bull fighters, do you think. >> jamie: like this. >> rick: stick around the journal editorial report right now. . >> paul: this week on the journal editorial report, president obama's new budget, a record spending boom paid for by 2 trillion dollars in new taxes and the drone war, as the administration ramps up predator strikes against al-qaeda and taliban targets, the left begins to push back. plus, a social theory turned upside down, why crime rates have fallen as unemployment has spiked. welcome to the journal, editorial report, i'm paul gigot. president obama unveiled his budget for the 2011 fiscal year this week and despite talk of tough choices and spending freezes, the big news is a big

boom in new spending, including 25 billion dollars for states for medicaid and 100 billion for yet another jobs stimulus, all financed by record deficits and 2 trillion dollars in tax increases. joining the panel, deputy editor, dan ettinger. mary o'grady and senior economics writer steve moore. >> so, steve, the scott brown election in massachusetts was supposed to be sending a message about fiscal restraint against the growth in government, but this budget doesn't show that. what is the white house calculation here? i mean, political and economic? >> you know, paul, last week, i was in the-- at the republican retreat when president obama told the house republicans, i am not an idealog, but look at the budget and you see the opposite. massive increases in domestic spending on top of the fiscal stimulus bill. we'll borrow under this budget

in barack obama's first three years in office 4 trillion dollars. >> steve, i get that, but what is the white house calculation here, do they believe that this is going to grow the economy and therefore, we must spend to create jobs? is that part of it or is there something political here? is this a political document going into the elections? >> i think it's an ideological document. i think that barack obama does believe in the power of big government. he talks about all of these green programs that are going to create jobs and so i think it's really being driven by a view that this is a way to expand the economy. it hasn't worked, we saw with the unemployment rate, numbers that came out on friday that the economy still isn't creating jobs, despite this massive infusion of government and the stimulus. >> as a part of paul's question though, i just do not understand is what their political calculation is. i don't read it because as you said there was massachusetts. i personally believe that both the gubernatorial races in new

jersey and virginia also went to the republicans because the electorate in large part is very anxious about the level of spending that we're engaged in the past year, we started the year with a 787 billion dollar stimulus package and into the health care debate which was a trillion dollar proposal and now this. i think you get to levels of spending and the american people just get nervous about it. i mean, after all, they threw the republicans out of congress in 2006 because of spending. >> less' talk about the targeted tax cuts, the jobs tax credit, a zero rate for capital gains for some small businesses. is that big enough to make a difference to create jobs? >> well, the national federation of independent businesses has called it a drop in the bucket. >> really? >> yeah, there are a couple of reasons for that. i'll give you some examples, the capital gains tax cut. apparently, it's for c-corporations and only 25 percent of small businesses

would qualify for that. also, things like the $5,000 tax credit, you know, businesses are not going to shift their business plan for such a small amount of money. and what they're facing is, elimination of the bush tax cuts and a lot of policy mandates that the president is threatening like capital and trade, health mandates, higher taxes, all of those things have them very worried. so for them to take on new employees on their payroll in an environment of so much uncertainty is not-- they're not going to do that. >> and the health care bill still looms over that. >> right. >> i mean, the health care bill mandates that you provide insurance or if you don't you pay an 8% payroll tax. the small business federation is opposed to that. that's up in the airment on one hand proposing a tax credit and on the other hand, threatening a payroll tax. >> steve, let me ask you at least a little mini revolt among rank and file democrats who started to say, now what, we

probably ought to extend those bush tax rates, the lower rates which will january to expire on january 31st. is there agitating for that. could this build momentum and see the rates remain. >> let's hope the mini revolt turns into a major revolt? i think that would be one of the most important things that president obama could do to help stimulate the economy is simply announce look, we're not going to raise capital gains taxes, not going to raise dividend taxes and most importantly, apropos to what you were talking about, remember the income tax increases on the quote, unquote, rich. two-thirds of the people paying the rate increases in 2011 are exactly the small businesses that barack obama says he wants to help. >> politically, politically, do you think there's a cans the white house will turn on this if the economy remains weak enough there's little job growth the rest of this year? >> i really do. i think that almost no one

