hannity.com. and newt.org. see you here monday. have a great weekend. have a great weekend. thank you for being with us. >> laura: "the o'reilly factor" is on. tonight: >> if we continue to fail to act at a federal level, we will continue to see misguided efforts opening up around the country. >> president obama makes immigration reform a priority. while taking a shot at arizona lawmakers for pushing through a tough new measure to secure the border states. we'll have a debate. >> is it something that the administration is eyeing in 2012 or is she someone that they consider to be a legitimate threat again? >> look, we. [ laughter ] >> how does joe biden reply when theview ladies ask him if sarah palin posing a threat to president obama's re-election? we'll show you. >> meet some friends of mine. >> and did comedy central cave to radical jihadists and censor a muslim story line on south

park? >> doctor, we want you to clone him. >> laura: caution, you are about to enter the no spin zone. the factor begins right now. ♪ >> laura: hi, everyone, i'm laura ingraham reporting tonight for bill o'reilly. thanks for watching us. a quickup date on a story that we have been covering from the beginning, a second navy seal has now been cleared of charges surrounding the beating of a terrorist suspect in iraq. petty officer second class jonathan keefe not guilty verdict came down today. one day after the acquittal of another navy seal in the case the trial for the third and final seal begins on may 3rd. now on to our top story tonight. president obama sets a key piece of liberal by publicly to tackle immigration reform. >> surely we can all agree that

when 11 million people in our country are living here illegally, outside the system, that's unacceptable. the american people demand and deserve a solution. they deserve common sense comprehensive reform grounded in the principles of responsibility and accountability. >> and he cautioned against states taking matters into their own hands with immigration enforcement measures. >> indeed, our failure to act responsibly at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. that includes, for example, the recent efforts in arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as americans. as well as the trust between police and their community that is so crucial to keeping us safe. in fact, i have instructed members of of my administration who closely and examine the civil rights and other implications of this legislation. if we continue to fail to act federal level we will see

misguided efforts opening up around the country. >> laura: just hours after the president delivered those remarks, jan brewer, the governor of arizona, signed the tough new immigration legislation into law. i guess she wasn't afraid after she heard what president obama had to say. joining us now from boston, immigration attorney susan church and here in washington democratic strategist alicia mendez. let's start with you alicia. you know what is at stake. phoenix was the kidnapping capital of the world. we have had murders by illegal aliens of innocent arizonaen, arizona people overwhelmingly supported this legislation. 51% of democrats in arizona supported the legislation what's your problem with it? >> my problem is that i agree with the president that sort of violates fairness rules. listen, it's a very sliply slope when you say the police officers a are now going to be the ones who enforcing immigration laws. that's not what they set up for and undermines the work they are able to do at a high level as

you said with people committing heinous crimes. >> laura: some of them are illegal aliens though. >> they can't foster cooperation either in some the communities they are going to be target. it's a slippery slope toward racial profiling. that's pretty clear. >> laura: racial profiling, the proponents of this bill says racial characteristics can never be used as the sole criterion for tackling this issue and for implementing this law. i want to go to you, lisa, on this. what do you think a state can do to ensure that the people within its state are there legally? what should a state be able to do? >> -- susan, excuse me, susan. sorry about that. >> i think that it's not possible for the states to control or regulate immigration and i think there is a town in texas that's tried three times to pass legislation and three times a federal judge has declared it unconstitutional. that's because the constitution has a clause in it our forefathers had the foresight to

know this is a federal issue. you can't have individual states having different rules on immigration. that the federal government has to enforce these rules. in fact, the federal government has done a lot to enforce these rules. border agents have doubled from 2007. more than doubled from 9,000 to over 20,000. this administration has increased funding for e verify program. they recently put in quotes for deportation. so i think that the federal government is working on this problem. but it's an intractable problem. people are willing to die to get into this country. people are-separated from their children to come to this children. >> laura: they are also willing to, some of them, commit horrific crimes against american citizens. >> that's actually inaccurate. even the border -- >> laura: the rights of illegal aliens. >> that is not the truth. >> laura: it's not the truth that violent crime is committed by illegal aliens across this country by ms 13s. latin kings that have been infiltrated by central american

