clerical mistake. we're not kidding. that's straight ahead. >> is there life on other planets or not? in just a few hors, nasa will try to settle the debate once and for all and they will tell you what nasa said. "fox & friends" starts right now. >> do you believe who is on our show today? >> i can't. >> do you believe in outer space since that was the last thing you talked about? >> i'm going to solve that mystery in a little while. >> i believe in outer space. it's out there somewhere. >> i checked the milky way and called every planet and got no answer. it's the other galaxy -- i called all around. you called the milky way and got snikers. no nougat. we've got pundits andrea tantaros and juan williams, talking about how it sounds like the republicans in the senate want to shut things down until they get some action on key tax

cuts. >> senator tom coburn will be here as well and newt gingrich. >> david hasselhoff will join us and talk about his new reality series. that david hasselhoff. don't hassle the hoff or the off or the hoff. that's right. and donald trump will be here. very exciting because the apprentice is coming to a close this year as people who need a job get a job. >> indeed. >> so we have a busy three hours starting right now. let's talk a little bit first you know a couple of days ago, the white house. they had their meeting. >> they sucked me in. gretchen wouldn't buy any of it. >> we saw the picture of the president of the united states with his hands on the shoulder of eric cantor and it looked like they were having a good time and republicans and democrats were going to get together. that ground to a halt yesterday. mitch mcconnell and 41 other republicans sent a letter to harry reid saying hey, not so fast until we get action on tax hikes. listen. >> while ago, i delivered a letter to senator reid signed by

all 42 senate republicans. it says that every republican will vote against proceeding to any legislative matter until we've funded the government and protected every taxpayer from a tax hike. >> see? >> all right. so the republicans are being partisan, too. all right? let's face it. they're both playing political games right now. so the republicans on one hand are saying look, we're not going to let you vote on anything else until you figure out the tax situation. at the same time now, democrats will bring to a vote today the tax thing but it's only for extending permanently the middle class tax cut so will the republican, then, be in a bind to vote for that. >> the thing is it's somewhat insulting in that we know there's only two deals to be had. we have the geraldo rivera axiom that says let's raise taxes on people, this is geraldo's idea

taken by chuck schumer. in one way, i think we're switching roles a little bit. i see what the republicans are saying. how can we talk about the dream act and don't ask, don't tell, extending all the benefits if we don't know what rate everybody is paying taxes with the expiration coming up on 12/31 much let's get this done. there was this commission with timothy geitner and the office of budget director and congressional leaders where they agreed we all got along here. >> we're not switching roles. i said from the beginning stop the political games and get this stuff done. so this was steny hoyer's quote yesterday. of course, democrat from maryland. mr. van holland, another democrat, believes this not undermine negotiations on compromise. we're talking about the fact that the democrats want to vote today on middle class tax cuts. nor is it intended to embarrass or put republicans in a difficult not situation. >> no, not supposed to embarrass the republicans. keep in mind if they don't do it promptly all the computers and payroll departments will

automatically start spewing out wrong calculations come the first of the year and once the 122nd congress takes effect in january, they would run by the republicans and go ahead and turn this around and do it retroactively anyway. here's mr. boehner on how democrats are handling the votes on these tax hikes. listen. >> i don't know what my colleagues across the aisle didn't hear during the election. >> american people spoke pretty loudly. they said stop all the looming tax hikes. and cut spending. house leader is going to come down this path of gerrymandering the process and members only have one option and that's to vote on only providing some tax relief to the american people. the american people said election day, stop the games. stop the spending. stop the living tax hike. >> by the way, one senator has come forward, tom harkin said you know what? i'm going to extend all taxes for everybody for two years.

so just put it up to one vote. >> good start. >> we'll have two other votes. >> i like the fact that you always look at the glass half full. >> yeah. >> i was sucked into monday's or tuesday's meeting. i thought now, we're finally getting along here. >> let's do some of your headlines for a thursday. the censure of new york democratic congressman charlie rangel expected today and our own julie kirtz is in washington with the very latest. >> good morning. that's right. the humbling high drama moment is expected this afternoon and it will be a humbling experience anyway you look at it for the 40-year-old veteran of congress who continues to insist he never meant to break house rules. short of getting kicked out of office, censure is the most serious reprimand a member can face. rangel will have to stand in front of his colleagues at the front of the house chamber while speaker of the house nancy pelosi reads a resolution condemning his behavior including failing to pay taxes for 17 years on a vacation home. in a final plea for mercy, rangel e-mailed 25,000 campaign

supporters yesterday asking them to flood the campaign switchboard. i am truly sorry for mistakes, he wrote, and would like your help in seeing that i am treated fairly. rangel insists censure is too excessive and some members like james clyburn say they'll vote today but house leaders like steny hoyer say they're confident in the house ethics committee work that found a pattern of fundraising and financial misdeeds. rangel still hasn't said, guys, if he'll say anything on the house floor which he has the right to do during a censure expected this afternoon here. >> julie, thanks very much. other headlines for you. police in michigan say they will call off the volunteer search for those three missing boys who disappeared on thanksgiving day. detectives have little hope they'll be found alive. and will tell volunteers beginning on friday night to stay home. the boys' father reportedly dumped the kids on the side of the road so they would not see him commit suicide. that's his story. he is currently going through a

divorce and custody battle which may have been his motivation behind the kidnapping. this morning, the man convicted in the gruesome murders of a connecticut family will be officially sentenced to death. the judge will sentence steven hayes found guilty of killing a mother and her two daughters during a brutal home invasion in 2007. hayes could address the courtroom himself. the only family member to survive the attack -- dr. william petit expected to speak as well. new problems in gulf of mexico. three oil rig workers were injured when a well had exploded south of the louisiana coast. the coast guard has been called to investigate the explosion. of the three workers who were injured, all are expected to be ok. investigators insist no oil, though, is leaking into the water. has nasa found life beyond earth? we could know -- >> i recognize it. >> in a matter of hours. nasa holding a news conference at 2:00 p.m. today to discuss what it calls major new evidence on extraterrestrial life. yesterday, they peaked the interest of space nerds and

conspiracy theorists anyway when it suggested the findings could impact the search for alien life. those are the headlines. so guys, brian is going to be tube side at 2:00. >> absolutely. and by the way, why is it all the aliens, no clothes. >> why do they need clothes? >> i'm not sure. why do we need clothes? why have we chosen to get dress ed? >> good point. stand by, 2:00. meanwhile, you know that we've talked a little bit about this. julian assange, the guy behind wikileaks who is bringing out all these government secrets, he has been on the lam for a while and in fact, interpol a couple of days ago announced, you know what? we're putting out an all points bulletin for him. >> red alert. >> red alert indeed. super fox news alert. it turns out british authorities know exactly where he is but there's a big butt in why they haven't picked him up. >> he's not really on the lam, folks. come on. >> he is on the lam. >> they know where he is. he did an interview with "time" magazine for gosh sake. somebody knows where he is. if time magazine can find him,

