and i said sure. >> steve: the rest is history. >> yeah. >> steve: ellen will join us in the after the show show. we hope you join us tomorrow at the same time, same channel. so long, everybody. harry reid's reelection bid, republican sharron angle pulling ahead of the senate majority leader in our new poll which is out right now. 9:00 east coast time. good morning. it's well within the margin of error, that's where we are. i'm bill hemmer. sounds like we're in -- sounds like we're in a tin can. martha: it does. i can hear you twice! i'm martha maccallum, everybody. let's take a look at some of these numbers. we've got good ones to chew over, the latest poll shows sharron angle three points over harry reid in the nevada race, compared to two weeks ago when they were neck and neck. you can see the migration of the numbers here a little bit, separating those. bill: molly henneberg live in d.c. on this. now the numbers are out,

first in nevada. what's behind it? >> hi bill. this is the first time in our fox news poll thank sharron angle has had more than a one point lead. this week as you were saying she has a three-point lead which is the margin of error in this poll. it seems that voters have reservations about both candidates in this race. we asked senate majority leader harry reid f. he had been in office too long, 56 percent of respondents said yes, and we asked if sharron angle's position on the issues are too extreme, that's what each side is saying, harry reid has been there too long, insiders say she's too extreme, 53 percent said yes. angle wants to eliminate the department of education and allow social security to be privatized, for example. but angle supporters are growing more confident in their votes. two weeks ago, 10 percent of her supporters said they might change their mind. this week, that number fell to 4 percent. bill: so we polled in nevada, we polled in ohio, in missouri, also in west virginia. now this is a state where

joe manchin running for the senate, his approval rating as governor was through the roof, well over 60, almost 70 percent. do democrats not even worry about this seat in the mountain state? >> yes. in this case as you are suggesting, votessers seem to like the democratic candidate, popular governor joe manchin but he's trailing in other poll against the challenger john raese. manchin who has a 67 percent approval ratings is trailing raese, 47 percent. where coal is king and president obama's environmental properlysies are not going over well with voters, we asked voters -- and this may be hurting manchin, we asked voters if the obama administration polices have helped or hurt the state's economy. 55 percent say they have hurt the state's economy. and obama only has a 29 percent approval rateing in west virginia. what this means for manchin is that perhaps voters like him as governor, but as far as who they want to send to washington, this latest poll shows they want to send --

to send a republican challenger. we're four weeks out, though. bill: it's interesting to see how manchin has broken with white house policy with things like energy. thanks for that, molly. that's a glimpse at our polling, right now, this hour. back to nevada, a closer look at senator reid's long career, served in the house from 19 # 3-1987, 1986, rather, he was first elected to the u.s. senate, that's when he was promoted by the folks in nevada, reid became senate majority leader three years ago in 2007, now running for a fifth term in the u.s. senate. martha. martha: well, speaking of all these polls this morning, in the connecticut senate race, democrat richard blumenthal is holding a ten-point lead right now, 52-42 percent, over republican linda mcmahon. this as the two candidates go to the mats in the first televised debate last night, monitored by special report anchor bret baier, former wrestling executive mcmahon and the attorney general sparring over the economy, jobs and attack ads:

>> when she was asked by reporters about the minimum wage and whether to cut it, she said she would have to look at it. i would never say such a thing. my answer would have been no, absolutely not, we will not cut the minimum wage. people are struggling economically in our state and our nation. >> mr. blumenthal knows very well when i was talking about taking a look and considering, it was relative to an increase in the minimum wage and that's a mischaracterization, i just won't stand for his mischaracterizations. martha: there's a piece of that. chief political correspond' -- correspondent carl cameron, live in hartford on this. mchamon is trailing blumenthal. how is she faring? >> the polls suggest she's behind. so she was the aggressor and needed to do something to sort of change the game, and came out swinging. one of the things that she did was sort of a big

counterattack, in ma minimum wage debate that you spoke about, it was sort of teed up in a sense because blumenthal is running attack ads that accuse mcmahon of having said she'd reduce or look at reducing the minimum wage and she came out swinging not only against pwhr*e men -- blumenthal but against his ad and she used the ad and she said the l word. >> that's a lie, you know it's a lie and that's just wrong. let's take that off the table. >> reporter: tough stuff. you'd expect it from a wwe former ceo. she needed to change the game last night. for the most part it was sort of the no hits, no runs, no errors kind of situations, which for linda mcmahon isn't quite what she needed for. for richard blumenthal, it was exantly what he wanted, he made no mistakes or gaffs. he's not known as the most dynamic performer or debater so for him it was a great performance. martha: sounded like he handled it well when she was fighting back. we're aware that you're hosting a big debate tonight

as well. >> there's the gubernatorial debate. >> the mayor of stanford for 50 years, this is one of the few places in the country where democrats have an opportunity to sort of stem the tide and buck the tide. republicans are looking to pick up as many as a dozen tkpwaub natorial seats across the country, lots of vulnerable democrats, but this is an openly republicanly controlled seat. the governor is retiring, and as a consequence, this is a blue state and the democrats may have an opportunity actually to win a republican gubernatorial seat which would be exceptional when you take a look at what the trend is across the country. martha: very interesting, carl, thank you very much, we'll look for you in hartford, as carl mentioned he's hosting the debate between tom foley and dan malloy, check it out, streaming live in its entirety on foxnews.com. we're going to have it on all different platforms, all of the election coverage. carl's blog is posted at fox

news.com/aehq, also worth checking out. bill: find him anywhere, right? fox news alert, the news is breaking overseas. at least nine men are in custody in france with alleged ties to al-qaeda. these arrests coming on the heels of a widespread terror alert across europe that we've been reporting on for the past few days. what does it mean, though tporbgs americans, especially traveling overseas? greg palkot joins us live in london. first on the arrests, what can we report, greg? >> >> reporter: bill, we have been seeing a fightback on a couple of fronts following the release of that terror travel alert. let's go to france first. france, of course, already tense about feared attacks, last week we've been seeing beefed up security at landmarks like the eiffel tower, train stations, airports, that fear has been now transformed into arrests we have been seeing a bunch of raids to the southern part of that country, three of them linked to an

operations supplying state documents for folks going back and forth between france and afghanistan and pakistan. the other nine, these are new numbers we're getting in right now, connected to a gun smuggling operation, heavy weapons seize that. now, the french are not saying that these arrests are linked to the specific plot that is feared about, that is linked to this alert in the last couple of days. their own oerpbs, another al-qaeda, al-qaeda in the islamic magrad in north after cash they've been worried about that and other concrete threats they've been seeing, bill. bill: what about this latest drone attack that was aimed in targets in pakistan and how does that possibly relate to this news? >> well, it could relate indeed. we're getting more information about that. it happened last night on the border between afghanistan and pakistan, inside pakistan. the latest word, fox news is getting on this, five german nationals and three facilitators have been killed in a drone strike, the u.s. is not confirms that, not saying that this

strike is linked to the euro plot, but there had been reports that germans of afghan and other descents could be tied into that plot. there are also reports the drone attacks are specifically aimed at disrupting that plot and a lot more attention, bill, being given to the german jihadi,gen -- again, german passports, afghan descent, pakistani descent, we have come across a pretty interesting video which shows landmarks being displayed, landmarks in germany that would be blown up if the german government did not pull out of afghanistan. this is a german jihadi video released in early 2009, just about the same time that a lot of these guys were traveling from germany to pakistan. bill: on this -- i understand, too, there were at the same mosque in hamburg that mohammed atta and a few others were worshiping at before 9/11. thank you for the breaking details, greg. martha: let's get to the economy for a second, fed chief ben bernanke warning

washington it needs to curb its huge budget deficits or else risk future damage to the economy. here's a look at the nation's debt clock. never a pretty picture, there it is, 13t and counting, the federal government is on track for the second highest decifit ever at 1.3 trillion, slightly less than last year, where we had $1.4 trillion. >> we do know, however, that the threat to our economy is real and it is growing, which should be sufficient reason for fiscal policymakers to put in place a credible plan for bringing down deficits to sustainable levels over the medium term. martha: let's hope they can do that, figure out how to reduce those deficits. he didn't get into too many options, only saying the tough decisions are best left to elected officials. bill: i guess that's what it's all about! >> martha: we say cut it and you guys figure out how to do it. bill: in a moment p. a 13 minute shooting spree leaves one victim dead, five others seriously wounded, what

police are saying about the suspect on that breaking story here. martha: get this, another former employer of meg whitman is speaking out about allegations that she abused and underpaid her housekeeper. what the ex-nanny is saying about that. bill: things are getting downright nasty in the new york's race for governor, does carl paladino thinks his challenger, andrew cuomo, should be behind bars? first, though, take a listen to this: >> if you were governor, would you have him prosecuted? >> for the pranks? >> yes. >> would you go after andrew cuomo? >> anybody in state government that commits a crime should go to jail.

