>> all right. you're fired. what happens when an ex-employee keeps showing up for work? one employee showing up to work. do you know anybody like that? "fox & friends" starts right now. >> good morning, everyone. welcome back to steve all the way from dallas. fantastic yesterday, president and ground breaking for that beautiful library or center. >> are they done? >> you know what? it's going to take a couple of years. and they actually just did the first shovel full. i thought it was very telling, a eric bolling had that shovel ready line. and dick cheney stole that during the show. >> got a big laugh from it. let's tell you what's coming up on the show today. danika patrick. brian you'll be talking to her. >> yes, she'll hopefully talk back. dolly parton. she'll talk about her career.

>> nia vardalos will be joining us and talking about national adoption and richard simmons is always talking about fat. and he'll tell us about our kids may be too big. what we can do to help them live a good life. >> he's very in touch with his emotions. >> interested to get his take on the new system in arizona where kids are getting fat report cards. that story for you in this hour as well. now your headlines. incumbent congresswoman melissa bean is the latest democrat to concede her race. joe walsh is now the congressman-elect from illinois. this as the house is set to vote on its new leadership today. john boehner expected to become the first house speaker. nancy pelosi will likely become house minority leader despite a challenge from representative heath shuler and current house majority leader steny hoyer will keep the number two spot while there will be a new number three position entitled assistant

leader. for 18 minutes, u.s. national security may have been put in grave danger. a congressional report says china's state-controlled telecom company hijacked 15% of the world's internet traffic including data from the u.s. military and other u.s. allies. the report says china accessed the information back on april 8th of this year. how did this happen? next hour, the commissioner behind the shocking report will join us live to explain. it would have been her 11th birthday and instead of a party, hundreds attended a vigil for zahra baker in north carolina last night. her remains identified this week. people who never knew her showed up to demand justice. >> why are they not prosecuting anybody? >> this girl is sitting -- anybody would have taken her and raised her if they didn't want to. >> horrible story. police say the girl's stepmom who is behind bars now led them to zahra's remains but no one has been officially charged in the case just yet. the ethics panel expected to

hand down sanctions against congressman charlie rangel tomorrow after finding him guilty on 11 of 13 ethics charges. rangel accusing the committee of trying to finish his hearing before the holidays. >> shattered in order to complete the work this year and i just don't think that anyone can think that that is fair. >> among the guilty charges, improperly raising money for a community center in his name. failing to disclose financial assets and failing to disclose a private villa. scan or patdown. how about neither? the new screening procedures at airports have some passengers, pilots and civil rights activists outraged. even threatening protests at the airports. senate homeland security committee in the middle of hearings about this right now. this story is not going away, is it? >> no, it's not and the tsa

chief is back before congress this morning. john pistole's appearance was scheduled before the big controversy but there's no doubt he'll get grilled on both of those today. yesterday, he told the senate committee that he believes patdowns would have caught the underwear bomber and he also said the ever changing terror threat demands ever evolving airport security and he's getting some support for his view from the chair of the senate of homeland security committee joe lieberman telling the tsa chief do what needs to be done to keep flying safe. >> i think, perhaps, the reaction to the patdown procedures got ahead of tsa's or the department's description of what you were doing and why you were doing it. but if god forbid, that bomb on umar farouk abdulmutallab's body had gone off on the plane over detroit, congress and i dare say the public would have been

demanding not just the body imaging equipment but patdown. >> of course, not everybody agrees with lieberman about the new screening procedures. critics call it invasive. several web sites now are calling for a national opt out day on november 24th saying the government shouldn't have the ability to virtually strip search anyone it wants without cause. back to you guys. >> all right, julie. thanks a lot. and the other question comes to mind, too, two 9/11 families go on the record and say, you know what? if you have a better idea how to keep us safe, bring it forward. don't just be critical of the screeners because those are the same people more than likely if a hole was blown in the side of the plane, thousands of feet in the air would be saying why weren't you doing more? >> shoe, i'll tell you what, my wife has had knee replacement for the last four or five years, every time we go through the airport, it is so degrading, i can completely understand everybody who is up in arms about it. >> what's the alternative?

if you have a solution that's better than this to keep us safe, e-mail us, friends at foxnews.com. as of right now, it's one thing to complain. if you don't have a solution. help us out and give us some solutions. >> sure. good idea. lisa murkowski, looks like she was done in the u.s. senate. well, it looks now -- because joe miller was the tea party candidate. he was going to be, you know, he took the republican nomination. well, now, she apparently is going to beat him. currently the lead is 10,400 votes. she has flown back to alaska and address her supporters to tell them thank you for all the help in the amazing write-in candidacy. first time since 1954 a u.s. senator has been elected as a write-in. >> did everyone bow out of the primary if you're a republican? it's pretty much a red state. you got to wonder how many democrats went for lisa murkowski and maybe because for votes like this. she's come forward and said by the way, on that earmark

legislation, two year ban, other republicans are talking about. here's what she would have done. the notion that congress would have advocated its constitutional duty and turned federal spending to government bureaucrats is wrong and goes against the constitution's mandate that says the power of the purse lies with the legislative branch of government. furthermore, earmark moratorium will not reduce the level of spending by $0.01 so she would have been one of many two republicans not to get aboard this two-year moratorium on earmarks. >> within the last 24 hours, the other republicans who were against it have come aboard. >> it seems on the fence right now. >> that's interesting to see. lisa murkowski will apparently be the new republican senator from the state of alaska. >> the interesting thing is we're talking about, that's just the senate, what about the house? what's the house going to do? what is john boehner going to do? say we're against them, too, if he doesn't, why not? >> i can't see him being against it. he's never personally taken an

earmark in his entire legislative career. now he's speaker. when you saw him say by don't want to be accused of ignore the will of the american people in the last two years. >> biggest disappointment is we'll have to get rid of that pig animation here. the pork one. >> maybe we can air it in the after the show, show. >> that's one of the favorite ones when we talk about pork. we'd have to get rid of it. let's talk about the investigation that's been going on against the governor of new jersey, chris christie. apparently, the department of justice launched the investigation when he was trying to become governor a few years ago and he looked at expenses and how much he spent when he went on out of town trips and they came up with this, he spent $2,000 more than the budget allowed on 23 trips between 2007 and 2009. this is back when he was attorney general of that state. now, there's new information about who may have been behind that report at the department of justice. >> the woman's name is maura

lee. she started in civil rights there at the department of justice and then moved to the department of the inspector general. and one of her former supervisors when realized this is the particular woman behind this chris christie slam says this, she was one of the most partisan career people i ever met. i can't imagine anyone more inappropriate to be woshging on this kind of report in the ig office. you know what's interesting about this, thank you, hans, he's the guy who soundbited that. there was another report about whether or not department of justice employees spent too much and apparently, they did and that particular report was never made public. however, this one that discredited chris christie, oh, yeah, all across the news world but not that one. >> it was right before the elections so you decide whether or not you think that was politically motivated or not. all right, so have you ever been in a situation where you work at your company and somebody is fired for whatever reason. well, there's a guy at u.p.s.

who apparently got into a brawl so he was fired. he was a manager and so they got rid of him. now he keeps showing up at work. so now u.p.s. has had to take the steps of suing him to make sure that he does not appear back on the job because they say it's all about safety for their other employees. >> the guy's name is wesley anderson and when he was 28, he was fired for having a temper tantrum. he went to anger management and they let him back temporarily. he continued to have temper tantrums so they tossed him. he kept showing up a few times in august. a few more times in october and then again to manhattan supreme court and say can we please stop this guy? he could go postal at work. it sounds similar to a 1991 plot in a certain sitcom. >> really? which one would that be? >> can we roll it? i remember it like it was yesterday. >> what are you doing here? >> i work here. >> i thought you quit. >> quit. who quit? >> what are you doing here?

>> what? >> am i crazy? or didn't you quit? >> when? >> friday. >> what, that? are you kidding? i didn't quit! you took that seriously. >> here's the deal. this guy shows up and he's obviously not getting a paycheck, right? >> no. he's showing up at 4:00 in the morning, that's not -- that's a little scary. >> but don't most businesses in this day and age, i guess not all of them have security passes so you need that, you know, specific kind of i.d. to get into the building. i don't know if he's showing up on the outside of the building or he actually is getting access to the building. >> that's why they're filing the lawsuit to make sure he doesn't come in. doesn't it kind of remind people of somebody else recently fired, keeping showing up for work. >> there she goes! she is now going to be minority leader. she's going to be -- >> yeah. she wants to keep that job. >> and she's got the votes. >> she do.

>> all right. i blame seinfeld. he started it. meanwhile, at 6:11, let me tell you what's straight ahead. president obama wants to end combat in afghanistan and wants to do it by 2014. afghanistan's president says that's not soon enough. what does this mean for the men and women risking their lives to protect him and his country? >> high school football player left injured on the field while the ambulance sat in the parking lot. wait until you hear why the school's principal would not led the ambulance on to the field. yellowbook has always been good for business.

but these days you need more than the book. you need website develoent, 1-on-1 marketing advice, search-engine marketing, and direct mail. yellowbook's got all of that. yellowbook360's got a whole spectrum of tools. tools that are going to spark some real connections. visit yellowbook360.com and go beyond yellow. so you think your kids are getting enough vegetables? yeah, maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit.

v8. what's your number? >> the u.s. is plotting its way out of afghanistan according to a new report that the u.s. and nato officials have mapped out a plan that ends the combat mission in afghanistan by 2014. that plan reiterates president obama's desire to begin withdrawing troops as early as next july. so is this a feasible exit strategy since our troops are just not -- are just getting there now? with us right now is former white house advisor to iraq and

more, president of o'keefe global advisors, jeremiah o'keefe. your thoughts on karzai's puzzling comments? >> well, it plays a couple of different ways. i have the feeling given my discussions with folks in the country that he's playing to both sides of the aisle. he's concerned about his constituents, but at the same time, i get the sense that he's positioning himself strategically for more of a role in how u.s. government moneys and other moneys are being spent in country. >> and here are the comments. the raids are a problem always. he's talking about our night raids that we don't even shoot people. we go in and we take out -- we take out stuff that we deem to be in enemy combatant's hands. the raids are a problem always. they have to go away, the afghan people don't like these raids.

this is a continuing disagreement between us. this after meeting with lindsay graham and not even bringing up the problem with nighttime raids. here we are trying to bolster and make his country safe and he seems to be pushing back. why? >> again, that is absolutely a fallacy. the fact of the matter is afghan army and police are on point and when we go into the villages, they're on point and when we go into the homes, they actually call out the taliban that we're chasing via bullhorn. in 80% of the cases, there's no fire of any kind occurring and the folks are being captured. that's where i'm afraid the president was being a bit disingenuous about exactly what's going on and again, that goes back to i believe his real

issue is concern. >> is that a way of walking back the feeling that we're leaving this country in the summer thus giving credit amongst the people that we have more dedication to this fight? >> that date of 2014 is one that karzai announced on his inauguration in 2009 and that's the end of 2014. in my estimation, that's doable but again, we're going to be present for a long time. we may have our troops out of the field and not performing combat on a daily basis, but we're going to have special forces, agency, we'll have strike teams in there and we're going to be there for many years to come. >> but they don't seem to get that message and they seem to be making -- trying to get this quick deal with the taliban because they feel we're leaving tomorrow. the taliban had communiques being intercepted showing how they're going to wait on the americans. is this our way of addressing that? >> well, now, we're correcting a mistake that was made.

for the president obama to have stepped out and say july 2011 is when we're going to withdraw, we're paying for that mistake now. as you said, the taliban took that to say why don't we wait until the americans and everybody else leave? so we're fixing that now. and the fact of the matter is, it's 2014 is the new date that we will begin taking a new look at exactly what needs to be done. >> yeah, just be -- it's not really going to be official until the president actually says it. and then i think a lot of people over there will begin to believe it. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> all right. 19 minutes after the hour. here's what's coming up straight ahead. mystery made for the movies. whoever gunned down a publicist to the stars in beverly hills. they've been together nearly a decade now. prince william and kate going to the chapel. how will their marriage shape the house of windsor and this symbolic royal family?