why the heck can't the prosecutors and the police over in europe find him? that's my question this morning. but apparently, they were going to go and arrest him but they had a few little paper errors. >> right. >> which precluded them from picking him up. will they finally pick him up in the next couple of days? i mean, why hurry? he just caused an international problem for the whole world. why hurry? >> now the pressure is on sweden to make the move. they're picking up the pace. in britain they're looking at it hard. australia here. attorney general eric holder is working hard on it. congressman pete hoopstra must have watched our show yesterday. these are massive security leaks and going to affect us internationally. he weighed and he'll weigh out of congress soon. here he is. >> we should do everything to maintain the integrity of our databases by doing after people who steal them and compromise them at the same time, we also have a responsibility to make

sure that we don't create an environment where people have access. we created an environment where this accident was just waiting to happen. we were extremely sloppy. we didn't exercise cyber 101. there's plenty of blame to go around. >> and mr. hoekstra says the government still doesn't get it. they're still not doing enough. apparently, the house permanent select committee on intel met yesterday with the members of department of state and another cabinet level person and hoekstra said those people were more interested in "damage control" an they were in getting the problem fixed. he said they were arrogant. >> damage control is what happened on this show yesterday when the spokesperson for president obama, robert gibbs came on to defend why the president hasn't spoken at all about these wikileaks scandal. here's what he had to say. >> our country is stronger than one guy with one web site. we should not and we should never be afraid of one guy who plopped down $35 and bought a

web address. our foreign policy is stronger than that. we're a stronger country than that. we're not scared of one guy with one keyboard and a laptop. >> i owe him a huge favor. i had three hours of phone calls on my radio show. no one believed that, that was a choreographed talking point. we have a way of limiting the damage control. let's blame the people who are concerned and call them afraid. meanwhile, michael scheuer who is a c.i.a. guy and head of the bin laden unit for a while was mystified. he said we could have done a lot to knock down this character before the wikileaks leaked out. here's what he said. >> the president, when the first announcement was made when the things were going to be leaked could have ordered the u.s. military or central intelligence agency to destroy the web site mr. assange was going to use and prevent any

leaks at all. i think he thinks this is a first amendment issue when it really is just a matter of trafficking in stolen material. the president clearly is cheek by jowl with the aclu and he doesn't want to upset those people or "the new york times." somehow committing treason has become protected by the first amendment. >> so here's the thing. so he says they could have knocked down the web site but when you look at julian assange, you have to figure that if the web site would have been taken down, he would have gone over to "the new york times" and said hey, you want to print that? >> you're right. and guardian as well. >> absolutely and they would have printed it and all the secrets would have been out anyway. >> remember, amazon had it out for a while and pressured them to take it down. that's using their servers. >> can you believe that? >> uh-huh. >> we all know he's not going to stop. maybe he should be arrested imagine googling your own name and figure out you're wanted for murder. that's what happened to this

teen. wait until you hear who is to blame. >> christmas is not just a religious holiday. it's become part of the fabric of america. who is behind the latest effort to take christmas out of the public sphere? that's coming up next. >> i love political correctness. political correctness has come to the philadelphia area. the annual christmas village in philly, oh, no, it has now been renamed the holiday village. holiday village. they can't have santa's reindeer anymore. they're now nondenominational venison. to go heart healthy for. who's your someone? campbell's healthy request can help. low cholesterol, zero grams trans fat, and a healthy level of sodium. it's amazing what soup can do. [ male announcer ] every day thousands of people are switching from tylenol advil. to len more and get youspecial offer, go to takeadvil.com.

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>> christmas is just a few weeks away now and for those with loved ones serving in the armed forces overseas, this time can be especially difficult. and even though the military recognizes all holidays, christmas has apecial significance. here to explain why is jean millheiser, dean of the school of law and advocate who served 21 years in the military. good morning to you. >> good morning. thanks for having me on. >> all right. so christmas, all holidays, of course, important to soldiers serving overseas depending on what religion they're celebrating. why is christmas especially important to them? >> well, i think you're right that all religious holidays are important to soldiers, you know, they say there are no atheists in foxholes and even if you're not in the foxhole, if you're deployed, if you're overseas, away from family and friends and

from the environment that they're used to, i think that religion and religious holidays and celebrations take on a special significance and i think that's especially true if you look at the military culture. it's an all volunteer military service and i think it tends to self-select people who believe very much in traditional american values and if you believe in traditional american values, at the very center of that is a belief in god. >> those traditional american values, many would say, have been under assault in recent years because of political correctness. so who do you believe is behind the movement against celebrating christmas and being able to say quite frankly, merry christmas in the public sphere? >> well, i'll tell you who i don't think is behind it is it's not people of faith from different religious traditions. i've never known anyone who was jewish or muslim, for example, who was offended if someone said merry christmas to them.

i don't think most christians certainly i'm not offended if someone says happy hanukkah to me. i don't even think it's people who are indifferent about religion. i think it's people who are really anti-religion, they're against the idea of god. and i think that's where it comes from. >> right. very few probably. so look at this latest rasmussen poll, this was the question. do you prefer merry christmas or happy holidays on store signs? 69% said merry christmas, 24% happy holidays. that was conducted just last week. what does that say to you? >> well, i don't think anyone who really has a sense of american culture is surprised by that. what i think is really surprising is that so many stores although i think they're moving away from this. so many stores because of the idea of not offending anyone, political correctness, wanted to go to the lowest common denominator and say happy holidays instead of merry

christmas. it is the christmas season. >> uh-huh. even my kids are confused now living in this politically correct world. they're little. but they say to me happy christmas. so they're combining happy holidays and merry christmas because they don't know what the heck is going on. a bit of good news, though, i want to bring to you, dean, is that apparently this christmas village in philadelphia. they changed the name the other day to the holiday village and apparently the mayor now having second thoughts. it's going back to christmas village. a victory? >> well, i think it makes good political sense to be on the same page with the majority of your constituents are. i think it makes good business. i think that's why stores are more and more recapturing the idea of christmas and i think it probably makes good political sense, too. >> it's gene, i'm so sorry. gene milheiser, great to see you. >> thank you. >> coming up on the show, the investigation into the murder of a hollywood agent takes an

unsuspected turn. a suspect in the case now commits suicide? and doctors now ready to admit they were wrong on doses for popular children's medicines. and even adult vitamins. our medical a team here next with what you need to know.