rab

martha: here is a story that's going to have you asking what were they think, led -- red faced california officials canceling access to welfare benefits on cruise ships and all casinos. follow me here for a moment, folks. this comes in the wake of an l.a. times report that revealed that debit cards that were designed, you know , for welfare, for aid, have actually been showing up and cashed in to the tune of $69 million at vacation spots outside of the state of california, including the biggest strip, and on ship sailing, reports from literally all around the world. in june the golden state cut back access to welfare in casinos and strip clubs, apparently people got creative and took charge of the welfare cards and

started cashing them in. what a great country! >> bill: all right, four weeks to mid terms, new polling numbers show democrats making slight gains and this time they think they can -- well, they can thank a slight increase in confidence about the economy. the abc-washington news polling, 40 percent of likely voters prefer a republican candidate, 43 percent favor democrat, the democrats' numbers all few points and juan williams, npr news analyst and news contributor, good morning to you s. it getting tighter or did democratic voters only have one place to go and that was higher, or up? that was like the only room they had to go? >> it could have gotten worse because i think the economy remains topic one, and as you point out, people right now, there seems to be a slight bane in terms of confidence on the economy and easing on dissatisfaction with government in general in that "washington post"-abc poll. bill: what would account for that, though? >> i think the democrats are getting out there and also i

think congress is out of session so there's a lot less bickering going on on tv and in the -- on the radio and on tv every day, but i think the whole idea, right now, people are saying you know what, if you look at some of these democrats and look at president obama's presentation, he constantly is talking about the middle class. that seems to be breaking through the haze and people are saying oh, the democrats care more about the middle class and that seems to be helping, as seen from coming from the top, even as the democratic strategy, bill s. to localize electricals and not make it a referendum on that. bill: parallel that to this. mid terms typically have low turnout as you know. >> yes. bill: in this scenario, if you get a low voter turnout in 28 days, this is what they found. would you vote for a republican or democrat. republican, 56 percent. to democrats' 38 percent. that still shows this wide split between the parties and the candidates, juan. >> right.

there's a large split in terms of the base being energized on the republican side. all the energy in this cycle has been on the republican side. i think, bill, you could think of it in terms of being embodied or personified in the tea party. those are the people who have been on the streets. right now, democrats and the person of president obama and the local states are saying buck up, get out, and saying you don't want to roll things backwards, you don't want to go back to president bush, you don't want to risk having republicans take control, undo things like the 4*e89 care -- health care reform bill. bill: the enthusiasm you mentioned is a 20-point difference. >> right. bill: that's staggering. >> yes. bill: have you ever seen it in your lifetime, by the way? >> no. no. i don't think i've ever seen that. bill: john boehner was on with hannity last night, and you know what democrats tried to do and the president tried to do this, they tried to make boehner the bad guy. the problem is boehner, as

he'll tell you in a moment, is nobody knows him. outside of the beltway for the most part. roll this and we'll talk about it. >> they're desperate to make this election about anything other than themselves. this election is going to be a referendum on their job killing polices whr-rbgs it's cap and trade, health care bill, the financial regulatory bill, the failed stimulus bill, and they kind of make the election about something other than themselves, and so i'm not surprised that they've picked me out as a target. bill: i want to make one more point. in that polling they were just talking about, juan, the republican advantage among independent likely voters, these are likely voters, independents now -- get that -- get that off the screen, that's not it -- it is 53-30 percent. back to that 20-point margin. remember, independent -- remember, independents come in late and they don't always pay attention. that is why, for example, you see president obama's approval numbers go down, he's been -- he's been loo

losing the independent necessary droves. the question is can he get them back. they can be captured or or recouptured and the way they're doing it often times is to often talk about the republican nominees as extremists, they focus on christine o'donnell or comments about privatizing social security, that's the effort at the moment, coming, so what they want to do is location lies it and make it a comparison between the democratic candidate and what they position or portray as the extremist and in the case of boehner, as you were just saying, most people don't know john but they don't have a face for the republican party so they're holding up john boehner and making him into some kind of halloween figure that can scare people. bill: people vote on issues. >> right. bill: in four-weeks, they shall. >> we'll find out. bill: see you later. >> they trash republicans more on most of the issues, bill, even in this poll. bill: fair point. nice to see you. you're still inspiring! >> thank you bill. bill: martha, what's up?

>> martha: president obama saying basically wait until the new health care law changes lives for the better, and it will happen. things are already changeing in doctors' offices and dr. siegl says it's not good.

bill: general motors shelling out $1.3 million in bonuses, u.s. taxpayers, by the way, own 61 percent of that ko*erbgs the move comes as the company battles back from bankruptcy. gm, formed a new company after it filed for bankruptcy so technically does not owe uncle sam anything. figure that one out. the old company borrowed $20 billion from the government and paid back some of that loan. martha: and a shooting rampage to tell but in florida, a man turns a gun on himself after killing one person and hurting five others. police say this happened in gainesville, florida and

we're told that all of the man's victims were specifically targeted. >> more people got shot over here by william elementary school, someone was here at the depot. so i was scared. martha: boy, phil keating is following this story live from miami, florida. what do we know about the motive in this case? >> reporter: that's a good question. gainesville police have a 10:00 a.m. news conference to perhaps explain more about motive if they have one, but we do know that the suspect, the shooter identified as 24-year-old clifford miller, jr. does have a history of mental illness and a long rap sheet dating back to 2005 for crimes like battery, burglary, dug possession. in march, he was deemed mentally or physically unfit to stand trial for resisting a police officer and driving erratically by a judge. what we do know, as for 13 minutes yesterday afternoon, according to police, he drove around gainesville,

shooting six people, in five different locations, in a time span of 13 minutes. he started with his father, according to relatives. clifford miller, senior. then drove around, specifically targeting people he knew, according to police. the last 911 phone call according to police was made by miller himself, right before he shot himself in the head in the pickup truck. martha: awful story. at first they thought it was random shootings, then they said it was not random, right phil? >> reporter: right. police say that they believe it was specific, because he went to -- he drove to specific locations where he knew the people who eventually became his victims. reportedly, all of these victims are men. he drove to this corner, would see somebody and according to police he would shoot multiple rounds each time. keep in mind gainesville is a small area, this happened several miles away from the university. bill: in the meantime, martha, we've got this.

u.s. officials beefing up security and it could have a major basket an -- impact on your next commute, where you'll see a bigger police presence starting this week. martha: new york's candidate for governor, carl paladino, admits he's made mistakes in his career, but says it's just because he's a regular guy. >> i'm your regular guy from buffalo, new york, and yes, i never claimed to be anything other than just a regular guy. martha: wait until you hear what paladino has to stay about his opponent, why he says that he would send andrew cuomo to jail, and what polling says about that.