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>> hey, some quick headlines now. today, the fdic launching about 350 criminal investigations into former bankers all worked at firms that failed during the financial crisis. executives facing charges of fraud and recklessness. and former president george bush, mrs. bush and a much thinner v.p. dick cheney on hand to break ground for the bush presidential center in dallas set to open in 2013. >> thank you. >> i guess that's us. we're the couch people. >> all right. thank you, brian. the royal wedding frenzy well under way after eight years together. almost nine. prince william and kate

middleton finally engaged. >> yep. how will william and kate's wedding reshape the royal family? we are joined by royal family expert and best selling author of the upcoming book comes out in january called "william and kate, the love story." christopher anderson, good morning to you. >> good timing. >> i'll tell you, we were announcing the book yesterday. we were brilliant! >> yes. >> first time we probably ever heard her talk. >> exactly and i think the british people are as shocked as the rest of us. she is a charming, delightful, you know, young lady and as the brit wooz say, it's about bloody time. they had been together nine years and, you know, she has not made one mistake. that's the amazing thing. she had all the opportunities to create the scandals that are the royals are so famous for, to do something embarrassing in public. even to scowl at the papparazzi. she's been pursued relentlessly by the papparazzi in england, she's always handled it with a kind of grace. >> for the lowly people like us sitting on the couch, look at the flashes going off. that's been her life and will continue to be her life. i'm wondering about the pressure

that this young woman is going to feel to live up to that end. >> she had a lot of pressure already. they're two very different women. diana and i think she was a great person. she loved charles. charles didn't love her. she's walking down the aisle with charles and she saw camilla. these are soul mates. william is including his mother's memory by giving her that ring. >> right after their mother died, she went to kensington palace and the butler and took them through and they were allowed to pick a memento of their mother and william chose her cartier tank watch because she wore that all the time and it was harry who really picked the engagement ring so william had to ask harry for the ring. do you mind? i've got the girl, you know. >> hear from prince william and kate about living up to william's mother.

>> i would love to have met her. and she is an inspirational woman to look up to. and obviously, to this day and, you know, going forward and things, you know, a wonderful family, and they've achieved a lot. >> like kate said, it's about carving her own future and no one is going to -- no one is trying to fill my mother's shoes. >> how much media training did they put her through before this interview, if any? >> none that i know of and they're not really -- the royal family is famous for that. they gave her a briefing, i think. she handled the media better than any of them do. she's very gracious and pretty well spoken. a lot of people were surprised. real shot in the arm not only for the monarchy but for the british people because they're hurting economically. they need a morale boost and this will give it to them. >> they need a good story. the tabs called her a waity katy

because she's been waiting eight or nine years. do they like her? >> not enough in my opinion. >> why? >> they felt she wasn't working. >> they want somebody from the upper crust? >> they always do, you know. right now the best thing for the royal family and the queen knows this is to have somebody like a commoner. >> somebody normal in the family. >> she's a commoner. her parents are working class. >> guess what? she's a pretty commoner and they'll never like anybody that's pretty. >> there's diana. >> i know. they'll always criticize a woman that's pretty. >> whether they're the press or the royal family or both. >> both. >> we'll be watching for your book coming out in january. the perfect wedding gift for the happy couple. >> absolutely. >> order it on amazon. >> thank you, christopher. >> an ambulance held back from a high school football player hurt on the field. what's the excuse? they didn't want to ruin the grass. who would let that happen? >> oh, man! then big banks could lose billions of dollars because of botched foreclosures. should the american people be

forced to pay for that? stuart varney standing in the shadows. he's up next. >> and happy birthday to danny devito. he's 66 today. ♪ every time it's so right ♪ well, it feels so good [ female announcer ] when you have a softer bath tissue, you can joy going more... while still using less. introducing w charmin ultra soft. new charmin ultra soft has an ultra-cushiony design that's soft and more absorbent. so you can use four times less versus the leading value brand. [ both ] ♪ soft to the touch... [ female announcer ] using less never felt so good. new charmin ultra soft.

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my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomi have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae a amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the wor's energy demands.

>> got a fox news alert for you on this wednesday morning. moments ago, germany announced it is raising its security level after increased terror threats. the interior minister is warning there is concrete evidence and indications that an attack is being planned in europe for the united states right now. mentioned an unspecified tip and pointed to those mail bombs intercepted from yemen to the united states targets. he also mentioned militants in greece who attempted to send mail bombs to european targets including the german chancellor's office. officials say they wanted to announce it because there will be a visible police presence going forward. >> the producer for the reality show "survivor" accused of killing his wife in mexico under arrest. and heading to court today. federal authorities busted him at his home in southern california. seven months ago, his wife's body was found in the sewer at a

resort in mexico. beresford-redman is expected to be extradited to mexico to stand trial now. >> it sounds like the kind of hollywood blockbuster that ronnie sue would have promoted, the well known hollywood publicist shot to death last night. they found her in a mercedes-benz off sunset boulevard. investigators have no suspects or motive as of yet. they are looking through computers seized from her office. >> high school principal in san jose under fire for refusing to let an ambulance drive on to the football field to help an injured player. her reason? she said she didn't want to mess up the grass on the school's brand new football field. the player's mother is demanding an apology from del mar high school after her son suffered a concussion. he had to wait for emergency workers to hall a gurney 75 yards down field. it's not known if the school district will take any action against the principal. >> that's crazy. all right. meanwhile, let's take a look right now, we have live

pictures, live look at several planes that were flipped over like toys because of intense thunderstorms overnight in new jersey. number of morning squalls throughout the northeast. these pictures are from the trenton mercer airport. the storms are also blamed for ripping the roof off a hampton inn outside of philadelphia so it's a rough start on this wednesday morning. meanti meantime, let's go to mr. kilmeade who has a guy who is suddenly very, very rich. >> or is he? you know that big $78 million deal that quarterback donovan mcnabb signed are the redskins that left many scratching their head. it makes more sense. it turns out washington if they decide to cut him after the season, he'll barely owe them $3.5 million. lot of money to us but not to him. mcnabb, by the way, having a horrible season. he threw three interceptions against his ex-team on munonday night and is the 28th ranked quarterback in the league. did you hear what eagles wide

receiver deshawn jackson had to say about the team's big win following a fight before the game? he said this "the pregame altercation got us going. it had us ready. we came back into the locker room pumped up. we were like pitbulls ready to get out of its cage." jackson's quarterback is michael vick. probably wasn't crazy about the particular analogy. he was sent to federal prison on dog fighting charges and that was two years ago. he was the player of the week offensive side. he threw for over 300 yards. coming up on "kilmeade & friends" in just three hours, isaac geffett with el-al airlines and talking about the tsa. bill hemmer and martha maccallum on "kilmeade & friends." >> all right. let's talk about this. you know when you go out and you get a mortgage, right, for your house, you know you go to the bank or mortgage company, but are they the ones who really own

the paper? they actually own your mortgage. there's a guy who is an auditor and he spent about a year trying to figure out who exactly really owns his house? >> this is what he came up with, folks. if you can see this up close, i don't know, scott, can you -- >> there we go. >> that is the flow chart for his mortgage. >> where's he? >> you have to be a rhodes scholar and an astro physicist to figure that thing out. my goodness, that's the paper trail of where his mortgage has gone over, i don't know how many years or a matter of time. that's crazy. >> it is crazy. guy is named dan edstrom. he spent a year trying to figure it out. when you look at it, you can't figure out where he is. you see the one company, passes to another, to another. it's mind boggling. >> that's why stuart varney has jobs. to try to unwrangle -- let's talk a little bit about something, how u.s. banks may lose billions and billions of dollars. there could be another bailout

for banks. >> yesterday, there were congressional hearings. the bankers got beaten up all day long. the protesters in the audience, the bankers were getting beaten up by the politicians. everybody is down on the bankers because of this foreclosure mess. and the paperwork snafu. the news this morning, there may be a deal. may be a settlement between state attorneys general and the banks to offer compensation to anybody who has been wrongly foreclosed on and gotten out of the house. ok? the money would come probably from the banks, not the taxpayer. this would end this basic freeze in foreclosure activity. open up the market all over again. and allow the banks to keep going forward with foreclosures where they are legitimate so the news this morning is there is a deal in the works. yesterday's news was beat up on the bankers. >> why would the banks do this deal? >> because it's in their interest. they don't want to sit around with foreclosures totally

stalled. they own the property or they own the mortgage. they can't sell the property because we don't know who owns the thing. they can't sell it. and therefore, they've got this loss on the books. the longer that goes on for, the bigger the loss is to the banks and the longer people stay in homes which they cannot afford. so you get a deal, you speed the process back up again. and the housing market maybe gets back on track and avoids a crash. >> what i don't understand is what percentage of those that are being foreclosed on are wrongly foreclosed on. >> so far, they haven't found anybody. what they found is all this paperwork mess. the robo science. you've heard all about that. they found fault with the banks for their paperwork and that chart you just showed, who knows who owns what? it's a mess. so far, nobody has -- that i know of or that the investigators have found has been taken out of a home because -- wrongly. everybody who has been foreclosed on has failed to pay their mortgage bills. >> ok, there could be a bailout

of sorts. yesterday, you said it was beat up on the banks. here's an exciting excerpt of the hearings. >> chase strongly prefers to work with borrowers to works with a solution to permits them to keep their homes. >> he's lying! last april -- >> no. he has homeowners here -- let the home owners speak to do that. home owners -- >> ok. buddy, you'll have to leave. who was that? >> me? ok. that was a protester who is saying look, wait a minute, i tried to fix my foreclosure process. i tried to make good. i tried to get a settlement. >> i followed the rules. >> i tried to do something. the bank wouldn't listen. i got foreclosed on anyway. i was trying. so he said to the banker who was testifying, you're a liar! you're a liar! you're not helping people. >> but the bank by all -- i

mean, by all reports in the last couple of years, the banks were not necessarily negotiating with home owners in these situations, were they? so now it looks like the banks have made a turn around. >> it's a case-by-case situation. i agree with you. there is a turn around here because of the enormous pressure being put on by the banks. you may have a deal. finally you may have a deal. >> what's coming up at 9:20 eastern time? >> tony hawk, the gentleman who rides the skateboard and marion berry, of course, is calling for a five year limit on any welfare payments which i think is something of a turn around to the former mayor of washington, d.c., marion berry. >> why did he lose his job? >> let's not get into that. we'll talk to him about the welfare five-year limit which is, i think, a real switch for this gentleman. >> great. we'll be watching 9:20 eastern time on the fox business network. thank you, stu. >> medical marijuana just made legal by voters in arizona. will that make it harder to fight the war on drugs? on a border that's already so dangerous? a fair and balanced debate coming up.