>> if you're just getting up, couple of quick headlines for you. south korea's spy chief says there's a chance this north korea will launch another round of attacks. the south says it's planning artillery drills for next week. australian investigators found a manufacturing defect could be to blame for a mid air engine blowout on a qantas flight. they're threatening to sue rolls royce over problems with its a-380 engine.

brian? >> all right. alarming new study by the journal of the american medical association, it reveals you may be giving your children the wrong amount of the over-the-counter medicine you're buying because of flawed measuring cups and confusing instructions. now there's a call for new safety guidelines. here with more on this, our fox news medical a team, dr. manny alvarez and caroline cromwell. first off, when did this come out? we can't count on the cups that come with our medicine. >> i have children and i have a whole bunch -- i have a collection if anybody wants to buy it on e bay with leftover plastic cups with all kinds of lettering, instructions and micrograms and things like that and that's exactly the problem. they looked on over 90 plus products over the counter, liquid, tylenol and things of this sort for children. and the problem is children

under the age of 12 very frequently get overdosed with these types of medicine. yeah, some of them, nothing happens but a lot of them end up in the emergency room so the f.d.a. took a look at this and said oh, my god. let's look to see if the calibration is properly -- if the instructions are clear and the answer is no, they were not. over 80%. there were inconsistencies and the f.d.a. is saying voluntarily to awe the over-the-counter medicines, please have clear labels and make sure you have a unified type of device that you can, you know, children can use and hopefully we won't have these -- >> what was yours, 1888? shouldn't we have gotten this down by now? >> absolutely. it's not down and all these different medications have different calibrations. i have two kids myself and it can be very confusing. if parents are concerned, i would say for now while we're clearing it up, get your own standard measuring piece and the kind you use for baking, use that repeatedly and know what you're giving your kids. >> let's move to the second topic. we don't need calcium and don't

need vitamin d. >> people are blitzing into these vitamin stores but we don't need them? >> look, vitamin d and this is a reputable organization. they looked at a bunch of whole studies looking at the benefit of giving vitamin d supplements and they said, oh, really, people do not need vitamin d. there's not a lot of benefits and sometimes if you do take a lot of vitamin d, it could give you significant disease but i am for vitamin d especially -- >> yeah. absolutely. i would still give vitamin d. >> how do you feel about that? >> i think the average healthy american would get enough vitamin d. we don't need more supplements than what we're getting. more isn't necessarily better in this case. >> not more, carolyn. it's not more. it's the fact that when you look at vitamin d levels, especially in pregnant women, there are many pregnant women who have very low levels of vitamin d. when you get into low levels of vitamin d and you're pregnant, you have to supplement it. >> we're talking about the average healthy american,

nonpregnant. you. >> to me, everybody is pregnant. >> thank you very much. it all comes back to me. doctors, you've adjusted people's morning and educated them. congratulations to both of you. >> thank you. >> thanks. >> coming up straight ahead, we move ahead. imagine searching your name on google only to discover you're wanted for murder. it happened to one teen because of a spelling mistake and what if democrats don't cut a deal on the bush era tax rate soon, some americans may have to file tax returns twice. charles payne is here from the fox business network and he'll explain something important and how did tom brady get that full head of hair? another announcement today that's bound to make the rumors even worse and happy birthday to my fellow teen idol britney spears. former mousekateer. she was great and i love her candy bars.

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>> all right. that will get you up and ready to go. right? a little dancing. well, here's some headlines as well. a bizarre twist now in the murder of hollywood publicist ronnie chasten. late last night when police in l.a. tried to question a person of interest in the case, the suspect pulled out a gun and shot himself. police don't have a motive in the publicist's death. she was killed last month driving home from the premiere of the film "burlesque." >> meanwhile, another day. another bizarre twist in the trial of elizabeth smart's kidnapper, brian david mitchell. yesterday, smart stormed out of the courtroom after a state

psychiatrist worker -- psychiatric worker that is to say testified that mitchell wanted to impregnate smart who was just 14 years old at the time. he even claims smart picked out a name for their child. doctor says he based his professional opinion on writings from mitchell's ex-wife. >> a florida teen was shocked to find his name and picture on the polk county sheriff's web site after he googled himself and found he was wanted for murder. >> pure shock. my heart was beating. it's crazy. cops are going to bust through my door. freeze, you're under arrest. no. >> it turns out the sheriff's office made a big mistake. both games are named zachary garcia and shared the same birthday but are a year part. guilty zachary spells his name with an e. the innocent teen's mom contacted the sheriff's office and say please correct the error and they did. >> the grammy nominations are out and rapper eminem leads the

way with 10 nods. newcomer bruno mars follows up with seven award nominations. right behind him with six each, lady gaga, jay z and lady antebellum. the country trio need you now is up for song and record of the year. >> ♪ it's a quarter after one i'm alone ♪ >> the grammy winners will be announced february 13th. >> all right. some winners in the world of sports will be announced with mr. kilmeade. >> we will find out if the u.s. can get a victory. we didn't get the olympics. i don't know if you heard about that. let's see if we can get the world cup. former president bill clinton headlines the delegation in zurich lobbying the world cup committee to please choose the united states once again like they did in 1994 for the 2022 games. the u.s. is up against japan. up against south korea, australia to host the games. insiders say there's no clear frontrunner and we also sent

morgan freeman there and he didn't drive miss daisy and team u.s.a. are there to help the u.s.a. bid out. intriguing but landon donovan was offered to the morning shows tomorrow. does ensomething? tom brady may have seen a hair specialist a few weeks ago. but he may have a new weapon to help his war on balding. tmz reports at this hour that rogain has sent brady a three month supply of their hair regrowing medication to help him keep his justin bieberesque locks in place. we'll follow that story wherever it leads us. monday night football will be the first stop. dick degorian who represents tom delay will be joining me on "kilmeade & friends" along with larry clayman that thinks the wikileaks thing is good for the u.s. back to the big couch. >> let's go to the big world of weather. these pictures are from connecticut where high winds toppled a huge pine tree on to a

house in rocky hill. the storm system brought fierce winds and heavy rains along the east coast. my front yard is full of sticks this morning. you're right. i'm ad-libbing. let's take a look at what's going on. if you're living in the central missouri or mississippi valley, there's a possibility of snows falling through the area. sleety thing showing up on the doppler and radar. the big storm that moved through the northeast lingering in portions of northern new england and a storm moving in to northern california at this hour. look at you how chilly it is this morning. it's only 14 right now in minneapolis. we have 24 in chicago. same for cleveland and the 20's extend down through the mid atlantic. hang on, folks. you're going to double in raleigh later on today. you'll be up to 50 degrees. that's the same for much of dixieland but it will be stuck in the 30's throughout the northeast. 60's along the gulf coast. that's your fox travelcast. >> all right. 25 minutes before the top of the hour. >> mr. kilmeade, with the bush