bill: all right, this is iso though is breaking news now, stepping up security on our nation's railways, am track starting rail safe this week. commuters will see increased police presence on some of the busier routes. steve centanni is on that, what can passengers expect, steve? >> reporter: it's going to

be on friday only. amtrak will have security capability, that means you'll see an increased presence of officers if you're riding on amtrak, will will also be bomb stiffing -- sniffing dogs and random searches of bags. they will conduct the searches over the holiday weekends, bill. bill: is this connect to anything in the news, about the europe terror plots, is that outside of the story? >> absolutely, and amtrak goes to great pains to say this was planned long before and there is no connection to the terror plot, there is no specific threat, by the way, to amtrak or any target inside the u.s. the department of homeland security says this operation was planned long before that terror alert went out over the weekend. it's a coordinated effort involving state, federal and local law enforcement agencies and of course, amtrak always has tight security, but occasionally

they conduct these larger exercises just to make sure everything is running smoothly and to practice in case there is any specific threat or incident. bill: it is good to know and good to do and it starts this week. steve centanni, thank you, out of washington. martha: well, there's mud shrinking everywhere but maybe nowhere as intense as the governor's race in new york. it's reached a new level, folks, republican carl paladino saying his democratic opponent andrew cuomo should go to jail for some of the crimes he's committed according to paladino. here he is on the al a.m. coombs radio show. >> he should northbound jail? >> yeah, because he allowed retner to walk. retner got access to $75 billion in pension funds for giving an $88,000 prescribe and they give him immunity and put the poor brother-in-law in jail. >> if you were governor would you have him prosecuted for crimes? would you go after andrew

cuomo. >> absolutely. >> have mercy. >> anybody in state government that commits a crime should go to jail. >> would you proactively as governor start a case against and recuomo if he lost the election to new. >> not because he lost the election to me. >> no, because of the crime you just claim he committed. >> i will seek prosecution, okay, under state law of anybody, anybody, in government. martha: okay. if you follow all that, there was some lodge nick that playout from the coombs radio show. this is how the polls look now, 53 cuomo, 38 percent for carl paladino. kiki is joining me to talk about this. dean borelli is an officer with project 21. for those that want to cut taxes, is he biting off his nose to spite his face in this stuff? >> can you tell it's campaign season with all this rhetoric that's being thrown around?

listen, the american people want openness, they want transparency and they want to know where the polices are that these candidates stand on. so clearly, any time they're making these claims, american voters want the facts, they want to know that whether or not these claims are accurate and whether they have been or not, that way they're able to make informed decisions when they go to the polls. martha: kiki this, one has gotten so ugly, there have been claims of infidelity, claims of the nasty e-mails sent out by paladino which he admitted to years back, and what you hear voters talking about in new york and really across the country is fiscal responsibility. has this race gotten out of control? >> well, i think maybe the candidate has gotten out of control. i think denene and i agree people want to talk about polices, solutions, real problems are bearing down on their shoulders and they want to hear candidates talk about jobs and what we're going to do to make our schools work better. so when you see this kind of trash talking coming from

paladino, i think what you see is a real demonstration of temperament and judgment and my guess is that's not working in his favor and being demonstrated in the poll numbers you showed. martha: when you look back at this raeurbgs it's amazing that carl paladino is even on the map against comb oefplt everybody taught cuomo was going to walk into this spot, including probably cuomo himself, who spent his whole life, working towards this moment to become governor. what is the significance that he's threatened by pal dean snow. >> the significance is that he's still in the race. it's not over. and again, the voters will decide here in new york who they would prefer to have as their leader. and clearly, it's going to be based on where they stand on policy, these accusations that they are throwing earnings they want to know what the facts are. martha: let me just stop you. can carl paladino, if he keeps saying -- and i saw him on some of the network shows -- he keeps saying i want to talk to the policy -- stick to the polices, cutting spending, and cuomo,

the leadership in new york have run this state into the ground, but does he distract from that message every time he brings up this stuff and he's yelling at fred dicker about infidelity and that kind of thing? >> as i said before, what the voters want to know is where the candidates stand on the polices. any time you throw accusations into a political campaign, i think it's a big distraction. so i think the candidates need to stay on message point, the voters will be able to decide whether they want then to -- them to run the state of new york or not. anything can happen with this election. it's going to be an interesting election. martha: it sure is. kiki, one thing i noted, andrew cuomo had an ad on new york television this morning and we're talking about new york, but these issues are broad across the whole country where we've got a brash sort of new candidate going up against somebody who's a familiar, long-time, well known name but cuomo's ad is how he's going to cut spending 20 percent, eliminate the decifit. these are not the kind of things that we're used to hearing democrats talk about

so clearly the tea party and all these folks have had a major impact on the dialogue here. >> i think if you look at the clinton years you recognize there are democrats that spoke t* that -- to that and i think president obama has talked about cutting spending and what we're going to do to deal with the decifit. i got to challenge the premise of this is a close race at this point. you're showing polling numbers that demonstrate that it's not that close, in a year when any democrat running for office should be in a severely threatened position, and every time carl paladino demonstrates his temperament and judgment and talks the way he did in this interview with allan coombs, he gives one less reason for people to vote for him as governor, they turn around, they see an advertisement from cuomo who addresses the issues they care about, it's one more reason to vote for o'clock and you can see where that race is heading. martha: i put the numbers on the screen and everybody can see how far apart they are. i think it's part of the conversation is no one thought paladino would be in this shot or -- in this spot

or have a shot. >> but we're talking about him not because he's in a great position in the race or he's trending upward. we're talking about him because he made a huge i think error, political error, and substantive error in what he said on a show last night. we're not talking about him how he did great. we're talking about him because he's not doing great. >> voters are worried about the direction our country is going, they want politicians who are going to listen to the american people and not just dictate. i think progressives think that -- >> martha: new york politics, it's always fun to watch. thank you very much, jenin and kiki, good to have you today. bill: california has its fair share. let's look meg whitman is not the only facing a potential legal issue. according to reports, jerry brown, running for governor of the democratic ticket, violated u.s. laws during a trip to cuba about ten years ago, brown is accused of using a cia turn coast as a tour guide, a report also claims brown said, mojito-fueled conversations with dick at that timor

fidel castro. i did not know they drank mojitos in castro's office, but -- it would have been an interesting conversation! >> martha: it's not that surprising. bill: castro talks, you throw a mojito in there -- >> martha: he may listen a while longer. give him another one, right? >> the governor's race is getting personal as the man holding the job tries to fend off a former governor who wants that job back, democratic incumbent martin o'malley taking on former republican governor bob erlick's record since taking office. >> he always started with the big entities and big special interests, and why should we believe that after all he's been paid in the last four years that he wouldn't side for them in the tough days ahead of us? >> when you go negative, it means you have no bigger interest than marketing or selling what you've done. i think that speaks volumes about the o'malley administration in the last four years. martha: o'malley leads

erlick by double digits in recent polls. president obama is scheduled to stump for o'malley on thursday. bill: the future of social security, proving to be a hot button issue in the ohio senate race, latest fox news polling together rob portman leading the democrat and state lieutenant governor lee fisher, 53 percent-37 percent, that number is just out, 39 minutes ago. also, those numbers coming on the heels of the debate between the two last night, portman and fisher, exchanging barbs over the future of social security. roll this here: >> it's a sacred promise with the seniors of our country, and there are ways we can solve this, and i will tell you one of the ways is not to raise the social security trust fund as congressman portman did when he was budget director. there are other ways to do it. i know it's getting close to halloween, but i would ask lieutenant governor fisher to not scaring seniors about social security. he gave a more advanced reason tonight because he's not on the campaign trail but when he talks to

seniors, he says don't touch it and portman wants to take away your social security. not true. bill: the straegy is dealing for unemployment and the fate of health care reform, that in ohio, the battle ground state, the hot political developments are at your fingertips, wherever you are, on the road, on the go, download our mention headquarters iphone app, or pick it up at the app store. we're making updates every day. if you want to get the update, get that install button. there it is. martha: there it is, thank you bill hemmer, tech whiz. critical care patients, this is very serious, may be missing out on care they need under the new health care law. dr. marc siegl is in the house, he's going to talk to bests he used to order for patients that suddenly are getting turned down and what's happening now. bill: also he tried to detonate a truck, bomb, and a very -- in a very busy times square o'clock now faisal shahzhad finds out his fate, the sentencing of a would-be terrorist,

trained in pakistan, at the top of the hour.