>> new kind of report card going home to parents grading kids on their weight. is that a good idea? what parent that got that report card will join us live.

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>> couple of quick headlines for you. the caffeine will now be coming out of loco. they made the change on a ban on caffeine alcohol mixtures. a driver ditches a cop as he approaches his car and drives down the road the wrong way. the chase ends when a cop slams into the suspect's car and the driver had a suspended license. oops! that's dangerous. >> no kidding.

speaking of dangerous. marijuana. in many cases is dangerous. arizona is the latest state to legalize medical marijuana for people suffering from chronic or debilitating diseases but will the law make it harder to fight the war on drugs across the border? for a fair and balanced debate, we are joined by steve fox, the director of government relations for marijuana policy project and paul charlton of keep arizona drug free and a former u.s. attorney as well. good morning to both of you. >> good morning, steve. >> good morning. >> now, you would both agree that there are a lot of people out there who are really suffering from cancer or aids and they say that marijuana does help them. you would agree on that, right? >> i would agree there are people that genuinely believe that marijuana helps them in some way. >> it's the people who are able to get around the rules and they're really not that sick or, you know, they convince somebody else to give them some stuff and that's what the argument is, paul, going forward. it's how do you keep it out of

the hands who it does not belong to, right? >> well, the story is in arizona, this isn't about medicine. it's not about helping the terminally or the seriously ill. these laws are designed to allow access to marijuana for anyone. in california, it's easy to obtain marijuana as it is to use your a.t.m. machine and in colorado, we know that 94% of the people who are using marijuana under their law are neither seriously nor terminally ill. these laws are frauds which lead people to believe that marijuana is medicine. that marijuana is actually good for you. that it provides you the same benefit as using toothpaste or taking aspirin and that lie leads to an increase in abuse and it robs us of the ability to have an honest debate about the risks of using marijuana. >> ok. steve, what do you say? >> well, that's a dramatic overstatement of the situation. of course, the california law was the first law to be enacted

and it was a short law, two pages without a lot of detail. but the law we just enacted in arizona is a 24-page law with many regulations built in, many safeguards, specific conditions that people must have and it's more analogous to new mexico that only has 2,000 patients and does have chronic pain as one of the conditions and they're only 33% of patients have chronic pain. >> one of the problems when we've talked about this on this program is there are some people who are able to convince some of the -- some of the medical dispenseries, medical marijuana out there in california that they're really in bad shape when, in fact, we both know they're not. and that's the peril. >> well, i mean, that's certainly your opinion but we're in this situation because -- >> guy has a hangnail and goes in and says doctor or, you know, guy behind the counter, i don't feel good, in many cases, he's able to get the medical marijuana. >> right. well, that may be the case in california but that may be a

slight exaggeration. but the truth is we're here because the federal government has blocked research on medical marijuana for decades and because of that medical marijuana has come into play. and we'd be happy to have the federal government stop blocking research and have it go through the regular process. >> all right. >> they're not blocking research. the d.e.a. is allowing research, they're specifically allowing access to marijuana in california and if we want to have a debate about the risks of marijuana, it has to be an honest debate. you can't tell people that marijuana is medicine. the marijuana policy project mr. fox works for could have taken the millions of dollars that they've spent in these states, gone to the f.d.a. and convinced the f.d.a. with the science that they say they have that marijuana is truly medicine. listen, even the noble drugs like penicillin or the polio vaccine didn't come to us because we voted to receive those drugs. they came to us after the science was proven that these are effective and useful drugs. >> ok.

>> marijuana is not medicine until we hear it from the f.d.a. >> all right. and we have not heard that yet. you're absolutely right. paul charlton from phoenix and steve fox from d.c., thanks very much for joining the debate. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> all right, what do you think? e-mail us right now, friends at foxnews.com. good idea? bad idea? meanwhile, sarah palin says the voters are paying the price for what the mainstream media has failed to do. and two big democratic strategists agree. they'll join us shortly. plus weighing, measuring and grading elementary students on how fast they are. a parent that got that report card tells us the horrible things that followed. that's coming up next live on "fox & friends." [ male announcer ] you can dream of protecting networks

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>> some parents at a school in buckeye, arizona is furious after their children came home with report cards not about their grades but about their weight. the elementary school is taking kids b.m.i. during gym class and sending letters to parents of kids who fall in the overweight category. this parent is one who received the letter. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> this happened in september. what did you think when you saw this letter? >> i was outraged. i didn't think it was the school's place to do. >> look at your beautiful daughter. we're showing a picture of her right now. she's 13 years old. when she got this letter, what did she say to you? >> she got in the vehicle and she told me that mom, today is probably one of the worst days of my life. she told me that the p.e. teacher had passed out these

letters telling some innchildre they're obese ask some children they were underweight and the students had access to them, these letters weren't sealed. they weren't signed to the parents. they are just handed to the children, folded over. and so they all began reading each other's and making fun of each other for the different issues that they felt that they might have. >> i can't think of a worse thing to give to a 13-year-old girl who is already -- i mean, what a crucial age to be talking about self-esteem and weight issues in general. and i just want to share with you, jackie, that i was a chubby teen, too. and first of all, i don't think your daughter looks chubby but i was chubby. i would have gotten one of these letters, too. i can't imagine what that's going to the self-esteem of your child. >> it has -- beatrice has stopped eating lunch at school. she just kind of takes snacks to hold her over. she eats when she gets home. we had a long heat period here in arizona and beatrice wore

sweatshirts even when it was 100 degrees outside to cover herself up because it made her self-conscious of her body. in a negative light. >> let's take a listen to what the superintendent had to say about these letters. >> any letters going home any time we're talking about children, it's emotional no matter what we talk about. it's always hindsight and second guess and we can't change that. but i will say is we're always concerned about the wellness of our children. >> he's concerned about the wellness of children. do you agree with that? what have you said to him? >> i actually have not talked to the superintendent. i have talked to the principal at the school who was apologetic in the manner that these letters were passed out. he was very receptive to us as parents. but i have not spoken to the superintendent. i do feel that the school should have dealt with it differently and the district should have dealt with it differently. i think if they wanted to show concern to the children, i don't think it's the school's place to do diagnostics. i think that's for a physician to do. >> right. you say your physician never said anything to you about your

daughter's weight. >> correct. we were just there a few days earlier and we are active duty military so we receive medical care on a military installation and the physician there weighed her and measured her and had no concerns about her. >> ok. >> her well being. >> why did the school tell you they did this? why? >> they said it was to teach the children about nutrition and the effects of, you know, the effects of being obese or being underweight on their health. >> well, we appreciate you so much sharing your story with us, jackie storms and i'm so sorry your daughter had to receive that letter. thank you for being our guest. >> thank you. >> what do you think about that? e-mail us friends at foxnews.com. coming up on the show, the debate over how much airport screening is too much on capitol hill today. but we're debating it here first. if you don't want patdowns or x-rays, then what should be done?

your e-mails top of the hour. true cost of a royal wedding? prince william can't protect the royal fortune, apparently, with a simple prenup. what happens when you marry a family? i know we're all in this situation, right? worth nearly half a billion dollars? we'll take a look and let you know. we have an all-star line-up ahead. we're talking to danika patrick, nia vardalos and richard simmons and trust me, that's always an exciting segment. e life you wan. fortunately there's enbrel, the #1 most doctor-prescribed biologic medicine for ra. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, fatigue, and stop joint damage. because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal, events including infections, tuberculosis,@ lymphoma, and other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis. ask your doctor if you live or have lived in an area

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♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] some people just know how to build things well. give you and your loved ones an expertly engineered mercedes-benz... ho ho ho! ...at the winter event going on now. but hurry -- the offer ends soon. >> good morning, everyone. we made it through to the halfway point in the week. it's wednesday, november 17, 2010. guilty as charged. charlie rangel guilty on 11 of the 13 ethics charges but will he actually be punished or just go back to business as usual? >> all right. it was meant to keep you safe in the skies. are those revealing body scanners too intrusive? the tsa gets taken to the hill today to defend themselves. can they stop a security boycott before it's too late? holidays are coming.

here they come indeed! and so does love. it's in the air across the pond. what happens when you marry into a family worth close to half a billion dollars? you can't protect the royal fortune with a simple prenup over there. that and so much more this hour of "fox & friends" starting right now. >> howdy, folks. welcome aboard to hour two of "fox & friends" for this mid-week program. we got a whole bunch of stars in the green room today. first up, the extremely fast driver danica patrick will sit down with brian. you have a busy plate in front of you to talk about. >> dolly parton will be here. richard simmons who is in great shape. he lost 23 pounds. he's here on another mission. he'll be joining us and -- >> nia vardalos, of course, you know her from "my big fat greek wedding" here to talk about the important topic of adoption. she's done it hearses and today

is adoption day. >> in the meantime, we have to get to the news because we have a fox news alert. moments ago, germany announced it's raising its security level after increased terror threats. the interior minister pointed to an unspecified tip about a suspected attack at the end of the month. he says police will now beef up security especially at the airports. the minister also pointed to those mail bombs intercepted from yemen to u.s. targets as cause for even more serious concern. >> the vote count in the alaska senate race is almost complete now and it looks like lisa murkowski is poised for victory. the write-in candidate now leading g.o.p. nominee joe miller by more than 2,000 uncontested votes. only a few hundred overseas ballots remain to be counted. senator murkowski launched her write-in campaign after losing to miller in the republican primary. incumbent congressman lisa bean is the one to concede her race. this as the house is set to vote on its new leadership today. john boehner is expected to

become the new house speaker and nancy pelosi will likely become house minority leader despite a challenge from representative heath shuler and current house majority leader steny hoyer will likely keep the number two spotted while clyburn will take the number three position. that's called assistant leader. earth for sale. pictures of the earth from satellite altitude. this one is an island in the baltics off sweden and this one, that's beautiful, this one is yukon river delta. part of the third release of pictures taken from the land satellites for the u.s. geological survey and nasa. the north coast of iceland is one of 40 images available now. the satellites take new pictures every 16 minutes. >> i thought i heard a click. >> scan or patdown? some passengers and even pilots say how about neither? the new screening procedures at airports are being debated on capitol hill today. and for the very latest, let's go back to washington, d.c. and julie kirtz.