believes that raising capital gains and dividends and small business taxes if we still have high unemployment. i don't think anyone can argue that's a good thing. >> so you really think there could be politically a chance the white house could turn on this? you seem skeptical, paul, but i think they may see the light on this. >> i think their calculation is that, you know, job creation is a lagging indicator coming out of a recession and i think they're going to start to eat into the unemployment figure. >> and get some reduction. >> yeah, they're going to take credit for that and i think they're going to, with that, do better in the november elections than anyone thinks right now. >> than anyone thinks. this euphoria is at best-- >> they better be careful. >> in 1994 the economy was doing well and the republicans still had a big, big election. i'm not sure just an improvement in the economy is going to lead to these kinds of results. the point that dan made is so important, there's a revolt against big government that goes

beyond the unemployment rate. >> we're going to have a lot of time to debate this one. >> still ahead, the drone wars, president obama ramps up predator strikes against al-qaeda, but opposition to the attacks is starting to emerge ún boss: y'know, geico opened its doors back in 1936 and now we're insuring over 18 million drivers. gecko: quite impressive, yeah. boss: come a long way, that's for sure. and so have you since you started working here way back when.

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>> american counterterrorism officials said this week that they believe the taliban leader in pakistan, massoud, has died of injuries he sustained in a u.s. drone strike last month. massoud has been blamed for a string of deadly militant attacks last month and described the responsibility for a blast at a cia base last year that killed. after this attack, drone strikes, taking place since the beginning of the year. as the attacks ramp up so does opposition to them. the american civil liberties

filed, questioning the legal basis of the predator drone program. we're back with dan ettinger and matt comiskey and editorial page writer colin levy. the president has wrapped up this predator campaign above what the bush administration was doing. how well is it working? >> well, it's quite dramatic actually. last year we had 50 attacks which is more than the last three years in the bush administration, as you mentioned this month, last month there were more than a dozen attacks. i think it's been the one unherded success of president obama's war on terror. in pakistan we've got kills, only this massoud. the. >> from before. >> the guy six months ago also killed by dron attacks and also used in yemen and killed 16 of the leaders of al-qaeda there. so it's been, it's amazing that we're debating this today. >> paul: and rather than just killing al-qaeda, now, with the

massouds, they're killing pakistan taliban. which means that the pakistanis are happy with that because we're killing the people who have been targeting their cities and their government? >> yeah, that's right. i mean, one of the attacks, i think just on january 29th, they struck the network in north waziristan, the debate now is whether they should push the drone attack into the south. >> the south. >> where the tough taliban go down into afghanistan. >> mullah omar. >> mullah omar. the debate inside the administration is how far to push this not pull it back. >> paul: and the pakistanis denounce the attacks and public and privately in the go ahead. >> i was in a meeting and foreign minister said we understand we're doing this, thank you for doing it and came out in the press conference and said i denounce admiral mullen. >> this is for domestic

political consumption because the association with the american war on terror is not that popular. >> look, i mean, i think pakistan is one of the most anti-american countries in the world, it is not popular there, but i think the mood there is shifting and there is clear support both in the pakistani military. >> paul: all right. colin, let me get to the opposition here, the american civil liberties union is starting to act. what is it doing? >> well, it filed the freedom of information request and what it's really looking for here is to make the obama administration justify what its doing. so, what it's challenging is the idea that this is sort of a new form of state sanctioned lethal force that as we've just been talking about untethered from geography. not in the traditional theaters of war, not just in iraq and afghanistan, it's happening in countries like pakistan and yemen. so, that's, that's what they're getting at here and that's what they're concerned about in terms of compliance with the