>> under the reform we're proposing, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. bill: that was august of '09, a bit more than a year ago, president obama, saying that you'll get to keep your plan under health care reform. my next guest, part of the fox news medical a team,

says he's already feeling the, quote, dysfunctional effects of the health care overhaul. dr. marc siegl, member of our medical a team, with me now. good morning to you and thank you for coming back. what do you mean dysfunctional? >> good morning, bill. already in the doctor's office, one of the biggest concerns i have is that this was not planned in the doctor's office, doctors were not part of the cook that is made this stew and i'm concerned about what's going on. bill: you see patients every day. give me an example. you wrote about one, right? the 63-year-old patient. >> i wrote about many, the 63-year-old patient, somebody that has a nod you'll on his chest x-ray, i ordered a cat scan and it showed there's a nod you'll that i need to follow this, year the insurance company is saying i can't approve that, next year he'll be 65 and have medicare, he was going to get medicare advantage, but i don't think he'll be able to because medicare advantage is being cut by $140 billion. i'm worried, bill, that i'll never be able to follow up that lung nodule again. i can't get it approved now, i don't think i'll be able to get the cat scan

approved. bill: hang on a second. why is the same insurance company that did the test a year ago, 12 months later saying no, what's changed? >> i'll tell you why. i'm not a big fan of insurance companies and not here to defend them but they're working on a 4 percent profit margin, premiums are going up and services are going down, as they get ready to add more and more people with preexisting conditions to the situation. they've already been told that they have to add children with preexisting conditions, everybody wants that, but who is going to pay for that? many insurance companies have dropped polices with child-only plans for that very reason, they can't afford to do this. bill: you're talking about the preexisting conditions? >> absolutely. kids with preexisting conditions are going to add a lot more. there's also no lifetime limits now. that costs them money. and another thing they're going to do, they're going to cut down on reimbursement toss doctors. you cut was services, reimbursements to doctors, they raise premiums. that's the only way they can stick around. bill:well said. let me get to the company necessary a moment.

take this patient you just described. >> okay. bill: is it a he or she? >> it's a he. bill: what did he does? >> he's an engineer, he's 63 years old, he's still working, and he has a lot of medical problems that i'm treating for, high blood pressure -- >> bill: got it, but if insurance companies say we're not going to go back and check that, what does he do then medically? >> the only thing i can do is follow him with a chest x-ray and you know what, i'll tell you something else, if i'm missing cancer it's a liability for me. it's not a functional situation. doctors are more and more worried that they're going to be put in a situation of liability when these services get turned down. the insurance companies are not liable. we are. bill: you also write that many employers are getting ready to dump their own employees on to the state exchanges in 2014. >> that's because -- >> bill: that's four years away. why can you predict this now? >> let me wake you through this, bill, it's a very important point. right now the employers are going to plan with higher deductibles and higher copays because it costs

less. those premiums are lower. if you get a higher deductible plan, the premiums are lower. but guess what? obamacare, the draft regulations of obamacare, the health reform bill, say that those plans will not grandfather n. they won't be able in -- available in 2014 so the employer is going to have to make a decision, go to a more expensive plan that grandfathers in or dump the patient on to the state exchanges. everybody expects that. and you know what? those patients are going to have to get subsidized by the federal government, because a lot of those plans are too expensive to the individual. taxpayers. taxpayers. bill: it's the next chapter in the book here. one more point, i think this is critical, this is the reason why health care reform was enacted because we were told that prices were going up, anyway. >> the health reform, as many of your other guests have said, has not made prices go down. i will point a -- paint a picture of what's going on in my office. patients who lost jobs that don't have any insurance, patients that go to medicaid which i don't accept and a lot of doctors don't accept,

patient that is have high premiums they can no longer afford -- afford, patients is high deductible that they can't pay out of pocket. this is not working. bill: you saw none of that a year ago? >> i saw some of that a year ago. it is ten times worse now and we don't have the doctors. they're running away from this. you're going to see doctors dropping oust insurance. this is a bleak future under obamacare. i don't see a solution. a lot of nurse practitioners will step in to fill the void. bill: ten times worse than a year ago. marc siegl, i know you see patients every day. best to thumb of em. martha, what's next. martha: get this. another former employee of meg whitman is coming forward now, but she is commenting on the nicky diaz situation, this other employee -- employee. wait until you hear what the ex-nanny, who was also in the house, apparently, says about what really happened with whitman's former housekeeper? >> i'm doing this because i

know there are a lot of megs out there who are mistreating the nickys who work so hard for them.

martha: back here in "america's newsroom", let's look at the markets, up 86 points right now, investors are watching what's going on in japan right now because japan is putting a stimulus into its economy, looking to shore things up and that's a major reason we're seeing stocks up, up about 84 points. we'll keep a close eye on the markets throughout the show. over to bill. bill: overly demanding and cheap. another former employee using words to describe meg whitman, her ex-nanny speaking out saying she believes the latest

accusations that women under-- that whitman underpaid and abused her housekeeper is true. she said the employee made difficult demands. armstrong worked for whitman 12 years ago and apparently she wasn't a long time employee. employed for a few weeks. whitman's camp says the claims have no substance. martha: there are new hopes this morning the 33 miners trapped underground in chile may get out a little bit sooner than expected. remember earlier, they said about christmastime. a team of more than 100 people from around the world right now is working on getting these men out. they've been down here, can you believe it, for more than two months. steve harrigan is following these developments live for us in copiaho, chile. talk to us about how that rescue date may be change and if i mispro-- mispronounced where you are,

please correct that, too. >> right here, the dates have been changing and a real sense of excitement on the ground. right now, we've just seen some trucks roll up behind me, those trucks hold containers which will house the miners when they get up, when they get out of that mine. right now, the government had initially planned for a four-month drilling period to try to get those 33 miners out from half a mile underneath the ground, then we heard earlier dates of rescue, the end of october, right now, we're hearing from the president himself, october 17th, he says he's got a trip to europe on october 17th, he hopes to get the miners out by then. the next big decision here for the drillers will be whether or not to reinforce that hole with steel to make it more sturdy when they pull those miners out. right now, the closest drill is just about 500 feet away, so within three or four days, they could actually reach the miners, then they'll have a decision to make on whether or not to reinforce the hole to get them out. martha: so you're surrounded by family members of the miners who are down there.

what is their mood like, how do they do this every day? >> reporter: it is a remarkable scene here, about half a mile dirt road right up to the mine. when these miners were buried by hundreds of tons of rocks, 60 days a. there was a real sense of catastrophe, but after they found alive, 17 days later, after being on their own during that time, a real sense of hope, and really, the lives have stopped for the families of the 33 miners, they've moved here to the location, they are intense. the government has done everything possible to make things comfortable here, they've supplied tents, free food, even wi-fi but this is no ordinary waiting. they have one thing on their mind here, when their husbands or sons will get back to the face of the earth. martha: what a story. steve, thank you very much. steve harrigan, reporting from chile. bill: anything on this side of christmas is a great thing, huh? >> brand new fox polling numbers just out that could mean trouble for washington insiders looking to hang on to their jobs, including senate majority leader harry

reid, numbers out of nevada, ohio, missouri, connecticut, and beyond, and there is this: >> i'm not a witch. i'm nothing you've heard. i'm you. none of us are perfect. but none of us can be happy with what we see all around us. martha: all right, that was a snippet of the new ad from delaware senate candidate christine o'donnell. what it could mean for her campaign and how the other side is doing in delaware, after this. the universe is changing captain too bad these cheap props aren't but la quinta is! la quinta inns and suites? yeah, buddy changing? lets take a gander captain they are changing! they have thousands of new rooms! and lots of neato new lobbies! they're even better than before book rooms at lq.com hey, who's captain here? (laughing)