all right. it's a heated topic. >> that's right. the head of the transportation security administration faces more questions about this from lawmakers today about the use of the full body patdowns and those advanced body scans at airports. john pistole told a senate committee on tuesday he understands the concerns but the tsa is trying to keep potentially explosive liquids, gels and powders that could be hidden on a terrorist's body off of airplanes and that's the bottom line. >> want to be sensitive to people's concerns about privacy, about their personal being and things. while ensuring that everybody on every flight has been properly screened. >> but a virginia man is organizing a national opt out day for next wednesday, the big travel day before thanksgiving. he's urging air travelers to opt out of the detailed full body scans in favor of patdowns. >> i don't think the government has the right to look under the

clothes of anyone that it wants without reasonable cause. >> and going beyond privacy, several consumer groups are now pushing tsa for more information on the advanced image scanners. they want to know if the machines are hazardous to our health. back to you guys. >> that's something a lot of people worry about is that radiation. >> it's been proven that the radiation, you might get more radiation in the plane flight than you would in the body scanners. here's what some of the e-mails are saying. solution is clear, profile in lieu of pc invasive body searches. look for the person, not the device. >> that's somebody in favor of profiling. here's from anna marie in jacksonville. i got home from morocco, everybody got patted down. they have a curtain for privacy. that's what you can request in the united states, too. if you don't want to go through the full body scanner. you can request to have this enhanced patdown in a private area with somebody of the same

gender. >> meanwhile, sarah, in leesburg, georgia says about how the use of explosive detecting dogs to sniff passengers? i believe they are sometimes used with luggage and would be healthier and less invasive to use on passengers. why wouldn't this work? great question, sarah. >> right. a dog on every -- at every terminal, i don't know if that's possible in every, you know, in every airport. also, do you want a dog sniffing you or rather walk through a machine? >> i don't know. we talked about this yesterday on your radio show and my concern was do you trust a machine or a dog more? >> well, the way it's working right now, i mean, and i mentioned this an hour ago, my wife has a titanium knee. she had total knee replacement and for the last four or five years when we go through, she gets the complete patdown and, you know, the tsa woman will go, ok, i'm going to have to -- i'm going to have to touch your breasts. and she goes -- i don't think so. i mean, do you want somebody like that who is -- you got the blue gloves on giving you the full patdown.

>> it's so degrading. >> it's totally degrading but in this era that we live in in post-9/11. what's the alternative? >> i don't think they're supposed to be grabbing breasts. >> they do. they absolutely do. and down below, too. >> that's the patdown. other thing is as you go through the body scanner now, i understand some soldiers have the same situation where they're dealing with prosthesis but a lot of them say you have a choice. do you want the tsa or anybody else to try to keep air flights safe? >> absolutely. >> or do you want to just say throw up your hands. we have to worry about privacy and constitutional rights. i don't know if you could have it both ways. i thought the two 9/11 families that put together that letter that's out today that said look, come up with a better idea. it seems like these people are trying as hard as they can to come up with the technology that's going to make passenger travel -- air travel possible but the terrorists seem obsessed with air travel. and targeting airplanes. >> you're right. >> continue to debate this and continue to send us your e-mails

on that topic. in the meantime, let's talk about congressman charlie rangel because you remember that he walked out of his own hearing, the ethics hearing where they were going to decide whether or not he was guilty. >> so they decided without him because they claim they had all the evidence they needed and yesterday, they found him guilty on 11 of the 13 ethics charges. so here's charlie rangel reacting to being found guilty. >> well, i think it has -- if people can look through all the responses from the ethics committee that said there was no self-dealing, there was no corruption, there was nothing there. not a scintilla bit of evidence as related to any criminal activity. as a matter of fact, i thought yesterday that he was going to go on to laud me for my intentions to try to help those kids at city college. and they wanted to complete this before they go on vacation. before they do thanksgiving, before they do christmas.

in other words, due process has been shattered. in order to complete the work this year. >> excuse me? due process has been shattered. he's the guy who said i'm going to boycott because i don't have counsel. he's the guy who, remember, ran up over a million dollar bill and he and his lawyers had a parting of the ways and he said he's going to represent himself. all we know for sure is if you or i were involved in this something like this. accused of all this, tax -- he says it's sloppy, tax evasion, stuff like that, we'd be in jail. but instead, what is he facing? he's going to get reprimanded. it's going to be a mark on his record and he's going to continue to serve the people of his district. >> i know. i saw some quotes from the people of harlem. they seem outraged as if somewhat surprised. wait a second, they just put him into power with an overwhelming win in the election. zoe who, i believe, is responsible for bringing steven colbert to capitol hill. >> it was her brilliant idea to bring him on. >> she says the evidence is

clear and convincing and overwhelming. so charlie rangel by storming out can effectively say i didn't get due process because i wasn't allowed to have legal counsel but we did this thing where we quoted where he demanded a chance -- he was tired of being strung out. he demanded a chance to present his case and asked for this ethics trial. so why -- why are we buying his explanation? >> because he's been able to do that for a lot of years, i think. anyway -- >> citizens for responsibility and ethics say he must resign. we'll find out tomorrow what happens. what do you think should happen to him? should he quit or just keep on keeping on? >> i'll put a lot of money on the fact that he's not going to resign. >> he should quit! i mean, if i'm coming down, he should quit. >> i'm saying what he's going to do. let's talk about something that's good news which is this wonderful royal wedding that's going to be coming up over in britain. i think this will be a shot in the economy for the u.k. which we all know is suffering like so many other nations across the world. and what's better than a

wonderful love story? i don't know. i think it's fantastic. let's listen to prince william and kate. >> planning for at least a year if not longer. it's just finding the right time and that's as most people say with couples it's all about timing and i had my real one and i couldn't have done this if i was still doing the training so i've got that out of the way and kate is in a good place in terms of work and where she wants to be and stuff. we decided now was a really good time. >> ok. so they met in 2001 when they were both going to school at st. andrews in scotland and he didn't really notice her until he was apparently as the story goes, he was seated at the -- on the front row of a fashion show and she was modeling a black underwear outfit underneath a transparent dress for a charity fashion show. that's when he first really noticed her. and then they eventually moved in together in a shared house. >> sounds like she was hard to miss. >> i'll tell you what, that's an effective story well told. dean of audio operations didn't

put music underneath the explanation of how these two lovebirds met and subsequently fell in love. i don't understand. >> now she has princess diana's ring, that beautiful ring. i believe it's a sapphire, right? 18 carat sapphire with diamonds around it. can you imagine how sentimental this is. william had to get it through harry. when they went through princess diana's belongings, harry took the ring and he's nowhere near being married and so he was able to give it to william. now, what kind of pressure will kate have on living up to princess diana? she responded yesterday. >> i would love to have met her. and she's an extraordinary woman to look up to. to this day. and you know, going forward and things, you know, a wonderful family. and, you know, very inspirational, too, and yeah, i do.

>> no pressure there. like kate said, you know, it's about carving her own future and no one is going to -- no one is trying to fill my mother's shoes and what she did is fantastic. it's about making her own future and other own destiny and kate will do a very good job of that. >> sure. and, of course, the press over there is trying to do the comparisons and stuff like that. ultimately, they'll do comparisons about will this marriage work out? after all, his mother and father got a divorce and you look at the rest of the family and andrew and fergie got a divorce. now, here's the thing about great britain and that is if they signed a prenup, not binding because over there, they have this crazy idea that a married couple should stay together forever and you can't really dice up the property. so she would -- >> be there forever. >> she could get half the kingdom. >> half a billion dollars. >> yeah. >> half of. >> all right. we'll see. let's hope it ends good. straight ahead, for nearly 18 minutes, china hijacked the internet including several web sites belonging to our military. the stunning report is out

today. the man behind that report up next. >> and a principal caught on camera shoving and shaking a student. is that ever ok? an interesting ruling from the courts. >> the royal family announced prince william and kate middleton are getting married. yeah. is that going to work? i mean have you seen kate? she's smart, she's hard work, she's attractive. she undermines everything the royal family has stood for for 900 years. ♪ [ male announcer ] every day thousands of people are switching from tylenol advil. to len more and get youspecial offer, go to takeadvil.com. take action. take advil.

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>> new report coming out about three hours from right now confirms that china has the ability to hack into u.s. web sites. back in april, telecommunication companies in china hijacked u.s. military and government web sites hours redirecting about 15% of the world's internet traffic to chinese servers. is this a direct threat to our national security? and how do we prevent it? >> dr. larry is a commissioner for the u.s. economic and security review and joins us right now.

doctor, you think you feel as though china did this, that's the conclusion of the report out at 10:00 today. where do you -- what do you think was compromised, if anything, from u.s. sources? >> well, we -- i think it -- an informed analysis is when you look at the number of penetrations that come out of china and the fact that the company that did it is a state-owned company in china, it's probably intentional. now, we don't know exactly what was taken. i think the department of -- everything out of the department of defense and the whole federal government, the dot-gov and dot-mil was taken for 18 minutes. so let's talk about the potential for what you could do. let's say a hacker got -- whoever did this, downloaded it all. sifted it through a computer and got the communication from the military assistant to the

secretary of defense. to the military assistants to all the four star generals. >> right. >> he's got their internet addresses. >> that's right. >> he knows who they communicate with. so a knowledgeable hacker could actually fake an e-mail and make it look the same. come out on the same route. and insert a malicious virus. >> right. >> or actually change a message very quickly. >> so the potential is high for problems. >> and doctor, the thing is china is famous for trying to hack us. >> i mean, they -- the director of the f.b.i. and c.i.a., the director of british intelligence have said they're number one probably followed by the russians. >> will they be confronted? >> you know, i think it's very difficult to directly confront them. i think the good news is the national security agency and the new u.s. cyber command have done a great job on defenses.

our report suggests that congress ought to get an aggregated report from government on all internet penetrations because we think that -- because they often report it piecemeal a coherent response isn't always the case. >> ok. all right. dr. larry wortzel, thank you very much for joining us today from our nation's capital. >> pleased to be with you. >> and your important work. an important democratist strategist calls on president obama to not focus on running in 2012 and focus on fixing the country now. fallout from his own party. he joins us next. >> save the grass, not the injured player? the school that turned an ambulance away in order to protect their brand new football field grass. [ engine revving ] [ male announcer ] the u.s. government may soon require brake override technology on all new cars and trucks.

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>> more of your headlines on this wednesday. george w. bush's new book "decision points" came out a week ago and has already sold 775,000 copies in its first week alone. that's the highest since president clinton's book debuted in 2004. additional copies being printed as we speak. and the pope is going h.d. vatican purchasing nearly $5 million in high definition equipment for its papal telecasts. vatican says it's also planning to go 3d in the future as well. all right. gretch, over to you. >> thank you, steve. democratic pollsters pat goodel and doug shone made headlines suggesting that president obama could unite the country by being a one term president. what kind of feedback have they received since writing the piece? doug is co-author of the editorial "one and done" and he joins me now to explain. good morning. >> good morning. >> what you suggested in this op ed is president obama should take it upon himself to not run

again. is that realistic? >> i think it is. the problems we face are so serious, internationally and here at home, that if he said he was going to put unity before politics, bring the country together to revitalize the economy, to protect us overseas, i think his moral authority that he had in the campaign would be reclaimed. >> so your argument is that as long as he is going to run again that he starts the campaign today instead of tending to business for the country? >> i think that's right. i think the way he said he would govern. he said his opponents could well be characterized as enemies. he said that it's going to be hand-to-hand combat. that's the last thing america needs now. we need to put politics and partisanship aside. focus on problems. >> all right, so let's take a look at his approval rating. 28% of the united states voters strongly approve of the job president obama is doing. 41% strongly disapprove. so when you look at that poll, doug, and then you look at the reaction that you've received since you wrote this op ed, how do you break it down?