elements? none of that happens in the united states of america? are you kidding me? >> race than the general population. >> they are better behaved than the population. >> are you kidding me? >> no, i'm not kidding. one at a time. we have two conversations going. >> 99% of people coming to this country come to this country. >> laura: how do you know. >> even george bush -- >> laura: how do you know that? when you don't believe that they should be able to be -- >> -- border patrol agents have been interviewed about this. >> laura: who cares if border patrol agents have said it. susan, you don't believe that people. >> george bush said it. >> laura: hold on a second. you don't believe that state governors can in any way go about determining who is in their state legally or illegally? they don't have the ability to do that? they shouldn't do that? >> they have the ability to call ice under 287 g. i question enforcement by officers saying, hey, that person looks illegal.

how you can possibly. >> laura: officials can operate under 287 g and the immigration law. >> if i may, i think something that's worth looking at is there was a very similar piece of legislation passed in prince gorgeous county. it had devastating effects. even legal residents and citizens on everyone in that county people laughed, you had businesses shutting down. >> laura: why does arizona want this so badly. >> because they are frustrated. >> laura: they have 460,000 illegal aliens. >> incredibly big problems. >> laura: none of them violating laws according to the conventional wisdom on this panel. all lawed abiding and want to work in arizona. what about the arizona construction worker who wants a decent wage. what about the proper owner who doesn't want land destroyed what about the rancher who was murdered. >> you and i are saying the same thing. we have a broken system and we need a kick in the pants to senate and the house and the administration. >> laura: need a kick in the pants back home.

>> you don't think the federal government needs to take responsibility that they have been totally inactive. >> laura: they are not. what should the states do? let them take over the states. >> the states need to rely on the federal government. >> laura: you don't believe, susan, the federal government should send the national guard to the border, do you? >> it's illegal. since 1876 it's been illegal for the federal government to use the national guard for law enforcement jobs. so, no. >> laura: we can do a whole hour on this. next time we are doing the whole hour on this. i appreciate it ladies, thanks a lot. next on the rundown a shocking fox news poll says the majority of americans think our government system is broken. government system is broken. ben stein will be here to [ pearl ] i bought this piece of property

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♪ [ male announcer ] go to johndeere.com/create and get upo $350 off sele series tractors. >> laura: government broken? a brand new fox news poll found 58% think it is. while just 9% think our federal government operates well. i'm surprised it's that high. joining us now from new york,

economists ben stein, author of the "little book of bullet-proof investing." ben, i love these topic 's. first of all the pew study shows that 76% of americans either don't trust the government at all or just have some trust in the government. surprising? not surprising? >> not that surprising. the topic is government broken. i'm not sure there wasn't a time when it wasn't largely broken. some parts of it always worked pretty well. i imagine if you are with a group of special forces or rangers, rather, they work pretty darn well. as to various bureaucracies in washington, that's a different matter. >> laura: fact of the matter is, not only is trust at a pretty much all-time low for how they are handling big problems, but it also goes to the top of the leadership. i'm talking about barack obama. now, polls are all over the place to some extent. one poll shows him a little bit higher. but, when you look at the majority of the polls, still after health care reform, ben, the president is still

struggling. and the numbers of as far as trust in government down to 22%. that's the lowest dating back to john f. kennedy, as far as the way that they have tracked the polls president by president throughout a term. we only have one year plus. but, still, that's a pretty i can't big -- that's a pretty big distinction i don't want to have if i'm the president. >> he is in a terrible spot here. in two wars. we thought the war in iraq was won. it doesn't now look like it's quite as won. the one in afghanistan is turning into a very difficult situation, indeed. the economy refuses to recover. he spent 787 billion on a stimulus program, works out to about 1 million and a half dollars per job which is ridiculous. it's not at all clear that we are coming out of this recession vigorously although i think we will eventually. and the health care thing he rammed through in the dead of the night, i do think he is on the right track with this financial reform. there i think wall street was caught misbehaving so seriously that some discipline was necessary. he just does not seem to be