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man: yeah, i'm thinking maybe this was a bad idea. >> we're less than a month away from the midterm elections and brand new poll numbers out this morning giving us a clear picture of how things could be shaping up, that is how we start a new hour of "america's newsroom," i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning, 28 days, if we can hang on. martha: we'll be busy. it will be fun. bill: races where candidates had enjoyed comfortable leads back in the early polling, they are now fighting for their jobs, fighting literally for their political life, martha. martha: the new polls are showing how president obama is helping or hurting, democratic candidates out there, and brit hume, fox news chief political analyst joins me now with a lot to chew over, this morning, good morning, brit, good to see you. hey there, let's start with the nevada race, because this is, we see sharon angel pulling ahead

by 3 percentage points and if you look here, that is the margin of error and this has been a tight race, all along, the face value of that? >> it looks to me like, to be fair about it, the race is very close. the important thing is, i think, from those polls is that harry reid seems unable to get out of the 44, 45, 46 percent range, and he is very well-known in nevada. most people i think have decided what they think about him, and the chances are, therefore, that when the undecideds, of whom there are not many, break, they are likely to break more for the challenger than the incumbent, particularly in this atmosphere and is the state with high unemployment and where the obama agenda which senator reid has been at the forefront of advancing, is very unpopular. martha: it is interesting, there has been a thing bubbling up with sharron angle, a recording caught of her that reflects a little bit of infighting perhaps with the tea party and the other

candidate running on her side noeveof the fence and she says you need to get out of this so i can win and let's look at the quote: i believe you can do real harm not to harry reid but to me and i'm not sure you can win, and i'm not sure if i can win, if you are hurting my chances and that is the part that skiecares and promised that if he dropped out of the race she'd give him access to people like mitch mcconnell if she were to get into the senate. what do you make of that. >> it keeps the focus on her, which is exactly when the reid camp and the democrats want. they can't run on their record because the situation is difficult, particularly in nevada and can't run on a bunch of future promises, because they have exhausted them, and they have to run against their opponent and portray the opponent as somebody who is off the charts. and as long as the campaign and the news about the campaign is focused on the challenger it helps senator reid and how long

the dust-up over the tape recording will last is anybody's guess and my sense would be it's not that bad for her and will not be decisive but it doesn't help. martha: and, before we leave that subject, 56% of the people that they polled, said that they thought harry reid had been in office too long, and, that goes to your point about people having, perhaps, made up that your minds about what they think about him and have known a long time. let's go to connecticut. the voters have known someone a long time, richard blumehthal, the attorney general. who has been on the radar there a long time and it doesn't look like the vietnam flap where he suggested he was there fighting and he wasn't, hurt him much, 52-42, against linda mcmahaon. >> he was ahead by more than that for a long time and linda mcmahaon managed to close the gap to the margins of what you see there and blumehthal benefits from a couple of things, connecticut is really quite a blue state. hard for republicans to win in that state for some number of election cycles now. and in addition to that, he is not, although he is the

incumbent party is not the incumbent and senator dodd was the incumbent and decided not run again and he was in serious political trouble and blumehthal among the voters of connecticut has a good reputation, having been the state attorney general and he's a -- an impressive guy. i think linda mcmahaon is saddled to some extent by the wrestling entertainment background and leads people to wonder about her, though in debate and other public appearances she gives a pretty good account of herself and think there is a chance she could win the race. as the -- 52% is where you wants to be, above 50%, is positive as -- for blumehthal. if you were ahead 49 to 39, 48 to 38, might not be so good. martha: and still be marriage. let's look at the president, and how he is faring in some of these, these are state polls we'll look at. and the first one is what is the impact on your vote over the

obama -- i'm sorry, this is the other one, obama administration, your vote will be doing what, expressing support, 20% say my senate vote in west virginia will be in support for the obama administration. 60% say my senate vote in west virginia will be to express opposition to the obama administration, and that is a pretty big number. >> well, yeah, that is a pretty big number and gives you these why joe manchin, the incumbent governor there and quite popular as governor, people like his record and like him, he's running for the senate now, against a republican challenger, who is not nearly as well-known, and not nearly one would suppose is popular. but, president obama who was not strong in west virginia in 2008, and is certainly not strong there now, is dragging joe manchin down and you see the extent to which that race has been nationalized, which is to say people are voting for -- on

national issues, and see it as a national race not a local race, and, obama is a real -- president obama is a real mill stone around the neck of joe manchin. martha: a quick look before we go at ohio, obviously, you know, one of the pivotal states in any presidential election, ohio voters, at this point in the game, that is the ohio senate race we wanted to look at how president obama is faring there and i believe about 38% said they would vote for president obama and 53%, i think, are you familiar, there it is now, say they would vote for any republican over president obama, in the state of ohio. >> you'll note, martha, those numbers, the one on the race itself, shows rob portman, the republican candidate, ahead by virtually the same margin as the unnamed republican, is ahead of obama, for re-election. so that gives you a sense that these things are matched up. my sense about that is that that

race is one i don't think the democrats think they have a real chance of coming back in. martha: you'll be the man over the next 28 days and we'll be watching it with you, brit, always good to see you, thank you very much, sir. >> thank you, martha. bill: a "fox news alert," now, the admitted times square bomber set to hear his fated, the one who tried to cause mass death an destruction in new york city with an suv packed with crude explosives, prosecutors using dramatic videotape of what the blast could have done. watch this: [explosion]. bill: that is part of the case the government has presented that may have happened in a packed times square if the self-proclaimed muslim soldier succeeded. david lee miller is live outside the courthouse in manhattan. david lee, what is going to happen today? >> reporter: well, it is unlikely we'll see any surprises in the courtroom behind me. as you said, he does face two mandatory life sentences, in total, faisal shahzad, pled

guilty to ten different charges, related to that failed bombing of times square, six of those charges do carry a maximum of life behind bars. the thing to be on the lookout for today, is whether or not he is going to have the opportunity, and does speak to the court. in the past, when he was pleading guilty, he did speak out, he did not express any remorse, and, today, bill, this will be his very last opportunity to speak in a public forum, about this planned attack, before faisal shahzad becomes nothing more than a footnote to terrorist history. bill: you have the fbi explosion, as part of the evidence. what other evidence will be presented there in court? >> one other thing presented by the u.s. justice department, now an exhibit in supports of the memorandum for sentencing, he get life behind bars is a videotape, a 40 minute videotape, ironically, started out as a propaganda tape, but, now, this recording is going to

be used against him. the tape, made by the extremist group, the pakistani taliban, carries the name and the graphic and i'm quoting now, a brave effort by faisal shahzad to attack the u.s. in its own land and in the recording, runs 40 minutes, you can see him fire an automatic weapon, you can see him hold up the koran and she speaks about deciding that we are going to raise an attack inside america. here now, some of his own chilling words: >> i also wanted from my brothers, muslim, abroad, living abroad, that it's not difficult at all to wage an attack on the west, specifically in the u.s. and, completely defeat them. get up and learn from me... >> reporter: in that recording, you can clearly hear in the background, a child crying. this as faisal shahzad essentially boasts how easy it is to launch a terror attack in the the u.s., and, you know,

bill he lived in the u.s. for ten years, had a wife and two children. according to the u.s. government court filings, he threw it all away to pursue a path, quoting court documents now, that celebrated conflict and death, the sentencing hearing, now taking place. bill? bill: thank you. when there are developments and headlines from inside, david lee, we'll put you back on t thank you, in lower manhattan, martha. martha: stunning video. all right, today there are new questions about the massive foreclosure freeze, three major banks are halting their foreclosure proceedings, in nearly two dozen states. because they are trying to figure out if their cases of foreclosing on people's homes were actually mishandled. how could this happen? and, what ills the lasting impact on these families who lost their homes, perhaps unjustly, fox business network's peter barnes, homeowners are fighting back and one top federal investigator is involved now. how so? >> well, martha, news reports