>> you know, it's one of those cases where the political class in washington has disagreed. the obama supporters naturally want him to run. they like conflict and those on the right who want to be able to use president obama as a point of contact for their criticism, they want him to run, too. it's people like pat nye who have tried to put america first who have been in the oval office working for democratic presidents who really believe the pressures are so intense now that politics should come last to solving our problems and he should go to re-election. >> someone used to criticism is sarah palin. she weighed in on this. let's take a look at what she said. >> we know that obama wasn't vetted through the campaign and now, you know, some things are coming home to roost, if you will, with his inexperience and his associations and that's ultimately harms our republic when a candidate isn't -- isn't vetted by the media. >> do you agree with that? >> i absolutely agree. the amount of attention that was

devoted to sarah palin vs. barack obama, i think was disproportionate. i'm a democrat. pat goodell is a democrat. let me be very clear. we remain democrats. but governor palin makes, i think, an important point about how the media and the political class operates. and i think it's a fair judgment. >> i want to tell you, when i did a debate on this topic on monday with another democratic strategist, he said you and pat goodel aren't really democrats. how would you respond to that? >> i guess what i'd say is both pat and i have elected democratic presidents. he, jimmy carter and me, bill clinton. we've elected scores of governors and senators and mayors so for others to characterize who is a democrat and who isn't doesn't strike me as either fair, reasonable or frankly, accurate. >> great to get the analysis from the guy who wrote the op ed piece, doug schoen. good to see you. >> thank you. >> gretchen -- >> i'm sorry, it's early! it's early. >> it rhymes. >> why did you call her that, larry? >> i apologize. >> let's go to doug and pat. >> yes. >> you take this one, doug.

>> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> many parents livid after this school principal got caught on camera shoving and shaking a student. is that ever ok? see what the courts have decided. >> then we'll be joined live by danica patrick. she wants to help you meet your favorite celebrity. >> and dolly parton accepted another big award. she's joining us live later this hour to share the story behind this new high honor. nthe histors has ever turned down a hand-made ornament. that's why we've set up santa's wonderland at bass pro shops. where kids can get their picture with santa. and, this weekend, make a chrismoose ornament. and it's all free.

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>> the house ethics committee has found congressman charles rangel guilty of financial misconduct. but, you know what i'm saying? it wasn't easy. they had to go way outside washington to find anyone who knew anything about ethics. you know, this is a whole new area. >> he's been very, very funny. keep those comments coming in. the -- they're going to decide tomorrow what to do with him. probably going to be a reprimand. they could expel him and a lot of you in the e-mail say yeah, get rid of him. he wants to go back to ways and means. >> good luck! >> all right. 28 minutes before the top of the hour. got to tell you what else is happening in the news. producer for the reality show "survivor" accused of killing his wife in mexico under arrest and heading to court today.

federal authorities busted at his home in california seven months ago. his wife's body was found at a sewer in a resort in mexico. beresford-redman is expected to be extradited to mexico to stand trial. >> it would have been her 11th birthday and instead of a big party, hundreds of people attended a vigil for zahra baker in north carolina last night. her remains were identified earlier this week. >> why are they not prosecuting anybody? >> this girl shouldn't have -- i would have took her. anybody would have took her and raised her if they didn't want her. >> and police say the girl's stepmother who is behind bars led them to zahra's remains but no one has been charged in the case yet. >> meanwhile, ahead of tomorrow's trading, general motors increased its size of its initial public offering. its ipo and common stocks. it could be one of the largest in u.s. history. it will now offer 478 million shares at $32 to $33 a piece.

right now, the federal government owns about 60% of g.m. since the automaker filed for bankruptcy. you remember that. the sale will likely reduce its stake to about a third. >> in indiana, an elementary school principal is keeping her job after being accused of abusing an 8-year-old boy on a school bus. check out this surveillance video. this is from inside the bus. you can see principal linda warnike of trenton elementary grabs zachary stewart by the shirt, shakes him and forces him into a seat. the boy's mother filed criminal charges but they were dropped under the state's corporal punishment law that allows teachers to take disciplinary action necessary to stop bad behavior. what was the state again? do you remember? some states still allow that, indiana. but lots of states don't. interesting. >> she was the first woman to ever win a major closed course auto race. now professional speedster danica patrick using her celebrity to drive home a very

personal cause. she is hoping to put the brakes on the fatal lung disease that took her grandmother's life, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the fourth leading cause of death in the u.s. danica joins us live from miami today to tell us about the national health initiative that aims awareness to the disease. danica, good to see you. thanks for joining us. >> good morning. how is it going? >> good. you're doing this and doing this push and spending your time and energy in tribute to your grandmother. tell me first off what affected her? how was her life affected by this illness? >> well, the illness affected her a lot. quality of life was -- was really -- was really not very good by the end. she had oxygen 24 hours a day. she was in a wheelchair because she couldn't walk and she passed away in her 60's so all those things are not good so this disease is -- there's no cure for it. as we like to refer to it copd as you said the long version,

chronic obstructive pulmonary disease but copd is a little easier to say. she unfortunately left us way too early and, you know, it's -- it's -- it's a progressive disease and there's no cure. unfortunately, the signs are so kind of, i guess, normal, i guess, or you can write them off to old age because it's things like getting out of breath and coughing up phlegm and not being able to do normal activities and, you know, playing with your grandkids or your kids. so it's important to be aware of the symptoms so that you can do something about it. like i said, there's no cure. >> you also did notice, too, that she had emphysema. do you get this, a lot of these people that suffer from this smokers or do you inherit it? >> yeah, it can be inherited but it is definitely a majority of it is caused by smoking. and what i found shocking was that it can be as few as 100 cigarettes and, you know, for

anybody that is young and goes to college, i mean, you might be able to get that from going to a bar so 100 cigarettes is not very much. so there's a lot of people at risk. and of the 24 million that have it, half of them don't even know it and that's the really shocking part that we're trying to bring a lot of awareness to. >> you say -- you have bruce jenner, michael strahan, patty loveless are all combining to help you. how do you go about getting screened? you are in competition with each other. >> we are which is -- all you have to do is get a few competitive people in a competitive atmosphere and we'll go for it. so yeah, yeah, we're having -- we're having a little competition. but i guess if we all do, we all win in some way. to go to drive for copd.com. right on the home page, there's a five question screener that we are -- we're hoping everyone will take and we're hoping that we can get friends and family to take it, too, because this disease doesn't just affect you.

it affects your family, your kids, your parents, your grandkids, your wife, your husband. >> right. >> i mean, for my grandma, my grandpa had to do everything. i mean, he had to change her oxygen tank. he had to take her everywhere. she couldn't, of course, drive so this is -- this reaches far beyond just you. it's -- it affects everyone. >> quick -- race coming up this weekend, who do you think is going to prevail as the 2010 spring champion? >> well, gosh, it's -- championship this year, you got denny hamlin, kenny harvick and jimmy johnson. jimmie looks like always a favorite because he's done it four times. i think kevin harvick could do it. from my experience so far, racing stock cars, i race on saturday in the nationwide series, you know, it can -- it can just be one little thing.

you can get a cut tire and have to pit under green flag conditions. you can -- you can get taken out. you can be part of an accident because the smoke is billowing up in the air and you can't see where to go so it's going to be close. i don't know who to choose. >> danica says it will be close. i agree. it's going to be close. thank you so much for joining us, important cause and nice mission. thanks again. >> appreciate it. thank you. >> ok. 22 minutes after the hour. that's a little bit of nascar. let's talk about something else. >> some other professional drivers. the guys that work at u.p.s. and they wear brown all the time. we'll tell you the story about a guy named wesley anderson. in 2008 he got in a fight at the u.p.s. depot on the west side of manhattan. and he got in trouble. and eventually was fired. now here's the problem, though. even though he's fired, he keeps coming back to work. >> yeah. that's a big problem for u.p.s. and now they've filed a lawsuit against him to try to keep him actually off the site.

we don't have all the details so we don't know if he's actually getting access to the facility at u.p.s. or showing up at the door. >> at 4:00 in the morning. >> currently he's not getting a paycheck so the safety concerns are immense because, you know, from time to time we report terrible stories about workplace incidents and that's what u.p.s. is probably trying to avoid. you have a funny take on it. >> one of the strangest things ever is you get fired from the job, being outraged, insulted and maybe even suing and going back and ignoring it and of course, the series "seinfeld" made famous, jerry seinfeld when george costanza suffered the same fate and had the same reaction. let's look back. >> what are you doing here? >> what? i work here. >> i thought you quit! >> quit, who quit? >> what are you doing here? >> what? >> am i crazy? or didn't you quit? >> what? >> what?

that? are you kidding? i didn't quit! you took that seriously. >> but it was a tirade that got george originally fired so it was very eerie. why did he keep coming back? >> nothing to do. >> jerry said what's your reaction? what are you going to do? he said i have an idea. why don't i go back and pretend it never happened. let's pretend it never happened. he ends up going back and he eventually got his job back. that's a tv series has that to wrap up in 22 minutes. this has been going on for 10 years. coming up on our show, trying to reduce your debt or pick up some extra spending money? dave ramsey is here next to answer your questions like when should you cash in the 401k or sell your old jewelry. >> and dolly parton accepting another big award. she's joining us live in just a couple of minutes to share the story behind it. oh, she's happy!

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apologies. steve? >> thanks, gretch. cracking into a 401k can be tempting especially when your debt keeps piling up higher and higher. is the tax penalty, there's a big one, is it worth it? does it always make sense to pay off a mortgage regardless of the rate? if you're wondering the answer to those questions and more, you're in luck. that guy right there, personal finance expert dave ramsey joins us to answer viewer mail on all things financial. good morning to you, mr. ramsey. >> good morning to you, mr. doocy. >> all right. dolly parton coming up in a moment. dave was singing along to some of the hits we were listening to in the break. lynn from georgia writes this, my husband and have i have approximately $40,000 in credit card debt that we are trying to pay off. i have a 401 k from about 10 yaerz ago, it has a balance of $5,000. should i take the cash out and pay off some of the debt or leave it alone and roll it over

into a new i.r.a.? >> what's the answer? >> you know, with the stock market down and going crazy, now back up. a lot of people have really freaked out about their 401k's and a lot of them are calling me and asking me, do i cash out substantial money? more than $5,000 to pay off retirement. and in that case, we always suggest no unless you're avoiding bankruptcy, you'll take too much of a hit. you get a 10% penalty from the government and, of course, you get hit with your tax rate as well which is another 25%, 30%. this is like saying dave, do i borrow money at 30% or 40% interest to pay off my credit card, answer, no. roll it to your i.r.a. >> good enough. meanwhile, hannah in new york wants to know this. a family member recently gave me some gold coins. i had them appraised and they're worth between $1,200 and $1600 a piece. do i sell them and pay down my credit card debt? i have been told that coins are good in a diversified portfolio

but i think that it might be better to sell them and get a chunk out of the debt. >> well, if you're offering to sell them, i'm assuming there's not any emotional attachment to them being in the family or something like that. so if that's the case, then a good way to ask yourself the question is reverse it and say gosh, if i didn't have any credit card debt, would i borrow on my credit card to buy some coins? answer is duh, no, because by keeping the coins in effect that's what you're doing is borrowing on your credit card to keep the coins. no, sell them and pay down the card. >> final question, beth in ohio says we are currently working very hard to reduce our debt. we have only one credit card left but it has a substantial balance of over $16,000 with 20% interest. we can only pay close to the minimum monthly balance. is it smart to shop around for a balance transfer with a 0% introductory rate or do we stay the course? >> sure. it's always ok to search your card. remember, personal finance is 80% behavior. only 20% head knowledge.

most of you getting out of debt is you getting mad about it and getting in attack mode. it's not interest rate. so sure, go ahead and surf it. but then get ticked off at the debt and get in attack mode. >> dave ramsey joining us today from nashville, thank you very much, sir. have a great week. >> good to be with you again. >> speaking of nashville, dolly parton, a big nashville star and worldwide star accepting another big award. she's joining us live after the break to share the story behind that hello dolly. and on this day in 1987, tiffany had the number one song in america. "i think we're alone now." funny how nature just knows how to make things that are good for you. new v8 v-fusion + tea. one combined serving of vegetables and fruit with the goodness of green tea and powerful antioxidants.