international law. >> paul: what do you think the next act would be. you get a freedom of information act request and let's say there's some disclosure about the program, which is highly classified now. is the ultimate goal here to stop the program by way of lawsuits? >> well, i think that the goal here is to just generally create sort of trouble for the obama administration and lawsuits can come in. i think what will happen is we'll see how well the obama administration decides to actually comply with the freedom of information requests and what the a.c.l.u. can then do is you know, challenge or make some trouble regarding you know, how well the administration's complying with providing information about that. >> is there any doubt that international law would allow such, allows for such attacks, even on a third party country? >> well, you know, the thing here, too, you have to remember is that this use of force was authorized by an executive order and president obama's, you know,

use of executive power here is very interesting and vis-a-vis how the a.c.l.u. is responding because it's the use of executive power that goes beyond some of what they objected to from president bush. >> paul: it's fascinating to me, i think, dan, if president bush were still doing this, would we see even more opposition to this, do you think? because as a democratic president who's doing it maybe some of the opposition from the left is more muted than it might otherwise be? >> i don't think there's any doubt that that's the case. i remember the swift program the treasury used to track terrorist. >> financing around the world. >> that was on the front pages and blown out of the water and i think for sure, so we're very fortunate in a sense that barack obama is president because it's very successful program is helping win that war. >> paul: and the intelligence director, dennis blair say they feel it's legal to target some american citizens who have turned and now are engaging in war with the united states overseas if they have to. >> that's been the case for the last eight years, four people in

the washington post reported who are american citizens who are on the list, remember, probably only two dozen people on the list who are not-- it's a very targeted list, but even in your international law you are allowed to kill your enemy and don't let us forget it. >> paul: even under international law. >> and declared war on us and the congress authorized force a week after 9/11, has been acting on that authority. >> paul: what about the prudential argument against this, which is that it causes a lot of collateral damage, civilian death and there for turns the pakistan public against the war effort and therefore is counter productive. >> i think it's one of the most overstated. drone has been shown to be one of the most human in war. never before have we been able to discriminate between the enemies and civilians. and the missile makes a boom in one small place and unfortunate as in massoud's case, both

massoud's case, their family were killed along with them. >> paul: all right. thank you, matt. when we come back, turning social theory on its head, if poverty is the root cause of crime, why are crime rates so crime, why are crime rates so low while unemployment is high? crime, why are crime rates so low while unemployment is high? why do women like you love activia light? sometimes i have no choice but to eat on the run... and to eat whatever happens to be around. heavy greasy food that's hard on my diet... and my digestive system. so i eat activia light every day. activia light, with bifidus regularis is clinically proven

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>> finally this week, a crime theory demolished. my next guest says that the economic recession has had at least one positive effect to once and for all disprove the claim that unemployment begets crime. as the economy began to shed jobs in 2008, criminalologists predicted crime would shoot up. the opposite has happened. more than 7 million jobs lost later crime in the united states has plummeted to the lowest level since the 1960's.

leather mcdonald a senior fellow at manhattan institute and contributing editor for "the city journal". >> glad to be here. >> paul: good news, crime rates have begun to fall. what kind of magnitudes are we talking about. >> extraordinary magnitudes. in the first six months of 2009 homicides dropped 10% nationally. >> paul: wow. property crime which is what you would really expect to go up if the root cause of crime theory is true, a response in inequality and property, property crime went down over 6% and violent crimes went down almost 5%. >> paul: so we're back at levels not seen since the 1960's and that's extraordinary. >> it is extraordinary and i credit the spread, ultimately, of efficient police saying and incarceration, but this is the exact opposite of what criminologists were hoping for, gleefully hoping that the crime drop began in the '90s nationally would finally reverse

itself and they could reclaim the dominance of the root cause of serious crime. >> paul: tell us about that, the development of this root cause theory. that developed in the 1960's and it's taken hold in the widespread elements within the academy. >> the academy and the media of course. the idea was that crime really was a form of social criticism that youth in inner cities came to understand that the american dream was a myth and a cool dilution and when they found that the society was blocking their advance, they would turn to crime as a form of social protests. >> paul: and that really became widespread not just -- and did begin to influence public policy, how so? >> extraordinarily police chiefs bought the theory as well, they couldn't affect crime and the fbi in the annual crime reports through the 1980's said that homicide is a societal problem