outs of kentucky this morning, a group of homeowners there have sued citigroup, over the bad paperwork, and are charging citi with racketeering. now, this is the latest in a wave of homeowner lawsuits against mortgage service companies, over paperwork shortcuts and in some cases, alleged forged signatures of officials at these companies, of court documents. now, the legal counter-offensive, names the thousands of foreclosed families will be able to stay in their homes, temporarily, or maybe even permanently, in florida, one judge threw out a foreclosure filing and reportedly allowed the homeowner, to keep his home. and now, the first federal law informant official is looking into foreclosures by allied bank, neil barosky, the special inspector general of the federal government's t.a.r.p. bank bailout program has jurisdiction here because allied received $14 billion in t.a.r.p. funding, martha. martha: wow, what a mess. peter barnes, thank you very

much. good to see you, peter. bill: foreclosures. can't we move beyond that? the headline doesn't change, does it. martha: and the banks drove themselves into all of this financial trouble didn't know how to keep track of their books and who should be foreclosed upon. bill: hopefully at one point soon we'll turn the page in the chapter, too, when it comes to our economy, talk about two-and-a-half years, now. he may have been on the radar for well over a year, before 9/11. >> the able danger project was designed to go about mapping their activities and then, deny, degrade, disrupt the ability of al qaeda to conduct global operations against us and our l allies and my job is to figure out what is kind the links. >> when you saw the picture of the hijack on tv... >> oh, my god, that is the same guy. >> what might be a shocking cover-up in the 9/11 report. details on the ring leader in a fox news exclusive you will not want to miss. martha: it is quite a story.

and you will want to see it. all right, grasping at straws after losing her chance at re-election to political newcomer, joe miller, now alaska senator lisa murkowski hanging on as a write-in candidate, now she has a warning to tv and radio stations, hear this. bill: she's not a witch, that is the first line in christine o'donnell's first campaign ad. what the delaware senate candidate really is and what she says she'll do in washington in her own words, you will hear it, next. grime and the muck, month. tow and pull without getting stuck month. sweat every day to make an honest buck...month. and if you're gonna try and do this in anything other than a chevy... well, good luck...month. great deals on the complete family of chevy trucks all backed for a hundred thousand miles. it's truck month. now, during truck month, get 0% apr financing on all trucks and full-size suvs like this 2011 silverado. see your local chevrolet dealer.

martha: fox news has obtained documents on events lead ung to the 9/11 terror attack and a possible cover-up of something known at the pentagon, witnesses in the defense department claim they identified mohammed atta, the lead 9/11 hijacker as a threat to the united states, way before september 11th. our own catherine herridge has the report. >> reporter: lieutenant colonel tony schaeffer participated with top-secret clearance as under a cover operative for the defense intelligence agency and showed me a reproduction of a chart snufd t used. >> the project was dined to map their activities and deny, degrade, disrupt the ability of al qaeda to conduct global operations against us and our ol li -- allies and my job is to find out what is behind the links. >> when you saw the picture of the lead hijacker.

>> i thought, my god this is the same guy and the picture on the chart was not the same picture they ran on tv. >> atta used many names and nationalities and had many public photos in the years leading up to the attacks and this college picture, some describe it as a shy, considerate man. and, mary said she remembered him looking more like this and here's a picture, seared in our memories of the lead hijacker. while serving in afghanistan in 2003, lieutenant colonel schaeffer says he met and was ignored by the executive director of the 9/11 commission. >> it was stunned silence. >> reporter: listen to what a high ranking military officer told me in '05. about mohammed atta being identified at least one year before 9/11. >> i am telling you this, mohammed atta was 100%, no kidding, i would go to my grave swearing that he was on the picture. >> reporter: a year later after public hearings the defense department officially jeereject

the accounts of the able danger project. martha: joining me now, cia covert operations officer, and, does it all add up, does the story make sense, could it have happened. >> i tell you, the -- there are two parts and the first part makes sense, there are references to atta and either in his name or one of his aliases, and, pre-9/11, on that databases or on charts, sure. there were countless references to countless potential suspects, because they had been following al qaeda and the terrorists in general for years prior to 9/11 and can i make the leap there was a significant cover-up at the state -- the defense department? i'm not quite seeing that. martha: but, you know, this report says that four or five people, different people, saw the chart, that he is pointing to, that shows a link between mohammed atta and usama bin laden. and, that when they reported

that, to the 9/11 commission, they were told, basically, they were greeted hostily according to the report that catherine herridge put out there and basically told to shut up and stop talking about it. >> i think that is what they recall, that is what they think, and i spent a long time in the agency, and, within the intel community, and, you periodically come across people who for whatever reason tend to look back on things they were doing and think if the government had just listened to me, we wouldn't have had a bad thing happen. martha: of course. i hear what you are saying. but the question is, if mohammed atta was on our radar, why would the defense department, if this is true, not want to admit it? why wouldn't they say yes, we knew about him and were watching him, and, i mean, how bad could it be, given we knew so many things and we knew usama bin laden, said that he wanted to hit america. >> there is an issue of degrees here and the defense department isn't claiming that they have

absolutely no references or understanding of any of the individuals that were involved in 9/11. we already know that there were references in databases and passport information and others and the big issue is, we had the information and had some information, and, the dots weren't connected but we knew that and the system, the collection system, the analysis system across the board, throughout the u.s. and also with our liaison partners was seriously flawed in taking the information and taking action on it. martha: i have to leave it there, mike, but it seems they have destroyed thousands of these books, they don't want out there, and have gone to great lengths to do that. to recall these books and destroy them and we will keep on top of this, mike, thanks for your in sight. bill: your taxes may go down soon or may go up. and, chances are they will go up, if congress doesn't act fast. i'll tell you exactly when you might be heading over more of the paycheck to uncle sam and how much. and, on what dated...

martha: and new drama unfolding with alaska senator lisa murkowski, she lost the primary and now will run as a write-in candidate and now demands something from the alaska broadcasters. is it fair? you decide. fiber one chewy bar. how'd you do that? do what? you made it taste like chocolate. it has 35% of your daily value of fiber. tasty fiber, that's a good one! ok, umm...read her mind. [ male nouncer ] fiber one chewy bars.

bill: if you are waking up we have brand new fox polling, that paints a picture, and in this case, a dim picture, and the and here's what we find when asked the following question: have obama administration policies helped or hurt your state's economy? this is nevada, west virginia, missouri, nevada the middle figure, 49% say it hurts and west virginia, 55% say the policies of the white house have hurt. in the state of missouri, 48%

say the policies have hurt. across the board, some of these critical states, three of them, right there, not good numbers, for what we are seeing for the white house. so, much of it reflects the economy and speaking of which, how about the tax cuts, huh? we are counting down the days, the first of the year and that brings us to now, bya... because you asked. if the bush tax cuts are not extended when will taxpayers first see the impact, meaning what day or date or week? will withholding rates increase on the first of january 2011, and will we see reduced take-home pay after the date. bill: good question, dagen mcdowell, fox business network, good morning to you, does it happen in the first of the year, when things revert back. >> yes. and yes. you will see more money being withheld. remember, bill, withholding is based on your expected tax liability and the higher the tax rate, if the bush tax cuts expire, those rates are going to go up, across the board, for the

most part, and, more money will be withheld, from your paycheck and that starts at the beginning of the year. this is the job of the employer, and, adding insult to injury, because the democrats punted this, most employers find out in the middle of, say, november what the withholding tables will be for the following year. but, guess what? the democrats don't get back until the middle of november, so employers are hamstrung here and nobody really knows how they will be able to handle this. bill: let me go back to the full screen, this is a graphic from viewers at home, find your income there, check out your current rate, and then move to the far right and see what could happen unless congress acts. >> one of the six tax brackets you will not see a rate increase, that is the 15% bracket and even people making zero to $8500 and this is people who are single, taxable income