tax cuts set to entire january 1st, the irs is warning about another potential tax bomb. >> yes, the irs commissioner says if congress doesn't finish its work soon, taxpayers could be hit with an alternative minimum tax. that means millions of people would have to file twice causing a potential logjam. >> talk to that man, lumberjack this morning charles payne, the ceo of wall street strategies and also hosting the stuart varney show today. that stinks. >> that does stink. let me tell you, initially the commissioner said he would assume, you know, he sent a letter to congress and said listen, i'm going to assume you guys will get your acts together and not just an amt, by the way, that will affect 21 million people but regular deductions, you know, there's tuition deduction, teachers have deductions, just standard deductions, that will impact 25 million other people so they have a real serious dilemma. do they assume this is going to get done at some point and send refunds and let's say it doesn't

and ask for the money back. i don't think so. if it's done on new year's eve, this is still a daunting task to reprogram all of those systems. so if you're the kind of person that really wanted your refund, you know, every year, more and more people file earlier and earlier. if you really were counting on that money to jump-start your year, more than likely if they don't get their act together very soon, they're not going to get that money. >> in the meantime, i heard human resources department is already taxed so to speak, no pun intended by waiting this long. >> absolutely. you know, it's not just the irs that has to reprogram assistance, it's large corporations, small businesses. every single day that this lingers, does mean that a lot of people will end up not getting money when they thought they would get it or it takes longer, if you want to start tracking a little bit on this amt. you know how this started at the amt, alternative minimum tax. 1970, 1969, 1970, they were so incensed that these rich people were getting over and getting around the rules, they had to go after them so they came over to

amt. they were going after 100 people. now it affects 21 million people. these class warfare things when you do them, they get out of control and this is a prime example why we have to avert this sort of ideology. >> right now, the way things are standing there's a possibility that people would have to file twice or amend their returns. >> absolutely. and i'm not sure how it's going to work. either your refund is going to be delayed or you may actually get a refund and have to pay it back. i'm not sure -- >> i'm not sure the irs will go down that route. >> take it out of my cold, dead hands. >> come get it. >> listen, i want to find out, charles, who is going to be on your show. it starts at 9:20. >> we have former virginia governor gilmore will be on, talk about a lot of different things. listen, guys, the tax situation, what's going on in congress really impacting our economy and where we're going to go from here. we're stating rting to get this traction from this economy.

>> they are welcoming all the new governors today at the white house. >> you're not invited. >> i'm not invited. >> i don't think the president will invite me to anything. >> you never know. >> straight ahead, tonight, lebron james returns to cleveland. >> they can't wait to see him. they miss him. a local pastor has a better idea, how cleveland will kill the self-proclaimed king with kindness. >> give me a hug. then the g.o.p. claims -- >> you? >> no, talking about lebron. only way to make progress in congress is block democrats from making progress. is that a good idea? we'll dedate it with juan williams and andrea tantaros. >> this friday, tune into fox news for a special presentation "fox news reporting, the last days with john lennon" with bill hemmer here on fox. ♪

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>> headlines on this thursday. wesley snipes ordered to prison december 9th. he's to serve three years for failing to pay taxes at the federal pen tnsylvani penitenti small town. arrests are likely of vandalism of ancient carvings in red rock canyon. investigators believe local gang members defaced them with spray paint and stuff. look at that. over to you. >> thank you, steve. after seven seasons with the cleveland cavs, lebron james packed his bags and headed to the miami heat.

the decision hurt the city and his fans. tonight, he makes his long awaited return to cleveland. >> going to be very emotional for myself. i got a lot of great memories in that city so many times, some ups and downs, and you know, a lot of things that i've done in my life i give a lot of thanks to that city. lot of thanks to those fans. >> the feeling is not mutual for those cleveland fans. they're expected to greet him with boos instead of hugs. but our next guest is welcoming lebron. he is the bishop for the in touch christian center and joins us right now. what is your suggestion for the very hurt people of cleveland? >> welcome back. we won't attack. keep the peace. >> they're angry. >> going to have a good time tonight. >> but they're angry. >> huh? >> aren't the people of cleveland angry their hometown boy picked up and left. >> yes, but we're not going to

concentrate on those people. we're going to cheer on the cavs tonight. this is about positive energy. you can use your energy positive or in a negative way. we're going to use our energy tonight to just cheer on the cavs and i just want to tell you, we're going to kill lebron with kindness. he's one of our sons. he's done great things for this city. he's a great basketball player. he's a great role model. he made a choice. but we have to support him and we got to encourage him to do his thing tonight but we're going to cheer on the cavs! >> i know your message in your sermon last sunday was to kill him with kindness. that's so hard for people to do, though! why did you think it was so important to include lebron james in your sermon? >> it is what it is. it was what it was. we have to learn to move on. you know, it's very important, you know, i was there when he made that great decision. i wasn't happy with the decision but i was angry with the way he did it but we've got to move on and tonight, here's a young man. very young. that he's -- he's with the heat

but he's under a lot of heat tonight. and i just think that we the fans of cleveland must stay focused on supporting and cheering on the cavs. go, cavs! >> well, you know what? don't be no fool. keep your cool is another alternate catch phrase that you're using tonight. but don't you believe that passion fans both positive and negative, that's what fans are about. express their true emotion and if they're angry, that's why the stayed sum going to be full. >> i'm going to be this tonight. i won't be in bishop's robes tone. i'll be in the gear of my deacon, got me some good gear. i'm ready for it tonight! but, you know, i'm going to enjoy the game. the fool sitting next to me, we're going to deal with that fool and i'll assure that the security will be tight tonight and i'm going to have a good time. >> let me ask you this, bishop. is it ok for a man of the cloth to feel a little glee in the sense that the miami heat is not doing so hot this year?

>> oh, well, you know the bible says don't rejoice over things when it goes wrong. i think it's going to work to our advantage maybe tonight. >> they have trouble gelling. having problems with his coach. >> working hard. let's give credit where credit is due. faith without works is dead and so we have the faith. i have the faith that the cavs are going to win tonight because they've studied and they worked hard to get to this point. >> reverend, we understand security -- >> best way to show it. >> we understand security is not allowing anything negative, any signs that are negative for james or his family there tonight and security will be exceedingly high. despite your greatest wishes and greatest hopes, people will boo. they're going to be angry. cleveland fans are nothing if not passionate and they are not happy with the local boy who made good. >> well, that may be well and good but i'm going tonight to cheer on the cavs.

that's what i'm going -- i'm going to use every bit of energy to use it in a positive way. and i hope that the booers really stay home. >> you're very inspiring and you have a great attitude. and i hope that people actually listen to your advice today. thank you so much for joining us, bishop prince j.moultry. like your message. >> thanks so much. >> thanks, bishop prince. in less than a month, americans' taxes will change but they still don't know what that change will be. so will the g.o.p.'s latest filibuster tactic work or is it just a waste of time? we'll debate it. juan williams and andrea tantaros. they're different people with different ideas. >> family pet trapped under hundreds of pounds of rubble. incredible rescue and reunion. you have to see this one. how can you get pain relief without taking pills around the clock? try thermacare heatwraps, for all day relief without pills. i was surprised, thermacare worked all day.