inspiring people. i think people just thought, look, pras promised is he going to be a that jik figurenned he is just another chicago politician. >> laura: on financial reform. i don't want to spend much time on that. the one thing that's driven people on the right crazy about that is that fanny and freddie both at the heart of the subprime mortgage collapse are not even addressed in this bill at all. there is no reform of fannie or freddie whatsoever and, of course, bloomberg is concerned that a lot of these jobs in the financial sector are going to go offshore to singapore now. >> i don't think that mr. bloomberg is correct about that i mean, what's really going to be reigned in as very exotic derivatives trading cannot employ more than 100 people. most are in london, hong kong, and singapore. wall street was caught with very, very bad behavior. yes, fannie and freddie had a lot to do with the housing collapse, but wall street making huge wagers on things they should never have been wagering on. making taxpayers bail them out

when they got caught. >> laura: you are not for the 50 billion-dollar fund that they can go into in perpetuity to bail out firms that they believe need to be bailed out? you are not in favor of that fund, are you? >> if the fund is paid for by money paid in by the banks, i don't see why not. >> laura: that's coming from us, the investors, right? that's coming from the investor class. the banks are going to panchts the investors are well aware that the money is being charged and the investors are willing to pay for it. i might add, it's pennies compared to the total earnings of the banks. they are going to accumulate this 50 billion over a very long period of time. >> laura: let's move on very quick. we have a minute left on the health care reform report. it come out from h.h.s. i love. this after the bill is signed into law h.h.s. tells us it's not going to save us money. by the way medicare advantage is going to be bled dry. >> not only that they are not going to actually cut the pay of the doctors doing medicare. why should they? why should they cut the pay of doctors doing medicare. that whole thing was a fraud. we want people to get medicare -- i mean get medical

care if they are poor. this whole system that the president thought up was a goldberg cartoon. >> laura: long-term care insurance that was in this bill, now the report says that it has a very serious risk of going insolvent. >> very quickly, too. >> laura: exactly. mr. stein, it's always great to see you. >> thank you, laura, thank you. >> laura: we will get into that report about the sec employees watching porn coming up in our dumbest things segment. first rod blagojevich wants to compel president obama to testify in his corruption trial. testify in his corruption trial. could that can you believe how fast kids grow these days? and since 90% of bone strength is developed before adulthood... it's so important that they get enough calcium every day. that's why there's new danonino. danonino! unlike leading kids yogurts, danonino has twice the calcium of milk, ounce per ounce, with vitamin d. so it's power packed for healthy growth. and its rich creamy taste is... yummy! so they can start building strong bones today... for stronger bodies tomorrow. new danonino from dannon. power packed to help kids grow.

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>> laura: in the unresolved problem segment tonight, an intriguing new twist in the bizarre case of rod blagojevich. as you may know the ousted governor of illinois is facing federal corruption charges. he is accused of trying to sell

the senate seat barack obama vacated when he was elected president. well, now we learn that blagojevich's defense team wants to subpoena the president compelling him to testify at the trial. joining us now from new york is former federal prosecutor ann marie mac i have and from chicago steve greeneberger a criminal defense attorney. steve, let me start with you. you are in the belly of the beast of chicago. chicago machine, chicago style politics. is this one more twist in the curvey road with blagojevich to try to now bring the president into all of this? >> i think the part of blagojevich's defense in everything is that this is how things were always done in chicago and in illinois. and there was horse trading that went on. but what the government has done is they have got a number of witnesses who say that we talked to blagojevich's people and then we went and we talked to obama or obama's people. the smart move on his part. the government may not want to present that evidence because they may not want obama coming

in. a defendant has the right to present any and all relevant evidence that evidence that will help in his defense. if there is something that obama can shed light on it's relevant and reliable. the fact that the president will not shield him from something to testify. he may not have to come to chicago and do it. they may do it through a video deposition, but he may not be able to get out of testifying. i think it's a brilliant move. >> laura: ann marie, the blagojevich team said look, we will be fine with a videotape deposition in this case but what they want to get at is what? what is key that the president did, what he might have done or how he was involved in this case that really triggers their need to have him involved? >> there are a couple of different angles to it one is the fact that obama himself made public statements right after blagojevich's arrest saying that no one who worked for him was involved was trying to do anything relating to the senate seat. certainly nothing untoward. so that supports what