that police could not respond to. a big motivator for the war on poverty. gave the government an excuse to engage in massive redistribution of wealth and social programs. it could say these have public safety values since the police cannot bring crime down the way we have to bring crime down is to take money from the rich and give it to the poor, otherwise they will cause social havoc in the streets. >> paul: so this means, whatever you think of welfare programs, whatever you think of job creation programs or food stamps, whatever their utility as redistribution and income maintenance programs, what you're saying is that those have almost zero utility as crime fighting programs. >> we should have known this after the 1960's, paul. >> paul: that makes sense. >> because the 60's saw a 43% increase in homicides nationally. at the time when the economy was growing and what was really growing were government jobs. you had massive government jobs

programs in the inner city to try and stop crime, but in fact, it had no effect whatsoever. >> paul: so, this dramatic change, what does this tell you about policing policy going forward is this what should we focus on? >> it's a very optimistic story, paul. it shows that the government can create safety for its citizens by enforcing the rule of law, but it's also a cautionary tale. if crimes starts going up, it will be because cities rashly cut their police force and start emptying prisons. we've had a five-fold incarceration. >> you think that incarceration, no question in your mind that increasing incarceration has made a big difference? >> it incapacitates people and gets people off the streets. >> off the streets. >> we keep hearing a myth that the only people that we're sending more and more innocuous people to prison, that's not the case. the profile of the people going to prison today is not radically different than three decades

ago. it's still a lifetime achievement award for crime. >> paul: so, who are the heroes in this story, if you will? by that i mean intellectual, but also political. who ended up, who has changed the thinking here that has caused police forces to go back to actual crime fighting and has-- have helped to blow up this social theory of the last 40 years? >> without being too parochial i would claim new york city as the seed-bed of this revolution. in the 1990's, william bratten was police commissioner under rudolph guiliani. >> paul: went on to be police chief in los angeles. >> los angeles, and seen double digit crime drops since the recession. both chief bratten in l.a. and new york city's commissioner at the start of the recession were the only chiefs in the country which said we are going to keep lowering crime because we know how to do it. they've been proven absolutely right. homicides in new york of down 19% and l.a., we've spread

across the country a policing revolution that uses crime data obsessively and that holds local precinct commanders accountability. it's an accountability revolution as well as an information revolution. >> paul: all right, heather, good news for a change. thank you. we have to take one more break. when we come back our hits and when we come back our hits and misses of the week. [ male announcer ] for over 50 years, providing you with safe, reliable, high-quality vehicles has been our first priority. ♪ in recent days, our company hasn't been living up to the standards that you've come to expect from us or that we expect from ourselves. that's why 172,000 toyota and dealership employees are dedicated to making things right we have a fix for our recalls. we stopped production so we could focus on our customers' cars first. and technicians are making repairs.

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go to chase.com/ink. chase what matters. >> time now for our hits and misses of the week.

matt, first to you. >> i want to give a missed opportunity to barack obama in europe where recall in '08 he won in a landslide. >> paul: even though they didn't vote. they could have. >> would have won by 50%, but this week president obama told them he would not be attending the annual eu-u.s. summit through a leak in the wall street journal. this makes for a pattern of snubs none more glaring towards nicolas sarkozy, probably the first pro american president in history. brought back france into n.a.t.o. last year, but he's not been able to get an appointment at the white house. he feels jilted by the president that he did so much to sort of put in office, he thinks and i think the question is, will the passing of obama mania in europe be the next shoe to drop. >> paul: all right, colin. >> paul, this week the medical journal from europe, the lancet finally retracted a 12-year-old study that suggested there was a link between the mmr vaccine,