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>> senate republicans want to make sure that democrats don't waste precious time during rent maining days of the lame duck session. they have all agreed to block any legislation put forward unless it deals with tax cuts and government spending. so will this work? we're joined right now by fox news political analyst juan williams. good morning to you, juan. >> hi. >> and new york daily news columnist andrea tantaros as well. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> a total of 42, rather, mitch mcconnell, 42 republicans sent this letter to harry reid and said we know you have a lot on your plate. we're not going to do any of that stuff unless we deal first with the tax hikes and government spending. andrea, is that what america wants? >> it is and a gallup poll reflects that. they ask what do you think the lame duck congress should focus on. they said number one was fixing this tax situation and making sure taxes don't go up. they asked them about don't ask, don't tell and they asked them about amnesty for illegals which is the other part of the agenda

and they said nope. very low on the totem pole so look, they have the american people on their side on this one. i think it's necessary. the democrats have been like addicts. they keep saying like we're going to quit drinking. one more drink. one more spending bill. one more. republicans are finally saying we have to cut them off. no more. it's hardball, gutsy but necessary. >> according to her, happy hour is over. >> according to andrea, the world is just perfect. we have more republicans coming in january. halleleujah, salvation! but the thing is that we still have real work for the american people to get it done. american people did not vote for paralysis or gridlock. they want the senators to actually do their work. >> do they want the start treaty right now? >> yes. >> do they want the dream act right now? >> yes, the american people have been dying for somebody to take responsibility and act like an adult in the room when it comes to the immigration issue in this country and similarly on start, if it's to the benefit of the united states of america's national security, the american

people want it. >> he's worried about it, it wouldn't allow the united states to modernize. >> it's not even an issue. it makes me think all he's about to obstructing president obama's agenda to say we're denying him a victory. >> i agree with juan that immigration is important. i think there's need to be priorities and they need to prioritize and that's what republicans are doing. we'll get to that later. but fix the economy first. >> well, look, you know what? you get to everything later. you have 18 days and nights, i think there's a win-win situation here. the win-win is this, the american people want to see something done. if republicans say we're going to get something done and we're willing to make deals, the american people will salute republicans. >> the president really, he's letting republicans and democrats battle it out now. they both have playing the game of chicken. where's the president leading on this one? >> wait a second, the treasury secretary and jack lu are right there negotiating. i'll give you this. i think the president was wrong

in terms of letting democrats negotiate things like the health care deal but now i think he's more involved. >> he learned a lesson? >> i would hope so. that did not work and it was controlled by the republicans. >> he's missing in action. holder is trying to get the world cup here instead of worrying about wikileaks. democrats have been so distracted. republicans are trying to prioritize, doing health care and stimulus, all these other things except for the big issue of taxes. >> at least the president isn't going to try to do the world cup. last time he tried for the olympics and it didn't work out so well. what would happen if the tax cuts did expire for everybody out there? we have some graphics. if the your family makes $50,000 a year, you could pay $2900 more a year. if you make half a million, $10,000 in taxes. if you're one of the people that draws a million dollars a year, your taxes could go up by $50,000. we're talking about across the

board everybody -- >> who would make this happen? because as we know, president obama says he doesn't want any additional tax hikes for people who make anything in this country. $250 or less. republicans say the same thing. it's republicans who are saying we insist that the super rich get their cut. >> super rich. >> the super rich. >> $250,000 super rich? >> you know what? it's super rich by comparison to what most americans make, even what small businesses make. >> no, it's that middle class guy's boss or woman's boss that they're going to lay the tax on. they're going to cut the jobs. >> democrats are thinking about this compromise. a million. you're going to say the people who make a million aren't rich? >> 60% of incomes from these millionaires comes from businesses and investments. >> and aren't the people -- juan, you referred to them as super rich. the people making more than $250,000 here. aren't those the people who pay the lion's share of taxes in the united states already? >> correct and i'm all for it. >> give them a little break. >> because republicans are saying no, unless you give the

super rich, the people who make a million in all that the tax cut, we're not going to allow this to go forward. >> no, they need their money so they can pay for all these spending proposals. you have to cut it off. >> don't you feel like you're speaking out of two sides of your mouth when you say we have a huge deficit in this country. we have to be responsible and we have to pay down the deficit? oh, no, we shouldn't -- we're not going to -- >> taking more than half from the rich guy to pay it down is the way to do it. stop spending is the way to do it. >> is the more money they get from us, the more they'll spend. >> that's right. >> the more we give them, the less they spend. >> the less we give them at the moment the more debt we have. >> happy hour is over for congress. >> happy hour is over for you two as well. >> we're going to the bar. >> thank you very much. >> at this hour, why not? >> talking about the bar association. >> breakfast bar. >> breakfast bar. good. burrito time. >> students sick of seeing their classmate beat up in class pulled out a video camera. why was the teacher just watching this go down and do nothing? then the president's deficit

commission is recommending big changes like higher medicare payments and raising the retirement age. some americans say not good enough. tom coburn is one of them and he'll be live next hour to explain it. join the jaguar platinum celebration ! come celebrate exciting cars that are stunning to look at, exhilarating to drive and worry free to own. celebrate this holiday season with the gift of platinum. jaguar platinum coverage: five years or 50,000 miles of complimentary scheduled maintenance, and no cost replacement of wear and tear items visit your jaguar dealer during the platinum celebration foa $599 lease offer on the 2011 x and the life you want to live. with rheumatoid arthritis, there's the life you live... fortunately there's enbrel, the #1 most doctor-prescribed biologic medicine for ra.