blagojevich is saying that he didn't do anything wrong. in addition, there are allegations relating to tony rezko who is an old friend of obama's who was convicted of fraud and money laundering and rezko is going to be also testifying in the case. and he wants to bring obama in to say hey, he thought as well that rezko was a good guy and rezko was honest and there was no reason for blagojevich to think there was anything wrong with tony rezko if even obama didn't think so when he was in the chicago machine. >> laura: rezko, let's remind people the tony rezko angle here also involves this 1999 fundraiser, right, that he agreed to throw for then candidate barack obama for, i guess, help in some gambling business that he wanted to be involved in. is that right? >> that's right. it was also the same tony rezko who they purchased the adjoining lot of land and helped the obamas purchase their home at the time when they bought that piece of land, they bought them both at the same time. so there are a lot of connections. again, this may be something that i would have to venture a

guess that obama really doesn't want to have to get into. >> laura: now, steve, why would -- excuse me, steve, why would -- when team obama, at this point, they are ready for the inauguration, they are getting ready, it's december of 2008, why would rahm emanuel call blagojevich knowing the taint that was surrounding blagojevich at the time? and again the president said my people haven't been in touch. turns out rahm emanuel did make one call to blagojevich and recommended valerie jarrett, right? to become the next senator from the state of illinois. but if i'm rahm emanuel, i don't even want to talk to blagojevich. >> well, everybody knew by that point that blagojevich was hot. you are right about that and there were calls also between other people that were associated with obama, or at least according to the government's allegation. i think that what the blagojevich people are saying here is these calls were made because nothing wrong was going on. and we're entitled to present that evidence that nothing wrong was going on. when you talk about rezko, rezko wrote a letter to the judge

after he got convicted and said the government is trying to get me to say bad things about obama and bad things about blagojevich and i don't have bad things to say. then he started meeting with the government and he said bad things about blagojevich. and i think they want to show that rezko makes stuff up by showing things that he said about obama possibly are false. so, therefore, the things he said about blagojevich must be false. >> laura: well, i also think that ann marie, people hear this across the country, and they are hearing rezko again and blago and they think of blago and the reality show. they think what is it about chicago? where, really, you know, you wrestle with the pigs, you end up smelling like a pig at the end of it, okay? you are in the chicago machine. is anyone really free from the taint? if you are in the democratic party today and you are in chicago? >> it certainly doesn't seem so. and the other interesting wrinkle to all of this is that it seems that what blagojevich may also be doing is actually essentially, something he said in the beginning which was that if he goes down, he is going to

take everybody down with him. so either they are going to come testify, they will prove that he is innocent or if he did do something wrong, they were just as involved as he was. he is going to take them down with him. this may also be an interesting strategy he may have to try to work out a deal by saying, basically, either i pull all these people in or you give me a sweet deal to get me out of this right now. >> laura: steve, we only have 15 seconds but the sciu contact between obama -- with obama, just very briefly about that. >> well, that's another go-between. but what the defense has said here, laura, is that they are willing to wait for the judge to make the decision until after the government's case is presented. so they are trying to mute the rezko testimony and force the government's hand. >> laura: i see that the president had a contact with sciu official about the jarrett issue before he was actually elected a couple days before the election. we appreciate it mcmcavoy and steve.

thank you very much. palin in the spotlight. something she said in a recent speech has the separation of church and state people all riled up. what did vice president biden say when he was asked if the governor posed a threat to a second obama term? we hope you stay tuned to those reports. there aren't many of us who use a cellphone just to make phone calls. but when at&t or verizon offer you an unlimited plan for $69.99, that's all it's good for -- phone calls. with sprint, for the same price, you get unlimited text, unlimited web and unlimited calling to every mobile phone in america. now that's more like it. [ male announcer ] $69.99 for unlimited text, web and calling to any mobile in america.