there, they will see their tax rate will go up. 5%. bill: dagen you talk to smart folks in fox business every hour of every day and you are smart yourself. >> thank you! bill: admittedly. what is your sense of what happens with the tax cuts? i mean, does congress move on them? does the white house sign them into law? does the president even, if congress passes them and says keep them the way they are, does he veto it? what is your best guess. >> clearly, yesterday, he is digging his heels in in terms of insisting that the rate on higher income americans, not be extended, so, will that end up in the a stalemate? who knows? don't forget, congress let the state tax disappear for one year, nobody thought they would be dumb enough to let it happen and they did it. never assume that the people in d.c. are going to be smart, about tax policy. bill: thanks for coming in, dagen, you are the second

brightest bull bulb in the room next to martha. >> next to you -- and martha! bill: i was waiting on that, fox news.com/"america's newsroom," file the question there, bya, at -- what do we have, hemmer@foxnews.com and it always has been that way, 6 years, and, i'm the third brightest bulb in the room and i dimly lit one at that. martha: it is a very bright room! we have a serious subject to talk about for a moment, a man walked up -- in fresno, california. one of the little girls got away, according to police, who believe that this is a stranger abduction. they are dealing with now an amber alert, the beautiful little girl disappeared and theyed that a report of indecent exposure in the neighborhood and short thereafter the male walked up to the girls and he showed

them a coloring book and wanted them to come with him and this girl is lissing, alicia cardaniaz, is the little girl's name. bill: we are hearing and seeing the ad from the delaware senate candidate, christine o'donnell has a new message for voters in her state. >> i'm not a witch. i am nothing you have heard. i am you. none of us are perfect. but none of us can be happy with what we see all around us. bill: o'donnell confronting reports that she dabbled in witchcraft as a high school student, and will the message work? what do you think? we have two great guests coming up on that. martha: and an interesting ad. all right, look at the scene in bell, california. the fury and the disgust over huge public service salaries not going away, because there is more, a new troubling report about the ex-bell police chief

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get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. martha: we have this to report to you now, the times square bomber who tried to pull off a bombing, he wanted to take down at least 40 people in times square, now sentenced to life, this prison just -- sentence, i should say, just crossing the wires moments ago, brought a path finder to times square, and loaded it up with ammonium nitrate, 250 pounds with the intents to kill and now sentenced to life in prison for the times square plot, faisal shahzad and the sentence, that is the headline at this hour, just released. >> i'm not a witch. i'm nothing you have heard. i'm you. none of us are perfect. but, none of us can be happy

with what we see all around us. politicians who think spending, trading favors, and back room deals are the ways to stay in office. bill: that is the ad of the day. delaware senate hopeful christine o'donnell trying to put to rest the old videotape on a talk show from i think 11 years ago, the first campaign ad on the road to november. what about it? does it work? s. e. krupp, author of "losing our religion", good morning, welcome back to you, kirsten powers, columnist for the "new york post" and fox news contributor, how are you doing. >> hey, there. bill: my little pretties. dying to say that, what do you think... wizard of oz guy, yeah! >> we got it. bill: effective spot, yes or no. >> no, i'm sorry. starting an ad with "i am not a witch" is on a number of levels, it harkens back to the nixonian "i am not a crook...

bill: i'm not here to defend her, entirely, but she's using it as sarcasm, s. e. >> i'm not sure. it seems sincere. she wants you to know she's not a witch and that is funny for another reason, no one thinks that she is. she is -- that is a strawman setup here, where, she is trying to deflect away from the fact that she is a problematic candidate and i say that as a conservative. it has nothing to do with the fact that she dabbled in witchcraft or that she has the views she does on creationism or chas tit, she's a problematic candidate, she has had numerous allegation of campaign fraud an theft of services and a questionable relationship with the truth. that is what bothers me. bill: what she should have said is i'm not the wicked william of the west, i'm the good william of the east! kirsten, what did you think of the spot. >> she should fire whoever did it, actually. bill: really. >> i just think it is a really bad spot and i think, i agree, complete with what she said, if

you have to start out with, "i am not a witch" your campaign has a big problem. you know, and i think... bill: republican ad man fred davis put it together. hang on, the top guy -- telling you, who he is. top consultant, john mccain's presidential campaign, and he did the spot for carly fiorina in california, remember, the sheep video, and that was kind of creepy. >> that was crazy, too. beyond the "i'm not a witch thing" she's trying to be light heart an laughing but it sounds she'll burst into tears or start laughing, it's not clear and she's not commanding and seems almost like a little girl and it's not a good ad and you know, when she speaks she comes across more authoritatively and i don't think it addresses the problems i think as s. e. says, that people really have with her, nobody thinks she is a witch. bill: she said, i'll go to washington and do what you do. and, i'm christine o'donnell and

approve this message, i'm you, that was the closing line and perhaps she could have used another line and i'll balance e my checkbook, pay my bills on time, that is the kind of thing. >> and she has a good platform, if you are a conservative you like her on the issues. but, she's not talking about the issues. in this ad, anyway. she's talking about witchcraft and bill maher and, frankly, you know, it is getting down to the wire, and, her opponent has a considerable lead, the time to get serious is now. bill: and the democrat is the one no one is talking about. i have to run, kirsten, final comment, do you want to share anything, did you watch the wizard of oz recently, or... kidding. >> wants to share with us your fascination with the wizard of oz, bill. bill: absolutely! black and white to color, it was like, wow, what a world! see you later, later. martha: those were the days, right? once a year you got to see it, now you can watch it every five minutes on your ipod, right, in the back seat. all right, thanks, interesting. coming up, let's talk about

alaska, where incumbent senator lisa murkowski trying hard to hold on to her -- onto the seat as a write-in candidate and now is taking aim at tv and radio stations in alaska, warning them not to air new ads from a national tea party group that is backing her opponent, joe miller. miller beat her in a republican primary back in august, and dan springer has been checking this out, he likes to go up to anchorage and do that for us. you have seen the ads. what do they say and are they effective and why is she so against them? >> reporter: oh, baby, martha, the gloves are off, here in the last frontier state and these ads just were announced yesterday, the tea party express came back up to alaska, remember they were here several weeks before the primaries, and, in which they helped defeat lisa murkowski and joe miller pulled the stunning upset? they unveiled the ads yesterday, and, one of the ads says that murkowski tried to influence the vote count, the absentee vote count and tried to get her way

onto the alaska ballot as a libertarian. murkowski is fighting back, this time, which she didn't do during the primary battle, and this time, she is going after tea party, she says these ads are vile and dirty politics and she says that, in fact sent a letter, her campaign sent a letter to the tv stations, as you say, not only threatening liable, but demanding that these stations not run the ads because they would be knowing lie lying on air and the tea party express stands by the ads and are not backing down and last night held a fundraiser, on the air two hours on a radio station in anchorage and were screaming live across the nation on the internet and were getting donation from all over the country and, they got $30,000 and are planning on being here and spending money and two more ads are in production and it will be a lively election in alaska. martha: thank you, dan springer reporting from anchorage. bill: martha, as you said, moments ago, the sentence is in,

this is breaking news, on the would be times square bomber. david lee miller is outside the courthouse, lower manhattan, what happened inside, david lee? >> reporter: no surprise, bill. he had been sentenced, faisal shahzad to life behind bars and told the judge the defeated of the u.s. is im intents, those now his words, most likely, the last words he'll ever utter in any type of a public forum and faced ten counts, here, pled guilty to ten counts, 6 of those ten carried a maximum of life behind bars. two of those counts carried mandatory life sentences, and, that is what he received, just a few short moments ago, here at the courthouse, in lower manhattan. and, quickly, bill, i should say the u.s. justice department en asking for life sentences, admitted to the court, two pieces of evidence, one a propaganda video that he recorded, boast, of how easy it

was to launch an attack in the u.s., and, secondly, a reenactment, if you will that the fbi conducted, this summer, putting together a bomb similar to the dud that faisal shahzad wanted to set off in times square and this bomb, however, did go off, as expected, on the tape and demonstrated to the court the power of the blast and the fact that had he been successful, the attack in times square would most certainly have been lethal. bill: david lee, you said he's have a chance to talk and he did talk, how long and did he say much more than what you relayed. >> reporter: these are the only details i have now, presumably he spoke at length, we know he did, when he pled guilty, but, i don't have that information right now. bill: all right, david lee, thank you, we'll get back to you with more developments on that, breaking news, happening right now, here in new york city. faisal shahzad, sentenced to life in prison. for the attempted bombing in times square on a busy saturday night.

took police in new york city two whole days to track the guy down and fewer than 48 hours, he was in custody and talking. martha: turned out the way it did... because his intentions were nefarious and he'll be in prison the rest of his life, just into the newsroom, to bell, california the salary scandal touched off a firestorm. >> we're sensitive to your calls, we're sensitive to their issues. >> why are you still here? you need to get out! martha: they better be sensitive to the issues, outraged residents of bell, california, are not going to go away, folks, they are revolting to the news. now that city officials are making big bucks and now are learning about even more of them and turns out been is not the only place, folks, where your tax dollars are going into these pockets. we'll be right back. hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices?