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>> the answer to the trivia question sounds like martin scorsese. it's not martin scorsese, he came in sixth. jill from bluff, georgia, congratulations. mineral bluff, georgia. >> ♪ it's all taking and no giving ♪ >> forget 9 to 5. this woman works around the clock, 24/7 and received countless accolades including seven grammys, 25 number one country hits and two oscar nominations. and now dolly parton's fame to music park dolly wood won the prestigious award for best theme park in the world. >> the one and only dolly parton joins us live from where the awards ceremony took place. good morning to you. >> good morning. how about a hand to dolly world? >> that's the applause. >> let me get this straight. you kicked disney's butt and

wound up with the award? >> yeah. i can't quite hear you. what did you say? >> you beat disney. you beat knots berry farm, universal, everybody? >> actually, this is a very prestigious award and we're very happy with that. every two years, they give this out. and we're here in orlando at the expo and, of course, this is our 25th anniversary at dolly wood and i came down to be with my dollywood partners just because i had a little time off and we won this award and we were so excited about it. so it does say a lot for our park. it's based on all the things that the parks are supposed to stand for with food and cleanliness and rides, entertainment so i guess they liked us pretty good. so we're very happy. >> three finalists, dollywood was the only u.s. finalist, right? >> yes. this year. >> all right. congratulations on that. let's talk about -- first of

all, i've got to ask you about the fashion statement you're making. put up your hands. >> put up your hands. >> yeah, i got -- >> what do you got? >> actually i just -- i got on my little gloves and all my little jewelry and i'm not trying to actually make a -- make much of a statement. it's just that i'm just trying to be cute and, you know, dolly. >> it's working. >> very cute. i saw one arm at first and i wanted to make sure you weren't making a one armed statement. it was a two armed statement. i like it, though. >> i wasn't trying to do a michael jackson. i just had my little gloves here. so not that i need them in florida. but i've been down here working on my tan and when i saw that wasn't going to work out, i thought i'd -- >> i thought you might have been joining the usc. they wear those similar things and go into an octagon. everybody would lose to dolly parton. nobody would want to hit you. let's talk about your movie with queen latifah? >> i'm very excited about that. we're actually going to start filming that at the end of january. and there's going to be two or

three months that we're going to have great fun together, i'm sure, in atlanta, georgia and we're going to hopefully have movie out late next year or certainly by early 2012 and we've had a chance to be together, sing together and we're excited about the blend that we have and i think our personalities are very compatible so we're looking to have a lot of fun. it's about choirs that compete around the country. >> that's great. and speaking of -- >> gospel music. >> speaking about across the country, your national road show, 9 to 5 still going strong, isn't it? >> well, yes. we actually kicked off the world road tour, the international road tour in september back in nashville so it's -- i've been working this 9 to 5 job for 30 years now. >> ready for a gold watch. all right. congratulations on the big applause award you got down there in orlando. the legendary dolly parton, thank you very much for joining us live. >> thank you! appreciate it. >> you bet. >> all right. see you soon, dolly. tina fey's mean spirited

political comments censored by the media? why cover up what she had to say. the story at the top of the hour. >> then the question you won't see answered anywhere else. we asked president george w. bush to grade his time in office. grading the president straight ahead. ♪ express yourself ♪ [ female announcer ] the newest seasonal flavors are here. ♪ express yourself ♪ [ female announcer ] because coffee is like the holidays. it's better when you add your flavor. coffee-mate. from nestle.

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john: well, i just changed my medicare plan. beth: open enrollment? john: yup. i compared plans and found better coverage for me. beth: of course you noticed the new benefits we get under the new healthcare law. john: what? beth: well, like 50 percent off brand name prescription drugs for people who are in the donut hole. john: really? i didn't know that. beth: you have to keep up. john: come on. i'll keep up. anncr: it's open enrollment. time to compare and review plans at medicare.gov or call 1-800-medicare. >> gretchen: good morning, everyone. hope you're having a great wednesday to far. november 17, 2010. thank you for sharing your time. lisa murkowski making history and controversy. she's about to be the second u.s. senator to ever win a write in campaign and now speaking out against her party's proposed cuts in spending. will alaska voters have second thoughts now? >> steve: meanwhile, the department of justice investigating new jersey governor chris christie. did he do anything wrong? new claims that the woman who

blew the whistle has a questionable past. was it a smear job? that's straight ahead. >> brian: we had a chance to ask president george w. bush to grade his time in the white house. and his answer might surprise you. it's the question you haven't seen answered anywhere else. "fox & friends" starts right now. >> gretchen: good morning, everyone. hope you're having a great wednesday. we'll be talking politics in just a minute. first let's start with a fox news alert. this morning, germany announcing it's raising its security level after increased terror threats. the interior minister there pointed to an unspecified tip about a suspected attack at the end of this month. he says police will beef up security, especially at airports and railway stations. it would have been her 11th birthday and instead of a party, hundreds of people attend add vigil for zahra baker last night.

her remains were identified earlier this week. >> why are charges not brought up yet? >> this girl shouldn't have been through all this. i would have took her. anybody would have took her and raised her if they didn't want her. >> gretchen: police say the girl's stepmother, who is currently behind bars, led them to her remains, but no one has been officially charged in this case. talk about a body of evidence, one web site posted 100 body scans taken of people at the federal courthouse in orlando, florida. the images reportedly being saved improperly. we showed you some of the less revealing scans. the debate over them heating up. they say they're too invasive because of privacy reasons. the entire world is buzzing, waiting for more details about the wedding between prince william and kate middleton. greg is live in london with the very latest.

are you also brushing up on the latest wedding tips? >> we are in full brush up mode. it's the morning after the big announcement, the big wedding involving prince william and kate middleton. the big royal industry in the u.k. is reving up used by the newspapers which could use a boost. we have the times, a little elegant here. the new romantics. that's their front page. o'reilley sister newspaper, the sun, getting right down to it. it says, and i quote "with mummy's ring, i thee wed," making reference to the engagement ring being given to kate middleton, the same ring that prince charles gave to princess diana. again, just about 100 yards from where we are, the royal offices here, they are in full preparation mode trying to come up with an exact date, july or august of next year, we are told. and an exact place, westminster

abbey is leading the venue stakes right now. of course, part of this public relations effort is the rolling out of the couple. we saw that yesterday, a photo op. here is a little bit of what prince william had to say about the choice of that ring. take a listen. >> i thought it was quite nice 'cause obviously she's not going to be around to share in any of the fun and excitement. this is my way of keeping her sort of close to it all. >> in fact, if the choice of july 29 is made next year, that would be the 30th anniversary of the wedding of prince charles and the late princess diana. a lot of parallels are being made between those two events, not the least of which the tough economic times, then and now. we were talking to one taxpayer activist on the phone this morning and she says she was going to fight to keep this a small wedding. well, i think it's going in the other direction, guys. we have late word that a porcelain factor is cranking out plates with faxes of kate and

william on these plates. one estimate, $1 billion, that would be the boost to the british economy of this wedding next year. i think the word around here is let the wedding bells ring or should we say, kaching. back to you. >> gretchen: there will be a lot of attention in the coming months as to what to expect. >> steve: absolutely. if they're printing up plates, they're probably not going to run away to vegas. >> brian: probably not. i think there will be too much of a discount. let's talk about what's happening in alaska. we new a rip was going to win this race in going over the ballots one by one, but didn't know which republican. it turns out lisa murkowski is going to win and she has a substantial lead now. looks like the people in alaska knew how to spell her name. she has a substantial win over joe miller who had the republican nomination. >> steve: that's extraordinary that the write in candidate

would win, the first time since 1954 that anyone had done it and apparently a lot of people did misspell her name, but apparently the board of elections looking at voter intent. if it kind of looked like murkowski, she got the vote. so she has flown out to alaska to say thanks to her many supporters. what's interesting, though, is the statement that we released that we received that apparently she's not a big fan of this earmark ban that is apparently gaining traction in the u.s. senate. here is a statement. the notion that congress would abdomen indicate its constitutional duty and turn federal spending over to federal bureaucrats is wrong and goes against the constitution's mandate that says it lace with the legislative branch of congress. furthermore, an earmark moratorium will not reduce the level of spending or decrease the deficit. >> gretchen: she would be one of the few republicans who would not be on board, since we've been talk being this ban, at

least for two years. so would the voters now -- how would they feel about electing lisa murkowski if they knew that's how she felt? maybe they wouldn't change their mind, but maybe they would because it appears she will be and continue to be one of the republican holdouts on this movement moving forward. let us know what you think about that. >> brian: stay in cheaper hotels and stop using the car service. that was a conclusion, and you wasted 2,000 of our dollars. that was the conclusion of the justice department in looking into about six or seven state attorneys general. they looked at chris christie in particular and said, you could have stayed in cheaper hotel rooms and you could have used car service less and we're releasing this report to embarrass the very popular governor of new jersey. that last week. people were scratching their heads saying, is this really that important? the justice department should be releasing this information and this is not significant. and the attorney general said,

when those rooms were available, i took them. when they weren't, i had to take bigger rooms. now we find out the person behind the investigation might indeed have an agenda. >> gretchen: some say this was politically motivated coming out of the department of justice. the writer of this report was mature mrura lee and her former supervisor had this to say about her being selected as the person to write the report. she was one of the most partisan career people i ever met. i can't imagine anyone more inappropriate to be working on this kind of report in the ig office, the inspectors general office of the department of justice. >> steve: apparently because of her, he goes on to say, we had to completely change our security protocol. apparently looking at some e-mails, she had strategized on how to leak information to the "washington post." also one of the people who spoke to the daily caller, and they really kind of broke this particular story -- she apparently encouraged department of justice lawyers not to pursue

cases so that the bush administration would not be able to take any credit for being progressive on voter and civil rights issues. the quote is, she is so biased, there is no way she could investigate and write an objective report. if that's what they said about her regarding job, does it look like a smear job on chris christie? >> brian: keep in mind, chris christie is the governor and says he's going to run for reelection. his wife, when it was rumored about running for president, his wife says, are you kidding? you got to run the state first. he said 2012 is not going to happen. but who knows, 2016? he's been bold in saying, i'm gog work for four years. i don't care how popular i am. i'm going to do what's right and i'll see what my ratings look like. >> gretchen: it was amazing when he became governor in new jersey because that was a blue state by many accounts and remember, that sort of started the wave where we saw then the governor of virginia becoming a republican. then the whole scott brown situation happening. so the governor was really the

first person to break through and that's why many are looking to him and the work that he's done in the last few years as a rising star amongst conservatives. >> steve: you sit at home and you hope that our federal department of justice would be fair and unbiased. but this is not the first time that we've heard rumors of a smear job. in fact, in the same report, on the daily caller, it talks about how the inspector general also looked into the spending of people, traveling expenses of people at the department of justice and they spent tens of thousands of dollars too much and was that reported? no. that particular report was never released. however, chris christie spending 2,000 bucks on 20 some trips, big news. >> brian: all right. ten minutes after the top of the hour. coming up in the final 50 minutes, comedian tina facilenessed. why cover up the mean spirited jokes from the snl comedienne? i don't know. let's find out. >> she's got a new hairdo.