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now, that's progressive. call or click today. >> laura: in the personal story segment tonight, liberals love to nitpick everything sarah palin does and says. the latest? well, these remarks at a christian women's conference last week. >> comparing any leader declared that america isn't a christian nation and poking an ally like israel in the eye. it's mind boggling to see some of our nation's actions recently but politics truly is a topic for another day. les anyone try to convince should be separated from the state, our founding fathers, they were believers. and george washington, he saw faith in god as basic to life.

>> laura: with us now reverend barry lind americans united for the separation of church and state. barry, great to see you as always. >> nice to be back. >> laura: tell us why that drives you insane. >> we have established let's be blunt that sarah palin doesn't read the newspapers. we found that out during the campaign. now we are finding out that she doesn't read history either or she would know that some the great framers of our country james madison, thomas jefferson even andrew jackson who was probably an nra member as well as a supporter of the first amendment didn't want to have the government involved with prayer it drives me crazy to see conservatives who are hypocritical who want the government out of everybody's life and everything around them except for one of the most important things that individuals choose, whether to be religious or not. >> laura: why is it always that conservatives are the hypocrites on this. because i'm going to hoist you. liberals are out there saying

the government needs to do this and do that and do the health care and this bailout and that bailout. we have got to do all these things. conservatives say okay, well, we actually think these moral issues are really important for the government to support, you know, overwhelming majority of american people on this issue. so, so what? what's wrong with that? and so the liberals say oh no, the government can't talk about morality. oh no the government can't do. this why not you? want the government to do everything else, right? >> no, because we want the government -- at least i want the government to do many things i want them to keep out of several very important things. religion number one, sex, that's another good thing for them to say out of. >> laura: sex trafficking? >> no. sex trafficking. >> laura: how about against statutory rape. >> i am firmly there is statutory. >> laura: the right to abort. >> i don't want the government in my church or in my bedroom. i want them to stay out of certain discreet and intimate areas of my life. why is it that anybody in this country who is religious needs anybody, whether it is nancy

pelosi or jan boehner to get involved in their prayer life. you would think we would run away from that. >> laura: we are seeing a lot of folks out there, barry, think that christianity or christians are actually the last acceptable people who can be discriminated against. i'm just telling you a point of view that people hear this. >> i have heard that. >> laura: look, you know, franklin graham was going to come and address the pentagon, okay, and people agree with him, don't agree with him, if you are a christian, you believe there is one path to salvation. you are a reverend. >> absolutely. >> laura: you believe there is a one path to. >> no, i don't. >> laura: i would say that 0% of crifingses in this country believe the path to salvation is christian yant. >> national day of prayer at the pentagon. why is that about -- >> laura: let me finish. >> okay. >> laura: would lead to you believe that christians would believe that everybody would become christians that's not going to happen in an ideal world that's what christians believe you want to be fisher of men. >> yes. >> laura: why say that franklin graham can't come and give a prayer when they're basically

saying he we all need prayers. we can have muslim prayers, jewish prayers, christian prayers. >> actually we can't have that because franklin graham is a person who went one step further. he, on the record, as recently as this week on this very network not only says all people who are muslims need to convert to christianity but he has called the whole religion wicked. he called it evil, he called it violent. does this help? does the pentagon have to give him a place to speak about this which is, in fact, going to make the terrorists say this is a crusade. >> laura: how about the clerics who actually work in the military? do christians go and say no muslim clerics can't be there because we disagree with some the hateful things that have been written in gaza textbooks about jews. >> of course not. we are talking about -- this is an official program. >> laura: recognizing -- >> -- wait a minute. the pentagon is an official place. >> laura: clerics are in the u.s. military aren't official? of course they are. >> they are not going to be broadcast on c-span. he would have had that service son c-span. now we are going to find maybe

that the pentagon, at a minimum, i don't know why it's doing a national day of prayer to begin with to be honest with you. >> laura: disagrees with you. they are actually going to appeal that wisconsin federal district court's ruling. >> you know why they do that. >> laura: it's reridiculous, national day of prayer been celebrating for tech cadz go back a couple hundred years. >> this doesn't go back. lauer. >> laura: are you saying the leaders of our country having prayed for us in battle, having haven't invoked christianity and morality. you want to name one framer i will name another. john adams our second president. >> i just named three at the beginning of this show. >> laura: you don't care about the framers, really except in something like this. do the framers believe you should take over health care and do a stimulus bill that would take over private enterprise. >> i have a good feeling that most of them would have been happy with that they wouldn't have been happy with taking over your religion or trying to convince you that the best thing encourage to you pray should have been government neutrality not promotion.