measles, mumps, rubella vaccine and autism. a study that created sort of an international panic and had parents refusing to vaccinate their children and shows how dangerous clients can be when it receives the i am per matter after prestige gus journal. >> paul: can. >> super bowl sunday and i want to salute the super bowl refusenicks, they're engaging in an all american act of dissent. instead they'll be out there at empty swimming pools, golf courses and tennis courts and normally hard to get into restaurants. i think they're totally wrong to do this, but i salute them and honor their act of dissent against super bowl sunday. >> paul: all right. matt, why -- i think that president obama is right not to attend this gab fest in europe and what, it's not a very important event. you want to meet with the belgium prime minister, how important is that? >> i've been to more than one and i can appreciate he may not

want to attend, but we have allies in europe that are worth cultivating. >> paul: that's it for this week's edition of the journal editorial report. my panel and you for watching, i'm paul gigot, we hope to see you right here next week. . >> jon: on fox news watch, president obama enleashes a new offense or is it defense. >> if everybody turned off your cnn, your fox, your, you know, just turn off the tv, msnbc. >> jon: can they afford to mess the coverage? and undercover journalist gets busted in new orleans and without the facts, the liberal media takes their swipes. >> you guys slandered him. >> jon: the policy of don't ask, don't tell over gays in our armed forces gets a full military review, but has the press done a fair job at presenting both sides? news of a possible terror attempt gets an attention and the underwear bomber reveals important details where to find

the terrorists. or did he? is the press pushing for the answer? >> the nominees are. >> jon: oscar contenders are announced for the year's best films, but when it comes to favorite picks have the mainstream media played a starring role? and the white house has a new way of side stepping the press. >> now there's an efforts. >> jon: on the panel, fox news kirsten pores, jim pinkerton fellow new american foundation and news day columnist elliss h henken, i'm jon scott, fox news watch. >> if everybody here turned off your cnn, your fox, just turned off the tv. msnbc, blogs, and just go talk to folks out there instead of being in this echo chamber where

the topic is constantly politics. >> jon: the president there telling senate democrats to ignore tv news coverages of the issues facing them in washington. this advice from a president who in just this last week appeared at events up and down the east coast, including a special youtube interview. he also attended the national prayer breakfast, his every step and statement covered by the press, especially cable news and q & a session with house republicans last week was planned at catnip for the press and that it worked. i guess, jim, the question is does the president expect people to turn off cable tv except when he's on? >> i think that's the plan, exactly. so the democrats won't pay attention to polls and just do what he tells them to. look, i think president obama, more than any politician in america today, proves the power of television, as you use it to your advantage as you can. i think, frankly, that he did extremely well in that debate with the house republicans last week, i have no doubt that he'll

be doing more of that in the future. it goes back to something that richard nixon did in the '60s, man in the arena. it was, if you could handle those kind of q's and a's and handle them well you should be doing more of it and he will. >> jon: cal, you were at the national prayer breakfast with the president on what was it tuesday. >> thursday. >> jon: thursday. he does seem to be going on the offensive with the press, would you say? >> well, he is, but the presidency is like a woman's virtue, if it's spread around too much it loses its value. i'm not looking at you (laughter) >> he's on too much, that's his problem. he's engaging in overkill and he wants people to turn off the cable news networks, especially this one. he threw in msnbc as an afterthought. nobody watches that now anyway and i don't know how much impact that's going to be. because he doesn't want the other point of view challenging his positions. >> jon: too much president obama, elliss. >> apparently not, it serves him

well and people want to look at the guy and numbers are still big. jon, i understand and i have a little bit of a conflict of interest because i make a big part of my living in cable news and radio. watch 24 hours a day, fine with me, but there's a bubble that some of us fall into who watch and play too much of this stuff. and one of the reasons i try to report from my columns, you actually meet some real people once in a while. >> jon: kirsten, one of the criticism the president has been doing, basically offering an olive branch to republicans and turning around in the next breath and hammering them. is that part of the white house strategy? >> i guess he's trying to have it both ways. the idea that you're not suppose today get information from news sources, go speak to somebody on the street, with respect to the people that you interview, i don't think that's how you should get information and i don't remember obama ever complaining during the campaign about people watching too much msnbc. so, you know, now it's that now that people are criticizing him