>> gretchen: what's come to president bush's mind when we named controversial leaders? how about members of his own family? that and he's giving his time in the white house a letter grade. our one on one with the president coming up.

>> gretchen: welcome back. tina fey won the mark twain humor award and thanked sarah palin since her impersonation made her more famous but criticized her. but those comments didn't air on ps in the final broadcast. take a listen to what was cut out of her speech.

>> the success of sarah palin and women like her is good for all women. except of course those who will end up paying for their own rape kit and stuff. for everybody else, it's a win-win. unless you're a gay woman who wants to marry your partner of 20 years. but for most women, the success of conservative women is good for all of us, unless you believe in evolution. i take it back. the whole thing is a disaster. >> gretchen: here to discuss this is brent bozelle. here in person. good to see you. >> good morning. how are you? >> gretchen: pbs covers this award ceremony and they leave out the most harsh jokes about sarah palin. why? >> on the one hand, you've got one camp speculating that pbs is saying because they had to cut time out and edit out some time and that's what they chose. on the other hand, you've got another camp saying they edited it out because they didn't like

what was in there and that's like censorship. both are right. they had to cut something and what they decided to cut was that which was offensive. and she clearly crossed the line. there is something about these comediennes, they don't know where things are appropriate. this is the mark twain award ceremonies at the kennedy center. leave that stuff at home. you could be funny without being offensive. that was clearly offensive. so they took it out. but they will scream and yell and people will be offended by that. the greatest irony of all this is that she won the award because of that kind of humor. >> gretchen: so you think it was a good thing that pbs, in supposedly trying to be fair and balanced, took those comments out? >> i think that this goes beyond politics and goes beyond ideology. it's a function of taste on a awards ceremony, they would want it to be positive and light hearted and funny and they don't want ugly politics. >> gretchen: let's take a look at what pbs said about it. they said it was not a political

decision. we had zero problems with anything she said. how do you feel about that? >> i don't think for a second you're going to find sarah palin pom pom cheerleading people at pbs. i don't think they did have a problem with that. >> gretchen: i didn't know there were sarah palin pompoms. >> i don't know that there is anyone at pbs who is supportive of sarah palin. i do believe when they say they support what she said, but it was offensive for this program. so they did the right thing in cutting it out. >> gretchen: sarah palin, here is what she had to say now, talking about whether or not the media vetted then candidate obama. >> we know that obama wasn't vetted through the campaign and now some things are coming home to roost, if you will, with his inexperience and his associations and that's ultimately harms our republic when a candidate isn't vetted by the media.

>> gretchen: i guess you can say that because she was vetted wholeheartedly. >> she writes a book and asked 12 people to look for any kind of mistakes she may have made in the book. sarah palin is 100% right about this and is profound in this sense. if you look back at the coverage of 2008, of this president, it was start to finish, the politics of bias by omission where they simply refused to cover anything that was negative about this man. as a result, he became every man. he became everything that i, joe public, wanted in a person, change, hope. no one knew what that meant. you created a mythology of this man because you didn't know who he was. and in all the coverage, no one told you about his position on taxes. no one told you about his position on spending. you certainly didn't know that tarp was around the corner and that the bailouts were around the corner and the stimulus was, none of those things were

discussed in the campaign. she's right. if the american people had known what they were getting, you wonder if he would have ever been elected. >> gretchen: good to see new person. coming up, we play the name game with former president george w. bush. >> steve: dick cheney? >> reliable and i'm glad i picked him. >> brian: colin powell? >> did a fine job and i admire him. >> steve: jeb bush? >> gretchen: what he says next will surprise you and may even surprise his brother, job. i hope you're job, jeb. then what punishment will charlie rangel face? will he be punished at all? we'll take a closer look.

>> brian: you know this week we were showing you clips from our interview with president bush, got his new book out. today you'll see a different side of the president, perhaps.

he's reflecting on his years in office and some of the famous faces he's been associated with throughout his presidency. >> steve: we would like to play the name game with you. in the book you have so many people -- >> brian: this is not name dropping. >> steve: no, although he could do it. >> i'm pretty good at it. >> steve: first name, dick cheney. >> reliable and i'm glad i picked him. >> brian: colin powell? >> did a fine job and i admire him. >> steve: bono? >> a person for whom i had a skepticism and he turns out to be the genuine article. >> steve: is it true that before you met him, your advisors were worried, we don't know whether or not he really knows who bono? >> they realized i'm not very hip. my dear friend came in and said, you do know who bono is? i said, yeah, he's the guy that married cher. i held my stone face for as long as possible and, of course, he realized i was joking. >> brian: jimmy carter? >> i put in the book i didn't appreciate when he went to the

u.n. security council to lobby against a resolution my father was trying to get to remove saddam hussein from kuwait. >> steve: george soros. >> put a lot of money into making my life miserable. >> steve: jeb bush? >> should be running for president and is not. >> steve: why not? >> you need to ask him. i love the guy. he's a great governor of florida. great governor of florida. and he makes us all proud. >> steve: tony snow? >> miss him dearly. awesome guy. very grateful that he agreed to leave the luxuries of the news platform to come and work in the white house. >> steve: tony blair? >> reliable. tony blair gave you his word and kept it, which is the highest compliment i can pay. >> brian: putin? >> complicated relationship with him. i tell the story about me introducing him to barney and he kind of dissed him.

then he introduces me to his dog , coney, big lab, mounting across the grounds and says, bigger, stronger and faster than barney. it was a complicated relationship. >> brian: did you misjudge him? >> early on you looked -- >> steve: you looked in his heart? >> i looked in his eyes and saw his soul. the i asked him about a cross he had blessed in jerusalem that his mother gave him. >> steve: he was surprised? >> yeah. because he's anticipating strict policy discussion. i'm trying to figure out who the guy is. and i read this piece of information given to me by our intelligence community, c.i.a., and he started to tell the story about his mother, the cross that was blessed and he tells the story about him hanging that cross and they say to the workmen, find that cross.

so his whole countenance began to change as he described the workman's hands opening with the cross. when i asked the question, do you trust him, i'm thinking about this guy, how he described that story to me. i said i looked in his eyes and saw his soul. >> brian: you could argue that he changed because that guy was the first guy to call after 9-11 and he said, use our air space, i'll do whatever i can in afghanistan. gave you advice. so he was maybe not the same guy at the end. >> that's my point. at the end of the administration, russia had invaded georgia and i was hot. i see russia trying to overturn a democratically elected government. i wasn't one -- i'm a guy who believes in freedom and georgia is our ally. so i'm at the olympics and just as we get there, russia invades georgia.

aid very difficult conversation with medvedev. he moves down, putin does. the last thing, i said, putin says, i'm hot blooded. i said, no, you're cold blooded. >> brian: if you were to give yourself a letter grade on your eight years what, would it be? >> a for effort. a for love of country. a for assembling a fabulous team. but history will judge the results and i'm not going to be around for history's final verdict. >> steve: and that final picture right there is the last time he left the oval office, enroute back home to texas. >> gretchen: a very fitting photo to talk about his legacy. i like how he broke down his grade like that. he didn't give an overall grade 'cause he says history will determine that. nice job, guys. >> steve: it was great. by the way, that is a big run away best seller. i was at the airport yesterday, i saw five people in one lounge

reading that. i think so far, we reported 775,000 copies already been sold. >> brian: he's in a race against clinton perhaps. we'll find out who is more popular. straight ahead, bill clinton gave it a rave review. >> steve: he did. >> brian: the debate over how much airport screening is too much on capitol hill. we're debating it here first. if you don't want pat downs or x-rays, what should be done? a live report and your e-mails coming your way. >> gretchen: a florida woman fined for her dog's halloween costume. we report, you decide. is this animal abuse? >> steve: you know her from the movie "my big fat greek wedding." but she's got an important helping for anyone trying to have a child. she joins us on the curvy couch. >> brian: she did not know she was on television. úok4yñs?cóñ=/xm

next wednesday the day before thanksgiving is national opt out day where people are being asked to boycott the tsa full body scanners. the things that you see everything, yeah. people shouldn't be made to feel comfortable or embarrassing while traveling. that's what thanksgiving with your family is for. >> brian: we have two guests left on our show.

one kissed me. who do you think it was? >> steve: richard simmons? >> brian: that's the one i wasn't looking forward to being kissed by. >> gretchen: you wanted to be kissed by nia investor da low. >> brian: mr. simmons has never been thinner, he's got a great message coming up. >> gretchen: we look forward to both of them. this hot topic, scan or pat down? how about neither one? the new screaming procedures at airports have some passengers, pilots and civil rights activists outraged, even threatening protests. the homeland security committee in hearings right now. let's go to julie kirtz. >> when the tsa chief goes back before congress this morning for the second time this week, he's like three have the same message. if you won't go through the airport screening, you won't fly. his appearance was supposed to be focused on screening air cargo, but that was before all the outrage over the new pat downs and full body scans. expect him to get grilled again

in about an hour and a half. he told the senate committee yesterday that he believes pat downs who have caught the underwear bomber. he also believes the ever changing terror threat demands ever evolving airport security. backing tsa up is the chair of homeland security committee, joseph lieberman, telling the tsa chief, do what you need to do to keep us safe. >> if, god forbid, that bomb on abdulmutallab's body had gone off on the plane over detroit, congress and i dare say the public, would have been demanding not just the body imaging equipment, but patdowns. >> of course, not everyone agrees. critics quality measure invasive. several web sites calling for, as you heard, a national protest day the day before thanksgiving, a heavy travel day urging travelers to opt out of the very detailed body scans in favor of the more time consuming pat

downs which would clog things up at the airport. back to you. >> steve: no kidding. >> gretchen: a lot of people are heated about this. thanks very much. let's look at some of your e-mails. we've gotten tons of them on this. elizabeth in hyde park says this, l.l. and british airways have the right idea. they have no history of terrorism on their planes. they profile. not ethnic or racial, but they have behavioral specialists scanning people at their airportses. >> brian: as you brought up, we have so many more airports in this country than israel. >> gretchen: and passengers. i can't imagine what it would cost to fly on a ticket in the u.s. if we incorporated all of their procedures, which no doubt work. >> steve: they've been very effective and we've had all guys on this program. it's not just a ten second thing. they talk to them for a while. they do a preinterview at that little kiosk thing. >> brian: so elizabeth said that. this is from ethan. first and political correctness and profile. israel does it and it works. second, use common sense.