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>> good morning, everyone. it's thursday, december 2nd. hope you're having a great day so far. i'm gretchen carlson.

we'd like to thank you for joining us. republicans say democrats still are not getting their message or the message that americans sent during the midterms. so they're bringing business to a grinding halt. could washington gridlock be exactly what america needs? >> wikileaks founder julian assange hiding behind the first amendment but many say all that does is erode first amendment rights for the rest of us. we're going to report on that and you're going to decide on that. am i right? >> indeed, mr. kilmeade. this time political correctness did not win when it comes to the war on christmas. one city's mayor forcing critics to change course. ho, ho, hold everything in philly. hour two starts right now. >> good morning, everyone. hope you're having a great thursday so far. let's show you who is on our big show today. we have politicians and reality stars and even a big guy, donald

trump. >> why do we have senator tom coburn on? >> he's on the reality show called capitol hill. >> i think c span. newt gingrich will be here with us. donald trump does have a reality show and germans love him. >> they do. so do the austrians and people throughout europe and meanwhile, donald trump will be joining us live along with father and son representative ron paul and his son, senator-elect rand paul. we got a busy two hours. thank you very much for joining us. let's talk first about what is going to happen later today. we understand according to our producers on capitol hill that today at 2:00, tim geitner and mr. lu are going to join with the fantastic four to continue to try to do something about those tax hikes that are supposed to go into effect at the end of this month. >> they met yesterday and everybody got along. they made progress and it was very cordial and then nothing happened. nothing happened yet but these are the guys that will make the

decision. president will probably get the decision and say that's what's been handed to me. it will be a way on the left for him to say on the left, listen, i made the prestigious panel and this is what they concluded. leave me alone. >> talking points. >> we got two options. extend all the tax cuts for two years and the only other thing they could possibly consider is the geraldo rivera amendment that says only tax millionaires. legitimate millionaires, not $250,000 millionaires. >> i think the main argument has to do with the length of time they would extend the tax cuts to what they would think was the uber rich. partisanship is back, folks. the republicans are saying look, we're not going to address any other bill. >> they're tired of waiting. >> in congress until we settle this whole tax situation. listen to mitch mcconnell. >> now, a while ago, i delivered a letter to senator reid signed by all 42 senate republicans. it says that every republican

will vote against proceeding to any legislative matter until we've funded the government and protected every taxpayer from a tax hike. >> so the democrats have got a lot on their plate they would like to accomplish during this lame duck session. while the president says the people in november did not vote for gridlock. they're absolutely right. they want something done on capitol hill and the republicans are saying the message was to cut government spending and do something about taxes. so that's why they're saying we can get to the start treaty and get to the dream act. let's do this first. president is not crazy about the filibuster threat. listen. >> i am confident that nobody wants to see taxes on middle class families go up starting january 1st. there's going to be some lingering politics that have to work themselves out in all the caucuses, democrat and republican but at the end of the day, i think that people of good will can come together and recognize that given where the

economy is at right now, given the struggles that a lot of families are still going through right now, that we're going to be able to solve this problem and i think we got off to a good start yesterday. there are going to be ups and downs to this process but i'm confident we'll be able to get it done. >> wednesday it down. >> you see the buzz word there. middle class tax cuts. so the president keeps saying that and that's exactly what members of his party are following along with today because they are going to force a vote today, democrats, on middle class tax cuts so are they putting republicans, then, into a no win situation? if republicians don't vote for this, then they look like they are not in favor of tax cuts for anyone. >> i think if the election was tomorrow, there might be a situation where politically the republicans can suffer. but no one is going to -- everybody knows the reality by now. vote is two years away anyway. nobody is going to say that's the party of -- we've made a decision who is the party of rich and what's going on. current tax rates will continue for another couple of years. you have to sign off on it.

meanwhile, steny hoyer says this. he believes it will not undermine negotiations on a compromise nor intended to embarrass or put republicans in a difficult place. there you go. your theory is thrown out the window. >> which one of my theory? >> the one that says it's a political ploy. steny hoyer says it's not. >> they're not going to embarrass those darn republicans. that's not what it's about. here's one of the darn republicans right now. john boehner on how democrats -- >> love bono. >> he does love bono. on how the democrats are han handling this vote on tax hikes. listen. >> i don't know what my colleagues across the aisle didn't hear during the election. american people spoke pretty loudly and said stop all the looming tax hikes. and a house leader will go down this path of gerrymandering the process so members only have one option. and that's to vote on only providing some tax relief to the

american people. the american people said election day, stop the games. stop the spending, stop the looming tax hike. >> for those of you who are worried this is getting petty and he's going to downgrade to name calling, harry reid says the g.o.p. is again on the sidelines rooting for failure and senator hatch says it's downright bad that we have to make the republicans mad. >> you thought everything would be kumbaya the other day. >> today will be a better day. i have a sense they will get along. >> censure of new york democratic congressman charlie rangel is expected today and our own julie kirtz is top of that story and in washington with the very latest. good morning. >> hi, gretchen. rangel is expected to plead his case on the house floor later today, this afternoon saying censure should be reserved for corrupt members of congress and he's not one of them. high drama likely in the afternoon. it will be a humbling experience for a 40-year veteran of congress who continues to insist he never meant to break house rules. short of getting kicked out of

office, censure is the most serious reprimand a member can face. he'll have to stand in front of his colleagues at the house chamber while the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi reads a resolution condemning his behavior. in a final plea for mercy, rangel e-mailed 25,000 campaign supporters yesterday asking the to flood the capitol hill switchboard. i am truly sorry for mistakes, he wrote and would like your help in seeing that i'm treated fairly and some members like james clyburn say they'll vote no today. house leaders say they're confident in house ethics committee's work that found the pattern of fundraising and financial misdeeds. new york congressman charlie rangel all but certain to face a censure by the full house this afternoon. >> julie, thanks stretvery muc that update. police in michigan say they're going to call off the volunteer search for the three missing boys. they disappeared on thanksgiving

day. detectives have little hope now they'll be found alive and plan to tell the volunteers beginning friday night to stay home. thes boys' father reportedly dumped the kids on the side of the road so they would not see him commit suicide. that's his story. he's currently going through a bitter divorce and custody battle that may have been his motivation for the kidnapping. this morning, the man convicted in the gruesome murders of a connecticut family will be officially sentenced to death. a judge will stengs steven hayes found guilty of killing a mother and her two daughters during a brutal home invasion in 2007. hayes could address the courtroom himself. and the only family member to survive that attack, dr. william petit is expected to speak as well. new problems in the gulf of mexico. three oil rig workers were injured when a wellhead exploded south of the louisiana coast. the coast guard has been called to investigate the explosion. all of the injured workers are expected to be ok. investigators insist no oil is

leaking into the water. one lucky dog is safe and sound this morning after lifeguards freed her from underneath a lot of rocks. the jack russell terrier got away from her owner and became trapped between large boulders. the owner was putting up missing dog flyers and coincidentally showed up in time for the happy reunion. and those are the headlines. >> thank goodness. talk about this one, nancy pelosi became speaker of the house a couple of years ago. people said, you know, this is going to be great because finally as a first female speaker, she will put a lady's bathroom closer to the house floor. way it is right now, you have to leave the house chamber and you have to go across statutory hall and way over there is -- >> on the train back to some place else. >> did nancy do it? no. >> so the bathroom is 50 yards away and coming into the next congress, there will be 71 female members who also have to be sprinters if they would like

to go and release themselves while they get back for a vote. >> release? >> whatever. >> relieve. >> whatever that word is. sorry. anyway, john baoehner who will now be the new speaker of the house, don't e-mail me and tell me i'm ditsy. finally going to put in a female bathroom as close to the male bathroom. hats off to john boehner this morning, from every female in america. thank you. >> i will add something to this, it reminds me of the year 1982 when mcsorley's in new york city, ancient bar there before babe ruth, they decided for the longest time to have men and women in the same bathroom. >> just the bathroom. >> because for a while, there was no woman allowed in the bar and we've cut off that now and thanks to ian, he started ladies night in bars all across new york city. good idea, ian. >> how would you remember that arcane date of 1982?