he's saying, oh, don't listen to those people. >> jon: why did he say that, is he trying to pretend he's above the fray? >> blaming the media, a popular strategy. basically saying that these people are just caught up on the inside washington game and i'm not like that, even though he is like that. >> do i have to stand up for street reporting here. thank you for that. >> i think you're right. >> all who just want to talk to the official spokesmen all day? >> no, speak to experts and things and see how the american people are feeling, but i think-- >> real people who are affected by that. don't stay in the bubble all day. >> you get your information from cable news, you just get your information from new york times, just get the information from your column. i think you go to all different news sources, but shouldn't be telling people just to tune ut. >> jon: jim, you said you thought the president did well at that appearance. the republicans after the polls indicated that his approval ratings ticked up, i think 4 points. >> look, it was dramatic television. the rap on obama the last year he can't open his mouth without a teleprompter telling him what

to say and he proved everybody wrong just then. this was television at its most dramatic, which is a live event. i'm actually part of a group in washington, i guess around the country now, called "demand question time", which is a petition where fair and balanced and david corn to others on the same group, we should be doing this every week just like in britain. >> the president, it was pointed out this week, has done 150 interviews with various reporters and yet hasn't had a live news conference since this summer, why? >> i don't know why. it gets back to what jim was saying. the time with the republicans in baltimore was tremendous, not only good television, but it's what people do. if you live -- if you're in republican and live next door to a democrat you don't throw your window open in the morning and say what are you doing to ruin america today. you get along, accommodate, seek common ground and your kids probably go to school with each

other. this is his greatest strength, i don't know why he doesn't do it more. >> jon: during the break, hear what we're talking about. and elliss has something to say right now. log on to foxnews.com/fox news watch. we'll be back in two minutes with a look how some in the mainstream media reacted or maybe overreacted to the arrest of a conservative journalist. >> the journalist who exposed scandalous acts at acorn busted in new orleans for his undercover efforts to dig up details on a u.s. senator and giving the liberal media a target on the right. >> you're allowed to tea alleged crime when nobody else about. the academy named oscar hopeful and the mainstream media take their picks. is a liberal media agenda at work?

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. >> jamie: there's no bugging, there's no wire tapping, no interfering with phones, not only was there no interfering with phones, we never thought about interfering with phones. it never occurred to us, all of that is completely false, a lot of these reporters just flat-out, i think, slandered me immediately off the gun, they jumped the gun on the story and we're still waiting for corrections for dozens of newspapers. >> jon: james o'keefe telling sean hannity how the mean stream

media in his view got it wrong about his recent arrest. the young journalist who broke the story about acorn stood ready to help him when he claimed that he wanted to set up a prostitution business. well, recently o'keefe was arrested in new orleans, allegedly for attempting to interfere with phones in the office of senator mary landrieu. now, quite a few media outlets including msnbc pounced on the story of his arrest, some framing it as a modern day wa r watergate. one o'keep supporter called on msnbc for a retraction. >> did not use the word wire tap. i should have used the word that the federal prosecutors use willfully and interfering with a telephone operating and control by-- >> are you going to retract. >> are you going to retract. >> and are you going to retract it? are you going to retract it? you retract the wire tap statement. >> sure, i retract i should not used the word wire tap.