>> steve: all right. ryan in nebraska writes, flying is not a constitutional right. tell critics to stay in their priuses and drive. there is also -- there is an article that links a site that says tsa putting hands down fliers' pants. >> gretchen: what? >> steve: if your pants are real baggy, they can put their hands down the pants. i have seen stuff like that. >> gretchen: i want to say that i had a full body pat down at the airport and they didn't even get to my entire groin area. so -- >> steve: then it wasn't a full pat down. >> gretchen: i'm telling you, there seems to be a wide spectrum of enhanced pat down procedures. >> steve: aren't we protected by the fourth amendment for unreasonable search? is this reasonable? >> brian: we might have an overpatting problem. >> steve: keep the e-mail coming. new video coming in, wicked weather tearing through parts of the northeast overnight.

destroying this strip mall in lawn crest outside of philadelphia. and ripping trees from the ground in a nearby neighborhood as the storm moves through. the winds so strong in new jersey that they flipped these airplanes over like they were toys. a portion of the roof at mercer-trenton airport in south jersey reportedly gone after the storms moved through. >> gretchen: the producer for that reality show, survivor, accused of killing his real wife in mexico under arrest and now heading to court today. federal authorities busted him at his home in southern california. seven months ago, that's when his wife's body was found in a sewer at a resort in mexico. he is expected to be extradited to mexico to stand trial there. brian? >> brian: for 18 minute, u.s. national security may have been in grave danger. a congressional report out says china's telecom come hijacked 15% of the world's internet traffic, including data from the u.s. military and other u.s.

allies. the commissioner for the u.s.-china economic review spoke to us earlier. >> a knowledgeable hacker could actually fake an e-mail and make it look the same, incerta malicious virus or actually change a message very quickly. the potential is high for problems. >> brian: the report says the breach took place october 8. >> steve: a jacksonville, florida woman has been fined $255 for dyeing her poodle's paws pink for halloween. christine hill says she seussed an animal safe dye, but an animal control officer was driving by, saw the dog's new do and issued her a ticket. apparently it's against the law in florida to dye your animals. >> gretchen: oh, come on. i don't know. she catapulted to stardom in "my

big fat greek wedding," but it wasn't until she became the mother to her adopted daughter that her life became complete. the experience for her to become the spokesperson for national adoption day to spread the word to potential parents to be and she joins us this morning. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> gretchen: today is national adoption day. >> yeah. we're celebrating it this whole week. on november 20, something incredible happens. in every city, courthouses are donated and get this, lawyers and judges work for free -- >> steve: that doesn't happen much. >> 4500 adoptions are finalized on that day. >> brian: they have to be along in the process? >> yes. they're in the process and on that day, they are stamped a family over and over again. >> brian: what alarms you in talking to you last time you were here is it's so hard. these kids need parents so bad and it's so hard. you have a five-year-old daughter and it worked out. what could you tell us that has been made in terms of progress in adopting children?

>> we're getting the word out. for me, when we found our daughter, she was three years old and we were matched with her and it was an easy process that i said to our social worker, why don't i know about this that there are 114,000 kids legally available, freed for adoption in this country? and she went, well, would you like to be our spokesperson? i thought, okay. that's why i'm here. we made huge progress in getting the word out. there are two ways to adopt in the united states. there are several ways, domestic infant adoption, great. you could go to another country, great. what happens here is foster adoption. we don't have orphanages. i suggest doing it this way. google the words, foster family agency, and in your state, all these agencies will pop up and these social workers will help you through the process and it's free. >> steve: you can't beat that. you commented on the george bush interview. in his book, he talks about how before he and laura had the twins, they thought that she

couldn't have children and so they looked into adoption. they had already gotten the ball rolling. that's the case with so many people. they'd like to do it, they're getting close, but there are so many questions. >> that's why. you go on the internet and it's a big wide world. i kept getting sent to sites that were kind of scary or looked shifty. that's why i thought, i'm going to go and talk about how to do it. i'm calling this the how to adopt tour. so you first google, foster family agency, and then you are sent to sites like adopt us kids. you will see children available for adoption. there are 350,000 kids, if you just want to foster one of these kids could be living in your home. and what i love about this, is it's open to everybody. you could be a single parent. you don't have to own your own home. you could be gay and lesbian. we are looking for parents and if you are thinking, i've given up on how to adopt in this country, i don't have $50,000 to do a private adoption, this is an option and it's free. clearly i'm in love with my

daughter. >> gretchen: now we know why you're the spokesperson. you do it so eloquently. >> thank you. >> gretchen: what are you working on as far as your other career? >> oh, yeah. i got to do 24 hour plays on broadway the other night. it was really fun. you get a play in the morning and perform it that night and we were surprised on stage by jennifer aniston. that was fun. and i'm writing movies. i've written a movie with tom hanks and he directed the movie and stars in it with julia roberts. >> brian: tom, how do you say the last name? >> hanks. >> gretchen: oh, good, i'm gog need that name later. i dropped it. >> gretchen: always great to see you. >> thank you. >> gretchen: coming up, a little more than an hour from now, nancy pelosi faces her challenger. a live report from washington is next. >> steve: and richard simmons is back sweating to the oldies in our control room. he's headed off to the studio in a few moments. he's been talk not guilty our ear as he bust -- talking in our

ear as he busts a move. >> brian: he's in great shape. am i right? >> he's buff.

>> gretchen: couple headlines. we have richard simmons right off in the background. >> steve: that's brian singing. >> gretchen: melissa bean is the latest democrat to concede her race. republican and tea party supporter joe walsh is now the congressman-elect from illinois. and the ethics panel expected to hand down sanctions against charlie rangel tomorrow after finding him guilty on 11 of 13 ethics charges. he says the whole process was unfair. >> steve: of course it was. meanwhile, house members will vote on leadership positions later today. in one hour, democrats will meet behind closed doors, while republicans start their elections this afternoon. doug sorts it all live from dc.

>> steve, good morning. this may get ugly behind the scenes, at least on one side. on the republican side, we know more or less what's going to happen. ohio representative john boehner is almost certainly going to be elected as his party's leader in the house. eventually becoming the new speaker of the house. >> i laid out exactly how i intend to run the house. it needs to be more open. it needs to be more transparent and more accountable. and you will see from day one that i say what i mean and i mean what i say. >> but what then becomes of nancy pelosi? she hopes to remain the head of her party in the house as minority leader. that raised plenty of eyebrows and encouraged one moderate democrat, north carolina heath schueler to challenge her. >> there were mistakes. we have to overcome those mistakes ask we have to make sure we have a better opportunity to win the races. >> what are his chances of

winning? just about zero after those bruising midterm elections, they're more liberal and nancy pelosi is expected to prevail. but for democrat, what to do about south carolina's jim cliburn. he's currently the number three leader for house democrats, but because they no longer hold the speaker chair, each democratic leader kind of slides down and becomes this game of musical chairs and cliburn is the guy left standing. pelosi is trying to create a new leadership job for him, hoping that she doesn't ruffle the feathers of those in the black caucus which is far is skeptical. thank you for coming to me before you go to richard simmons. >> steve: it's a good thing you mentioned that because he is coming up next, live from dc, doug, thank you very much. there he is, richard simmons, live in the studio right after the break. we'll get into shape with him. >> gretchen: all right. break a sweat there, richard. you can crack up. martha mccallum will be on at the top of the hour.

>> martha! , martha! >> i don't think i could do a better tease than that. thank you so much. coming up on "america's news room," very big events unfolding on capitol hill this morning. senate republicans will get their moment to question donald we arewick, he was president obama's recess appointment to head medicare. they're looking for their chance to question him, and the head of tsa will be on capitol hill. lots of questions about the big pat down issue coming up. bill and i join you at the top of the hour.

>> gretchen: oh, my goodness. >> we were just talking about evil people. welcome back to "fox & friends." our guest for this segment is richard simmons. richard, how are you doing?

>> steve: you are richard. get me a mirror. what were you doing? >> i'm just here. >> steve: ladies and gentlemen, richard simmons is here! >> gretchen: everybody needs a dose of richard simmons at least once a day. at least i do. >> do you know that you all helped me very much get a bill passed in congress. i've been working on this bill called the fit kids bill. >> steve: that's right. >> now government has put together, instead of a no child left behind, they put together something called esea, elementary secondary education act. and that's going to go before congress and senate in 2011. >> steve: what is it? >> it is an all thorough education bill for the future of our children in school. and the fit kids bill will be going into that bill. so i'll be coming again, asking people to write their congressmen and senate. there's a lot of new faces. we have to convince them how very important that physical education, p.e. is in schools. and i'm not going to stop at

this 2011. it will be my fifth year trying to get this commitment from our government for our kids to be healthier. >> brian: you know who gets the message? the private schools. you go to one of those, they have serious gym in those schools. >> i know, but most people can't afford them. >> brian: but the public schools are slow to get that message. >> gretchen: they cut it. >> it was cut when the no child left behind act came in. now with the new esea, we're going to try to fold in fitness because it has to be a curriculum and has to be something these kids have to do. i never had to take p.e., i don't know if you all did. >> steve: of course. >> as an obese little kid, i had excuses not to take it. so i never exercised until i was 27 years old. >> steve: there are some schools that because of cut back, they don't have anybody to go out on the playground with them, so they don't have p.e. >> you do a grassroot effort with your school, the pta, raise money, whatever you have to do, hiring a teacher, one of the aerobic teachers in your area to come to the the school and teach for a very little amount of money. we have to get our kids active because as you said, look at

this report. >> gretchen: i interviewed this mom in arizona, apparently kids at her daughter's school were sent out report cards on their weight. this child is 13 years old, a young woman, and here is that mom. >> beatrice stopped eating lunch at school. she kind of takes snacks to hold over. she eats when she gets home. we had a long heat period in arizona and she wore sweat shirts, even when it was 100 degrees outside to cover herself up because it made her so conscious of her body. >> gretchen: so what does this do to the self-esteem of young people? >> what are we doing to these kids? what in god's name are we doing to these kids? right now the parents, the mother and father, and grandparents of children who are overweight have to become one and help their family out. when i call people, i call about 50 people a day still, they tell me about an overweight child,

70%, the parents are overweight. so when the kid sees the parents eat, then the kids eat. >> brian: the intent is right. they see the -- they see what you see, but you don't like the way it's implemented. >> gretchen: is it the school's place to send a fat report? >> i don't really think so. i think that there has to be some education brought to the parents to teach them, here is the six food groups, here is how much exercise they need. here is some foods to stay away from. why don't you touch my -- why did you touch my inner thigh? >> steve: that's my little signal. we've got a break coming up. >> guess what, we have a hard break coming out. i actually picked out some of these commercials and i'll be right back after these commercials. and you know what, you can do some jogging in place during the commercials. let's go now. we'll be right back.

>> steve: welcome