>> laura: i wish we had them here to interview. i would love but maybe on the next factor. >> see you in your dreams. >> laura: we appreciate it. reverend lind, thanks a lot. biden tries to explain the palin appeal to "the view" ladies. south park censored. did threats by some muslim extremists scare the bosses of comedy

>> laura: thanks for staying with us. i'm laura ingraham in for bill o'reilly. and in the impact segment tonight, vice president joe biden sat down for a chat with "the view" ladies. and his former vice presidential opponent came up. >> what is the appeal of sarah palin exactly, do you think? >> look, if you meet her, she is a charming person. it's hard not to like her. >> is it something that the administration is eyeing in 2012 or is she someone that they consider to be a legitimate

threat again? >> look, we. [ laughter ] i'm -- [ laughter ] i -- sarah -- the governor says she is not running. >> the exgovernor. >> i think you can play -- vice president. >> look, i don't know what she is going to do. i'm sure the republican nominee will be a very contested race. and i have trouble predicting outcome of our politics in the democratic side. >> the majority of tea party don't think she is qualified to be president. i'm just throwing that in. >> laura: thanks, joy. joining us now from los angeles fox news contributor tammy bruce a radio talk show host and from new york cathy arue. ladies, great to see you. i'm going to start with you, cathy, why is the left so enamoured with keeping palin throughout in the headlines. joy behar brought this question up to biden because he is an expert on what the republicans think. it's just an odd question.

they need to keep her out there. why? >> maybe they are doing her a favor. she needs to be out there. she needs to sell books so the left is doing her a favor. she is just fun. she is really fun. she probably shouldn't have been on that ticket to begin with. the presidential ticket with john mccain. now that she is out there, why not have fun with her. >> laura: tammy, my view is that they are keeping her out there like they want to keep michael steele out there because for them and their base she is a person and a personality they can raise money off of. and, in fact, they are doing that in fundraisers and speeches. palin, for them, is the face of the republican party and for the left it just drives them batty. i mean, she could clip her nails and they would find something wrong with it. >> yeah, you know, she wakes up in the morning and drives the news cycle that is because sarah palin is a representation of what's going on in the country right now. interestingly, and i think joe biden's. [ laughter laughter on the view was a nervous laughter as it should be. they continue to mock and laugh not only at her but at tea party

patriots because they don't know what else to do. the problem is that's exactly what americans have been responding to. i love it. i want them to continue to do it because as they continue to do it, americans are reinforcing -- we don't like the snobbery and the arrogance of this presumption. now, biden was somewhat respectful because he did face her. >> laura: i thought he was. >> he did face her in the election. the most telling thing he said is he doesn't know what the democratic politics are going to be from day to day. it tells you about the chaos. the thing about palin is she can do whatever she wants and that also makes them nervous. >> laura: cathy, i also thought it was interesting for biden for him to say i think this is going to be a really contested race. i always have this view that biden is on one of those electronic collars for the dogs, you don't want him to leave the compound he jokes around funny guy and you don't know what he is going to say when he is off the prompter. he gets himself in trouble. he is already saying it's a contested race whether palin son

the ticket or not. i like her, i said. i like her. >> maybe he does. i'm sure she is a great person but i think he wants her to be on that ticket just because they want that ross perot factor. you know, that want that third party candidate. that will come out and stir things up and get the attention away from the real candidates and maybe stir things up. so maybe the ross perot. >> the real candidate. >> 2012 election might be interesting. >> laura: i see. keep people like michael steele and the controversy about funding and rnc and palin because she is a lightning rod for the left, keep them out there as long as possible and help them fund raise and galvanize their base. tammy. >> may i add something? >> laura: yeah, quickly. >> i want to add that certain people like the obama administration have tried to laugh this off or dismiss her. you dismiss sarah palin at your own peril. and when november rolls around, this year and november of 2012, we will see who is laughing then. >> laura: tammy, i want to move on to the fact that people are saying oh, well, republicans