>> so happens i graduated high school there and i was caught up in the hoopla. >> that's right. the drinking age was 18 back then. >> yeah. when it went up to 19, i had six months when i was illegal and i was in therapy. i think that was one way to do. it you didn't have to share bathrooms and they never did that in washington but now they have separates. >> hats off to john boehner who loves bono as brian pointeded out. >> ally mcbiel pointed out to me on another fox show. she went to get engaged to harrison ford. >> guy from "entertainment tonight," i feel like it. >> thank you. >> republicans promise to ban earmarks and cut spending. their proposal fell flat. now what? we'll talk to one senator who has been behind the ban. tom coburn joins us next. >> your taxes pay for put a roof over their heads. they've got millions in tax refunds. who are we talking about? the guys in orange, prison inmates! that story straight ahead. live from new york city, that's sixth avenue.

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>> republicans joined democrats to help defeat the measure. is this a sign that congress is not really serious about curbing spending? tom coburn was the author of the proposed measure and joins us

from d.c. good morning. >> good morning, how are you? >> i'm doing fine. were you shocked that the earmark ban did not pass? >> no, you know, washington doesn't get it yet. there's just still a disconnect between those who have operated in the past by spending to their benefit and the parochial interests of our state and the problems are so much bigger than that and they refuse to accept it and the american public by 2-1 is against this process and rightly so because it is the reason that we have the spending levels that we have today. >> so you think things will change when the members of new congress come in january or not? >> yeah, it will change. maybe it won't change enough. it will change for those who continue to embrace it. >> let's talk about the deficit commission. i know you served on that commission. it's the panel of 18 people, the report came out yesterday, the vote will come on friday.

did the report go far enough in your mind to cut spending for this country? >> no. look, one of the problems with the whole setup of the deficit commission was having had the vote on health care, they didn't really touch significantly health care. if you look, we have $88 trillion in unfunded liability, almost $80 trillion of that is associated with health care and to not work and solve the problems we have on health care and attack the costs and paul ryan put forth a great proposal called premium support for people in the future. not those on medicare now and not those coming soon but to redirect some consumer discretion into the purchase of health care. >> let's listen to erskine bowles and alan simpson, they are chairing the debt commission. >> tom coburn is a prince. he proved to me he's a man of his word and man of integrity.

he probably does want to go further but we can only get so far. >> let me say, look, we wouldn't be where we are without tom coburn. he's been great. i can't believe the caricature that's been made out of him. this guy is a responsible leader and he's right, i can tell you that. it's a step in the right direction. we're not at the end of the rainbow. we have a lot of serious, tough choices to make in this country. >> wow, are you used to hearing such praise? >> well, you know, i have a reputation -- in washington, you get a reputation based on negative rather than positive. it's nice to hear the praise but the point is we have big problems and it's not about individuals, it's about the future of our country and we ought to be focused on that and i think erskine would agree, this is just a starting point. even if this bill comes out and gets passed by congress, it is not close to enough to get us out of the problem we're in. >> all right. >> and we need the american people to know how severe that problem is. >> but senator, they need votes.

are you going to vote yes then on friday? >> i'm going to announce my vote today at 11:30 at a press conference. >> you don't want to announce it four hours early right now? >> no, i don't. >> all right. maybe i can get you to comment on this. president the other day enacted the federal pay freeze. did you see that strictly as a political move or did you see that as the president coming more to the center? >> no, i don't see it as a political move. the fact is as we have way too high of payments for comparable work in the government as we do to the private sector. we need not only to freeze pay, we need to look at the benefits structure of not the people that are in retirement now. not the ones that are coming out but in the future and we also need to start down sizing the federal government in terms of its employees and so we can do that through attrition and the commission recommends that as well as a 15% cut for the budget of the white house and the members of congress. >> i notice that you're sporting a beard these days. any specific reason for that?

>> i was just sick of shaving. i'm not trying to grow a beard. this is just the result of being recalcitrant in terms of shaving every morning. >> you're a busy guy as every senator and member of congress is right now especially. great to see you, as always, senator and we'll pay attention to what your vote is going to be. 11:30. senator coburn. >> all right. >> coming up, kids who didn't want their classmates to be bullied anymore. they pulled out a video camera. now the teacher could be in trouble for standing by and watching. he leaked secret government documents not once or twice but three times putting our security at risk. now julian assange wants to hide behind the first amendment even though he's not an american citizen. why that could erode your first amendment rights in the long run. >> wikileaks has released hundreds of thousands of classified documents. you know, a lot of the stuff is not even relevant. it's just gossipy stuff. let's look at this. iranian president ahmadinejad,

he was once offered a 10:00 p.m. show on nbc. did you know that? apparently they were trying to ruin his reputation.

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>> glad you're back. glad you're up. news by the numbers. first $9 trillion. that's how much the federal reserve loaned big banks during the financial crisis and according to a new government report, most of those loans went to foreign banks? next, $1.3 billion. that's how much americans spend on line at cyber monday. that's a record! and i want to say this is the first time the web sales have ever passed the billion dollar mark in a single day. everyone gets a trophy. finally, that's how many stars scientists believe are currently in the universe. that's triple the number of stars earlier estimated by peter

johnson jr. >> thanks, brian. wikileaks founder julian assange on interpol's most wanted list for charges unrelated to the leaks. but what about prosecuting him for exposing u.s. diplomatic secrets? last night, assange's attorney appeared on "freedom watch" claiming his client is protected under the first amendment of the united states. >> the problem people are having difficulty with is julian assange is a modern day electronic journalist and as a result of that, the material that he gets, he publishes in electronic form. now, that is no different to other people who do that including many major newspapers. >> understood. >> but i challenge you to find a single news organization around the world and i represent a few. i challenge you to find a single one around the world that wouldn't have published this material if they got one of the cables. >> peter johnson jr. joins us live this morning. peter -- >> "the wall street journal" got