>> msnbc, schuster there. james o'keep's reporting made news, "the washington post" and new york sometimes said they should have done more on that story and yet, when he got arrested in this most recent flap, the times puts him on the front cover along with the other men arrested with him above the fold in the sunday edition. >> you don't think it had anything to do, john, with the politics of it. acorn being a favored liberal group and o'keefe, who outed them for allegedly trying to do the prostitution ring business? this isn't the first time this happened after course, think back to the jennifer flower story which the national enquirer broke on bill clinton. the main street media didn't want to touch it. the new york times eventually forced to put it on the front page. elliss, what about this average, deserved? >> i think it's an interesting story. i started at the albany boast and knickerbocker news.

>> look how far you've come. >> i've learned lesson there, one there, you don't commit felonies on the way to stories and you don't want to, at the behest of zealous political-- these people don't know that, jim. >> you would say that o'keep committed a felony. >> do you want to retract that. >> he hasn't been convicted if. >> if we waited in the media business until someone was convicted we wouldn't cover khalid shaikh mohammed. >> and elliss, suppose that 60 minutes had gone into a republican senator's office and the republican senator's office had called the cops. >> and the correspondent was arrested. >> and the correspondent was arrested. >> i promise we'd cover it. >> new york times would have been saying this is suppression of free speech by this poor-- >> and not only wearing hard hats and access to telephone boxes. i mean, this is, we'll wait and see what the court case says, but from all appearances, it

looks like a real news story. i mean, it's something that should be covered and you know, unfortunately, unfortunately, of course, there are lots of stories that don't get covered and unfortunately this is the way it's covered. lots of times it gets covered and then they're exonerated and not covered and not political. it's just people are more interested when people get caught. >> does it seem like a case of the media trying to kill the messenger, messenger who broke the acorn story? >> some media. i don't know if that's what the new york times is doing. certainly there are more left wing publications out to prove this guy is just a tool of right wing funding, he's being funded by right winger, that's a totally separate thing, but i think it's a legitimate news story. >> it's a legitimate news story, the issue is the framing and been 60 minutes doing it or the nation magazine, it would have been heroic journalists being squashed by mean republicans. >> who didn't find out whether the lines, phone lines weren't working, some people said they

couldn't get through. >> hello, with their own telephone. >> we didn't even get to some of the david schuster tweets. i'm going to talk about that during the break, go to the website for that. if you come across a story that smacks of media bias e-mail us at news watch@foxnews.com. a lot of good nominations for the oscars, is there a force at work for who makes the list. >> the oscars nominations are in, the list is impressive. was it influenced by a liberal leaning media. the attempt to inflict terror is imminent? >> what keeps me awake at night is that al-qaeda and terrorist allies could very well attack the united states. the united states. >> does the press show any so, doc... so, doctor... i've been thinking... no. you know how... no. so, doc, i've got this friend...

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>> mr. chairman, speaking for myself and myself only, it is my personal belief that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do, no matter how i look at this issue, i cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens. >> the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff there, admiral mike mulen calling on congress to reverse the pentagon's 17-year-old policy against gays serving openly in the military. elliss, what about the coverage of, again, something that made the front page, upper right-hand corner of the new york times, the coverage of this particular issue. >> jon, you've put your finger on a couple of interesting issues and the fact we're going to have a vigorous debate about it here illustrates that.

the country is changing on this issue, the last bastion of officially sanctioned prejudice in this field and it's about to change. >> jon: cal. >> the last bastion are the official are roman catholic and evangelical christian. >> as a roman catholic. >> at least we have agreement. the new york times is a wholly owned subsidiary of the movement. and publisher, day after day there are stories, columns editoria editorials, on the entertainment page, pushing a pro gay rights agenda. that's a fact, an observable, provable fact. >> jon: you disagree. >> i don't see what's wrong with gay rights. the people that people should be afforded certain rights or the opposite the other side of the argument they should be denied rights. that's what they are. i think that it's an absolute legitimate story and i think this is a huge story that if we