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martha: there is new outrage, folks out of the golden state following the bell, california scandal we follow closely in "america's newsroom," public records reveal now, nearly 200 l.a. county employees also got some of the fastest paychecks in the nation. now, there are reports that police chief randy adams, listen to this one... tried to collect millions in disability pension claims and then ran up a three mile charity race at the same time. like that one? byron york is with us, the chief political correspondent at the washington examiner as well as a fox news contributor and you can't make this stuff up, byron,

the police chief, obviously has, you know, no problems, running in a race, three mile race, while he's attempting to collect disability, at least according to the reports. >> look, there is room for tons of outrage on this. the story about the 200 employees, of l.a. county, who make more than $250,000 a year and some of them make a lot more than $250,000 a year. here's a number you need to remember. the median household income in l.a. county, is $55,000. you can look it up on the census web site, that is a huge disparity and there will be a lot more questions about why there are so many, not just the outrageous cases that we hear people trying to get a million bucks, why there are so many highly paid employees there. martha: as you point out when you look at this across the nation, i have seen recent studies done and basically, you know, public employees salaries have been increasing, across the whole country, while private income, you know, that you receive from working for a private company, is decreasing, at the same time and it used to be if you worked in a public

job, you know, you knew you were not going to get paid much and you were okay with that and there was a lot of job security in it and that was the trade off. not any more. >> california is an enormous -- in an enormous financial mess and has a $19 billion deficit, and the reason is, it is enormous public employee cost, there are employees, for example, who retire at age 50, with 90% of their income, and, it is a combination of high salaries, which increased much faster in the last ten years, than salaries in the private sector, plus, extremely generous pensions, which the state has not funded, and is liable for, because, they have made commitments to these people, so, if there is any one factor that is driving california over the edge, it is high public employee costs. martha: and, places like california and new jersey and states across the country are dealing with this. will we see any change? you have a lot of governors railing about this now, and, you know, how likely are we to see it really change, byron. >> there are fights about

governor schwarzenegger wanting to furlough some employees. but, there has not been a substantial roll back. in salaries out there. and, stories like this are going to create more and more popular momentum for some sort of move to just draw back a little bit, it will cause a huge fight with a very powerful public employees union, like the service employees international union out there. martha: and, it goes back to the people, who did the research and people across america can do it in their own towns, find out how much your public officials are being paid and find out if you think it is justified in those salaries, it is a big, big story, byron, thank you so much, good to see you, as always, byron york. >> thank you, martha. martha: i want to share with our viewers, "fox news alert," watch this closely, it is rare we see something like this. this is along the pakistan-afghanistan border. this is nato videotape released after a drone strike took out a location on the hillside, mountain side, we're told inside that facility were knife german

nationals, and it is believed all five were killed. this story broke the other day, and we reported on it yesterday. but is the first time we have been able to match up the story with the video and many times, frankly, the video from that angle is not released, made public, or clearly there is not a camera there to catch it. so, five germans killed, reporting suggests, that all five had ties to the mosque in hamburg, germany. where the hamburg cell, including mohammed atta helped plan and plot the attacks of 9/11. it was in the mosque when they received the note from usama bin laden, that said we're going, the plan is on. go forward. so, that is what we are getting out of pakistan-afghanistan border today, fascinating thing to see. martha: indeed it is. thanks, bill. all right, coming up we are four weeks now and you counting to the midterm elections, key races that could change the balance of power in that place, right there. the capitol hill and now, new figures are coming in, showing that this year could break a record, for whom? we'll tell you.

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bill: about 8 minutes now before the hour, from a troubled child to a war hero who gave birth to a nation, few know the true story behind america's founding father, like my next guest does. he's the author of "washington, a life," a simple title. for a not so simple man. ron chernow is live in studio. pleasure to see you. it is like story time, i really enjoyed that, congratulations on the book. >> thank you. bill: were you someone who was always fascinated with washington or how did this interest develop for you. >> my previous book had been, i wrote a book of alexander

hamilton and i said to people, he was the protagonist of the book and washington was the lear r -- hero and people have an image of george washington as worthy, but bland and dull and boring and that is a shame, he was a magnetic and charismatic figure, we know the reserved and stoical facade but beneath that was a passional, complex, sensitive man, with many moods and fiery opinions and he was a real force of nature. bill: i think the image you see is what people think, of george washington. a wax-like figure with a flowing white wig. >> it is unfortunate, our image of him is gilbert stewart and he looks stiff and confederate flaggy but that was the george washington of his final years, the person i try to recreate is a dashing athletic young man, who was a great hunter, a fierce warrior and somebody who was a magnificent dancer. who was live and dashing and somebody who excited his contemporaries. bill: people would thing of him as unemotional.

>> absolutely wrong. bill: was he. >> no. bill: had feelings toward, what. >> he was actually, he could be temperamental and irritable and made, as a boss and she was not a soft shoe character, he had a tremendous force of penalty, he was sensitive and often sentimental and prone to tears, and just a human figure, not the man -- >> and one thing you write about ises the trouble he had with his step children. that is not something i would think about, generally, with george washington. what was the rub there? >> the father of the country had difficulties, as stepfather of his two children, when he married mar that, she was a widow and there were two children from the previous marriage and she was a doting mother of these children and particularly, the eldest, the boy, who was rather lazy and wayward and george washington was a man with a powerful work ethic and never knew how far he could go with his step children. bill: you mention he was a dancer. i would not thing of that.

an avid hunter, i think the phrase you used was a a tiresome hunter but beneath that, and there were probably many people in that time who probably shared an affinity toward the same thing, hunting or dancing but there was something about washington that helped propel him toward founding the great country. did you ever get to the essence of washington and what he felt about america. >> absolutely. this was a man who had a powerful vision, of america's future. they would be a strong, powerful and prosperous nation and an honorable and just nation and what george washington had as a leader was clarity of vision, tenacity of purpose, and force of character, and in terms of of defeating the british empire and presiding over the constitutional convention and he really forges the office of the president presidency. bill: where did it come from? that was ingrained in him how or

from whom. >> he was frustrated by the british empire and, feels the merchants are sending him shoddy goods, and the british real estate purchases... bill: he's all ticked off then. >> for personal reasons, but, suddenly there is the stamp act and the townsend duties and suddenly you realize his personal grievances have a much larger political dimension and be the he is tremendously ennobled by circumstance. bill: the book is called "washington, a life" and someone asked why write another book about washington and you have found it. >> i hope it will be a fresh portrait. bill: cannot wait to read it. >> glad to be here. bill: thanks for coming in today. four minutes before the hour. martha. martha: fascinating. good news to report, the missing 8-year-old girl, that we told you about, moments ago, who was believed to have been abducted by a man, has apparently been found. in fresno, we have new details on this breaking story, right after this.

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martha: the midterm election could very well change with power in congress, right and these races across the country could be the most expense tpheuf u.s. history as well, according to public citizen, a nonprofit group that tracks corporate spending on these elections, $5 billion, expected to be spent, the money is pouring out there, folks, for these, and that compares to $1 billion in the '08 presidential race, to republicans are spending a lot of cash out there,