we're talking about chicken fried chicken steak chicken fried chicken steak. with the capital one cash rewards card

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>> steve: quick headlines. rare look into the lives of osama bin laden's family. this new video showing his three wives under house arrest in pakistan. you can see them praying and reading the koran. their children playing nearby. bin laden's wives and two of his daughters are serving 45-day sentences for illegally entering the country. some sentence. we've been following this story, the fight for religious freedom in vanderbilt. a member of the fellowship of christian athletes joined us earlier to talk about it. >> that's open to anybody and we believe that's the reason for christianity, that anybody can come and learn and learn about the love of christ and we believe that that's why it's so important that our leaders are grounded in that faith. >> steve: the university vice chancellor claims the debate is about nondiscrimination and not about religious freedom.

eric? >> eric: new jersey governor chris christie says americans are becoming couch potatoes and couch potato nation. listen. >> american people no longer believe that this is a place where only their willingness to work hard and to act with honor and integrity and ingenuity determines their success in life. then we'll have a bunch of people sitting on the couch waiting for the next government check. >> eric: well, is he right? republican governor of ohio john kasich, who is turning the economy around in his state joins us now. sir, thanks for joining us. how are you doing it? >> you know, we're doing great. ohio, we got a long way to go to get totally out of the woods and i worry about the federal government and i worry about europe in terms of their difficult, horrible problems over there. but here in ohio, look, we've gone from number 48 in job growth to number 1 in february

and number 4 over the last year and our credit improved, while the agencies have downgraded the entire world, they've improved our credit rating and, you know, when you're growing job, you're helping people, building stronger families and getting kids out of poverty, you feel good, but we got a long way to go. >> eric: i'm sorry, steve, just follow up, you're doing it by lowering taxes, right? >> well, we're doing it a number of ways. it's really the way the federal government ought to look at what we're doing and in fact, europe as well. we derecollected. with he -- he deregulated. we made them simpler. they reflect common sense. we killed the death tax. we balanced our budget. we figured out better ways in which to deal with our entitlement programs. for example, in medicaid, instead of forcing mom and dad to a nursing home, if they can stay in their own home, we give them help at a fifth of the cost where they're healthier and happier. there are ways to deal with entitlement programs to get them under control, to serve the taxpayer and yet, also at the

same time save money. so we don't play a lot of politics out here. we look at a problem and we go to fix it. lowering taxes, balancing budgets, deregulating part of your economy, bringing in common sense and providing a sense of the fact you have stability is what leads to job growth not only in ohio, but what happened in america, it will happen in europe and they don't seem to pay much attention to it. >> eric: i don't get why you can do it in ohio, but we can't do it as a nation. >> steve: governor scott walker over in wisconsin has tried to make big changes with his legislature's help. now he's facing a recall. you have made very big changes as well with the help of your legislature. why is he facing a recall and you're not? >> well, because we don't have that provision in ohio and the fact of the matter is, is that -- it's been a blur for him. here we've been able to settle things down and let people see the fact that we're doing well. ohio for a long period of time

was a place where it was really a flyover state. now people are beginning to look at ohio and feel good about it. our number one job growth area in the state of ohio has been the medical area. not autos or manufacturing, although we welcome them. we're building a diversified economy and when you do that and people see it, they begin to respond positively. >> steve: yeah. no kidding. all right. we know you got a busy day. governor john kasich who once upon a time used to be the fill-in host for "the o'reilly factor." thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> eric: don't be a chicken. throw away that crummy breakfast. how to eat more of what you love even comfort foods without putting on the pounds. >> steve: somebody who loves that gravy? bill hemmer. >> it's lunchtime for you guys anyway. >> steve: it is. >> dive in. good morning to both of you. in their first interview since rick santorum suspend his campaign, we will talk live today. mitt romney, he is here in studio. newt gingrich is live as well.

so romney and gingrich and how this campaign goes forward. where is george zimmerman and new polling on health care that shows how political this law has become. martha and i will see new a jam packed show in ten minutes

>> pizza hut is sell ago pizza with a hot dog stuffed crust. hot dogs stuffed in there. how fat are we getting in this country? when even our food is stuffed with food! i mean, we take food and we stuff it with more food. >> gretchen: good question. so how do you have that good stuff without packing on all the pounds that you might get if you eat all that other stuff? our guest shows us eat more of what you love. she's our guest to you.

>> good morning. >> steve: my wife bought this book. it arrived by amazon before easter. we've already had some of this stuff. the key is you take the foods that we love and you figure out how to make them healthy so people don't feel guilty about eating them. >> exactly. i cut the sugar, the fat, the calories plummet. they have the points for people who use points in the book. it has weight watcher exchanges. it has diabetic exchanges. the idea is i come from a family of nine and i want everybody to enjoy all of the foods they love, guilt free. >> eric: guilt free. steve? >> steve: chicken fried chicken. >> eric: i'm still debating whether steak should be in the name. >> it's a chicken chicken fried steak. here is what's fabulous, what you do is i worked for four days on this coating. get the perfect mix of a coating. it has a little corn flake crumb, but i mixed those fine with a lot of the chicken fried seasonings. what you get is something that tastes exactly like chicken fried chicken, but here is the idea. >> gretchen: you bake it or fry

it? >> i move it into a saute' pan with a little oil to brown it and move it to the oven. but when i give my portions, i'm not talking about a little teaspoon or tablespoon. you get a quarter cup of gravy on a portion and an entire piece this big for 280 calories. so the idea is if you were to switch every day from going to a diner instead of it being 1,000 calories for chicken fried steak on potatoes, this is only 380 calories. >> eric: there is no way this is healthy. >> steve: my family is so excited about this. >> mac and cheese muffins. they take 15 minutes to make and they're 125 calories. so if you're a mac and cheese fan, you tonight have to worry. no matter what your diet, diabetes, losing weight, it all fits. >> gretchen: what about these?

>> eric: amazing. >> better hot warm and gooey. this is a cupcake. this is what i call my gooey, goy, peanut butter stuffed chocolate glazed double cupcake. you want to cut into the middle of this and show what you here. a little messy in the middle. you've got peanut butter mousse. >> steve: we love what you cook. congratulations on your new cookbook. all the recipes are on our web site. >> thank you. >> gretchen: we'll be right back with more good food. stick around. >> eric: and delicious !

>> gretchen: tomorrow, michelle malkin, bob massi, and the story behind the barefoot bandit. >> steve: that's right. plus, if you want to learn how to cook food