finally are moving in the direction of making don't ask don't tell-- repealing don't ask-don't tell and allowing gays to be in the military openly, a huge story, huge for the military, huge for the country and well overdue. >> jon: doesn't the coverage seem to take a position. >> i think the coverage is overwhelmingly pro this position and overwhelmlyinging-- overwhelmingly pro bill clinton as well. and they got the secretary of defense and joint chiefs on board so the picture in the new york times of gates and mullen talking to each other and supporting this policy just shows that on this issue at least the obamaens knew what they were doing in terms of pushing this issue. >> jon: another hearing on capitol hill made some news this dealing with a prospect of a terror attack on our nation. >> what is the likelihood of another terrorist-attempted attack on the u.s. homeland in the next three to six months,

high or low? director blair? >> an attempted attack, the priority is certain, i would say. >> mr. panetta. >> i would agree with that. >> mr. muller. >> agreed. >> jon: cia director leon panetta, national intelligence, robert blair and agreeing of an attack in the next months. >> there's a line we have to walk, we want to keep them apprised and report analysis like we just heard, but we need to remind people, don't panic, nobody really knows for sure, it seems likely at some point something will happen, but a lot of this is still guesswork and we need to impart that. >> it's more like a don't ask-don't tell policy for the media i want to know if there's going to be an attack, likely to come from an invading army or already in the united states

from some of the mosques, who are the people? if they think there's going to be an attack they must know where it's likely to come from. why aren't we getting reports on that? why koent we get o'keefe or somebody like him to invade some of these places and record what's going on there. >> and we've got the reports, for example, the report about the underwear bomber is now happily talking now that he's been mirandized and he is in fact talking. hats off to mark finkle stein, news buster, making the point it's jeopardizing national security to have this report coming out about him talking now. >> jon: and senator kit bond having a fight with the white house about that and didn't make the list as well. the 12 films on the oscars, some think the avatar and hurt locker. >> we have a population-- >> so what about it? when it comes to how these things get chosen, cal, is that

a media campaign? is there a certain kind of film that's going to-- >> sure, i subscribe to variety and then you see the, for your consideration ads. full page ads, best actor, best actress, supporting, a real campaign and members of the academy, several hundred of them who get the films they watch them at home or go to a particular theater at a particular time, but look, they all have their particular biases. not just oliver stone, who is the far furthest left maybe of anybody in hollywood. and these are reflected in the films, like "up in the air", for example, anti-business. >> up in the air, how is that liberal. >> i didn't say liberal, anti-business. >> oh and that was a-- >> anti-everything. >> cal, that was a pro marriage, that was pro marriage. at the end of it, here he is, he realizes he's all alone and he has nobody and he should have gotten married. pro marriage, family values. >> let me make a prediction, i think that "hurt locker" will probably win for best picture.

it's a conservative movie, pro iraq war movie and remind me a lot of deer hunter back in the late '70s, also a sort of a weirdly pro vietnam movie. hollywood during a war hates the war. after the war, they swing arn. i wrote this in the fox forum last week, swing around and say look, we've got to get back in touch with the american people and do a pro troops movie which is what "hurt locker" was. >> jon: when we come back, we will talk about the white house and the iphone. >> the white house has a new app, but what's it really good for? switch to swiffer wetjet,

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continuing with the effort to side step the press and get the message out. unfiltered the white house launched its first iphone app. >> the new official app puts the latest news from the administration in the palm of your hands. you can read the blog around check out the latest vote and get live video live on your phone. watch frequent web chat or president's speeches like the state of the union. if you want me to see set the white house press corps every day, now there san app. ♪ -- now there is an app.

>> robert gibbs the white house spokesman. jimmy kimmel mel took a few minutes to do a demo. >> the white house launched the iphone app, it's free and you can download it at itunes. here is how it works, you get two iphones and you just --. [ laughter ] voila, you have obama ears. [ applause ] i feel smarter already. >> here is one of the postings to the white house.gov i-pod app. another day, another disappointing ploy obstructing progress. fair and balance. that is a wrap on news watch this week. i want to thank, kirsten, catholic thomas and alice. i'm jon scott. we'll see you next week for another edition of