don't have a frontrunner yet. and i have been saying hey, let republicans get through november of 2010, then they can start worrying about whether john thiewn has the magnetism or chris christie, george will writing about him today or chris christie or somebody like a romney again or huckabee or palin. whoever. you have got to get through november. do you not? >> well, here is what is thrilling about it unlike the democrats, the republicans like sarah palin really have the entire field open. they don't need to rush. this is theirs to control. and just like in massachusetts, i don't know if people like your other guests at massachusetts either. something is happening in this nation that shouldn't be dismissed. the republicans have to take it seriously as well. we have rejected the politics of the past. it's not karl rove's ideas that matter, necessarily anymore. and these are the the republicans are going to have to adapt to. i think the cataclysm in november is going to make a lot of people look twice and it's going to be in the hands of tea party patriots.

it's going to be in the hands of average middle class stakeholders and people like sarah palin. it's what they decide to do that's going to matter. it's going to be, i think, quite revolutionary and exciting. >> laura: cathy, i see you are itching to get in here. cathy, your take on the tea party movement or people who go to town hall rally. >> tea party is a minority of a minority. they are making a stink right now but they are not as powerful as everyone wants to make them out to be. and if the tea party wants to put palin as their leaders, let them do it. but it's only going to be a ross perot. she is not going to win and she doesn't even want to be the leader of the tea party. she hasn't even taken their invitation to be the leader. she doesn't want to be their leader. >> laura: just wants to be on fox and write books and make a lot of money. >> she knows how to make money. lawyer. >> sounds like the president of the united states writing books and being on tv. >> laura: directly ahead a south park story line about the prophet mohammed gets censored

by comedy central execs, a report that sec employees were busy watching porn while the economy collapsed. lovely. all coming up. 

>> laura: in the factor follow-up segment tonight, was comedy central intimidated by muslim fanatics? south park recently aired an episode dealing with the prophet mohammed, something the show's creators realized might spark some controversy. >> we would be so hypocritical against our own thoughts if we said okay well let's not make fun of them because they might hurt us. that's messed up to have that kind of thought process. okay. well we will make fun of the catholics because they won't hurt us. we won't make fun of them because they might hurt us. >> laura: it did prompt veiled threats from islamic web site.

second episode ran and it was slightly cren soared. actually significantly censored. joining us from detroit is the publisher of the arab american news. look, i'm sympathetic in many ways with muslims who think that sacrilegious you are doing this to us because, look, i'm a catholic and i find some of the things done in things like south park, although south park can be funny, it's pretty crude, it's not my style but i understand a lot of people like it. i get offended. but the idea that catholics are going to cause south park's creators or the show's, you know, producers to censor an episode? i mean, it just would never happen. they have done horrible things to bill donahue of the catholic league depicting jesus, the virgin mary. ridiculous things. why do you think it was a good thing that they censored this? >> i don't think that it's a good thing that they censored it.

frankly, laura, i truly believe that central park has the thing they want to do. first of all, i'm the publisher of a paper. i publish weekly in both english and arabic in this country and i have been doing so for the last 25 years. so i really appreciate the freedom of speech that i was given. now, having said that i want to protect others who have the same thing. i would suggest that we all should exercise some self-restraint from insulting other people or insulting their religion. and i'm not talking about muslims, i'm talking about all religions and everyone around. now, having said that that does not mean that we should not be censored all the time and be [bleep]ed all the time when things that are not acceptable in a group of people. now, i don't think that anybody have given -- muslim --

so-called group to defend islam. i mean, there are 1.2 billion muslim in the world. i'm a muslim. and i refuse the threat. i think that threatening other people with violence is not islamic at all. >> laura: you are condemning then what was done on this whacky web site that showed the picture. >> in the strongest. >> laura: picture of van gogh. >> in the strongest sentiment. >> laura: let me say this, if a christian group had even a fringe group had threatened or implicitly or explicitly violence against the creator of a show in the united states of america, there would be protests, candlelight vigils, nationwide. i don't know why a conservative talk show host like me is having to defend the freedom of expression of the south park guys. where are all the liberal groups

out there? i say where is the aclu? where are all these groups that should be standing for the first amendment? you have a nuances view on this and i understand that. why is it that conservatives are out there a championing the first amendment rights of south park? where are all these liberal groups? >> i have been threatened, laura, for things that i have said or things that i have written in the last 25 years. and i think that the american people. >> laura: by prominent catholics or by catholic web sites? i don't think so. >> no, no, no, no. that people like you came to defend me. and i am here to defend c . having said that. >> laura: you might be next on the list. >> something said that, we should also exercise restraint other people. >> laura: genie is out of the bottle on that. i appreciate it very much. before we go to break, one side

note, with mothers and father's day just around the corner, please visit the store at bill o'reilly.com for some great gifts for mom and dad and still to come, the dumbest things of the week featuring the sec spending more time watching porn than monitoring the economy and supermodel newspaper any campbell's ongoing anger gecko: uh, you wanted to see me sir? boss: come on in, i had some other things you can tell people about geico - great claims service and a 97% customer satisfaction rate. show people really trust us. gecko: yeah right, that makes sense. boss: trust is key when talking about geico. you gotta feel it. why don't you and i practice that with a little exercise where i fall backwards and you catch me. gecko: uh no sir, honestly... uh...i don't think...uh...

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in the back of the book segment tonight, the dumbest things of the week front and center is the s.e.c., the securities and exchange commission, the government agency in charge of protecting investors from unfair business practices. damning new report says dozens of employees, some of them high-level were surfing porn sites at work while america's financial system collapsed. yep. that's dumb. with us now, red eye guy gr greg. why do we bring you in to discuss porn? this is the red aye thing.

>> i have no knowledge of porn. one of the guys, 16,000 times in one month. that's 500 sites a day. i could see 30, 40, maybe 50. 500! there is a bright side to this, though. >> what? >> it's better to have bureaucrats surfing porn than ruining your life. if we could distract them as much as possible with pornography, i'm happy. they can't come after us. >> greg, was bernie madoff or anyone from the stanford group in the websites or featured in the websites? at least then we'd know that the s.e.c. staffers were looking at something tangentially related to the ongoing fraud. >> actors playing madoff in adaptations of the scandal. i'll go as far as that. >> are we surprised this happened? no one is surprised at this point this happens, are they? >> one thing, pornography, this is a serious point, infiltrating every area of the culture. >> not funny.

i know i shouldn't be laughing. >> you know? >> it's not funny. $12 billion things on s a year. those who can't do, watch. naomi campbell was asked by a producer about a diamond she might have received from a dictator in africa. let's listen. >> had dinner with charles taylor? >> i had dinner with nelson mandela, thank you very much. >> did he bring you a diamond? a diamond in the rough, a large diamond? >> no, we're not interested in -- >> we're told you didn't help the prosecution in this case. >> thank you so much for that. >> get up. >> apparently -- there we go. apparently, gutfeld, diamonds and dictators are a girl's best friend. >> absolutely. >> what about this? >> supermodel is like a small

european country. all their lives are used to a sense of entitlement, and if you take it away they turn bitter and angry. every one of her violent episodes involves electronics. she is throwing blackberries and cell phones. i think she is a secret letite. >> i think she has to come on your show. clearly, she's the next -- has he never been on it? >> no. she might punch me. i'm scared of her. tough girl. >> and tall. we appreciate it as always. that is it for us today. please check out the website lauraingram.com to find out for laura's daily fix and find out where you can hear me on the radio. i'm reporting tonight for bill o'reilly. remember, the spin stops here. because we are always, always because we are always, always looking out for you. captioned by closed captioning services, inc >> >> ♪ ♪