this stuff and said we're not going to too it. >> they're not going to do because they made the ethical, moral choice as a legitimate news organization. i don't subscribe to the major premise for the minor premise or the logic or the argument of that nice fellow that is speaking on behalf -- mumbo jumbo on behalf of the fellow who is hiding out wherever the heck he is, there is a 1917 espionage act in the united states of america which prohibits someone from obtaining or exactly the same type of documents that mr. assange and wikileaks apparently obtained and decided to publish. now we have the first amendment, this is about civil rights and the only people that really are affected is an american government. american government is the american people. >> sure. >> and so we do know that people die as a result of this last

attempt with regard to records. we do know that a pfc is in jail now and will await trial and so the question i ask this morning is the new journalism, just the old espionage? >> that's a great point. we had a guy yesterday on our political panel, a professor from georgetown who said, maybe we should declare this guy an enemy combatant because first of all, he is not american. and secondly, he's out to do the united states harm. >> people could die. >> it's an interesting viewpoint and it's a more acceptable viewpoint than what we're being heard espoused by the white house. but mr. gibbs said yesterday was in that same vain of clap trap and mumbo jumbo that we heard from assange's lawyer. we're not going to be intimidated by a guy with a computer.

what we have is a serious, serious problem for our diplomatic corps in our country as a result of this dump of documents. and if the new journalism means going around and spying on governments and then maybe spying on people and then spying on corporations, and private documents like this are somehow in the public realm, then god help journalism. and god help the united states of america. >> because assange says next he wants to take on a big bank. and a lot of people have money in that bank and a lot of people are americans. peter johnson jr., thank you. >> good day. >> good day to you. meanwhile, straight ahead, former speaker of the house newt gingrich says don't just reject the left. is that even possible? newt coming up live next. they don't make money of their own but they're spending yours. how prison inmates manage to scam the system out of millions in tax refunds. and you've seen knight ryder and

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>> >> president obama hosted a bipartisan meeting with people from both parties. he told everybody things went really well. the president's body language was very subtle. here, he didn't look that pleased. take a look. >> conversations, i think it will actually yield the results towards the end of the year and i look forward to continuing this in months ahead.

thank you very much, everybody. >> hilarious! >> how the heck do they do that? >> i don't know. poor gibbs was on the other day. >> thank you. >> warning next time. >> on this thursday, here's some headlines and we start with a suspect in the murder of hollywood publicist late last night when police in l.a. tried to question a person of interest in the case, that fella pulled out a gun and shot himself. police don't have a motive in the case. she was shot when driving home from the movie premiere "burlesque." >> american hiker freed after more than a year in the iranian prison is begging for the release of her fiance and close friend through music. >> ♪ we walked across thailand into ♪ >> she's dedicating this you tube music video to shane bower

and josh fatal. they have been jailed in iran on espionage charges for almost a year and a half. she said the songs are meant to remind people to keep fighting for their release. >> this song and the video that we're putting together to complement the song is for shane and josh and for their freedom. >> iranian officials say they released shourd for medical reasons. she says she wrote most of the song while in prison. >> another day, another twist in the trial of elizabeth smart's kidnapper, brian david mitchell. yesterday, smart stormed out of the courtroom after a psychiatrist testified that mitchell wanted to impregnate smart. even claimed that he picked out a name for the kid. he based the professional opinion on writings from mitchell's ex-wife. >> parents of a 13-year-old boy in west palm beach are suing the school district after the boy was beat up in class and no one tried to stop the fight. beating was caught on camera and posted on you tube after both the boy and his alleged attacker

were suspended from school. school officials apologized after they saw the video. family of the boy who got beat up is still suing for negligence. >> city of philadelphia back tracking now. the mayor wants to put the word christmas back on the signs for a village. steve keely is live in philadelphia with the very latest. that didn't last long, steve. two days, they called it the holiday village and the people were pretty upset about it, right? >> well, he said they got a few complaints from people complaining about the word christmas in this archway but once they talked to the guy in germany who runs this little outdoor village here that sells things like scarves and other christmas gifts, right outside of city hall, the complaints from across the country must have came flooding in because the mayor said it's probably more like he got a whole lot more complaints than the initial complaint about having the word here and he said the word will go back in after talking to the man in germany who runs this

village, again. so we'll have christmas back here at the christmas village. one thing we won't have christmas in, right between the village booth there you see and the city hall christmas tree. they don't call it a christmas tree here. the mayor was asked about that. call it the christmas tree or holiday tree. we're going to call what we always call it in our press releases, it's the city hall tree. so steve, gretchen, brian, one other famous thing here in philadelphia, going off the sticks there for a second and there's a famous sculpture here of the word love in front of a second tree. and my morning show i do here, what if somebody complains about the word love being too strong? are they going to change that to just friends park. no response from the city. >> i love that. we have the same love sign here in manhattan. whatever happens in philly may happen here. you never know. >> good point. thanks. >> merry christmas. >> merry christmas. >> made a good point, you know, in the beginning a couple of people complained.

hey, that's christmas. you have to get rid of that. so now the guy, the managing director of this whole thing fella by the name of richard negrens says it's about the word christmas. i didn't tell them to take down the word christmas so he's doing that -- that fella is right there and here's the mayor, mayor nutter and his comments regarding christmas being back. >> we didn't jump anything. we shared information with the gentleman, he did make a decision. they're his signs and he tried to be responsive because he didn't want to be offensive. i'm very, very appreciative that he reconsidered his decision and that christmas village is back. >> here's what i don't get. we were supposed to have all this tolerance for all these other religions which everyone thinks is absolutely fine. why does christmas take a hit? this is what you don't get in this whole argument. why can't people just say merry christmas. it's december 25th that specific holiday like yesterday we said happy hanukkah.

>> christmas, everyone celebrates christmas. they feel as though christmas can absorb it. when you have a new celebration like festivus, everybody is afraid of attacking it. >> because it's new. some of the video here, the stuff they sell at this german christmas village are things like christmas tree ornaments. they have christmas trees. they have a nativity that was available. so it was definitely christmas stuff. we had a guy yesterday who had written something in the newspaper, when he went through, he didn't see anything from any other religions that was available for sale. >> earlier on the show, we had the dean of the ava maria school of law, gene millheiser. here's what he said. >> i think it makes good political sense to be on the same page with the majority of your constituents are. i think it makes business, i think that's why store owners are more and more recapturing

the idea of christmas and i think it probably makes good political sense, too. >> yeah. >> as i was saying earlier, though, my kids confused because of all this p.c. in society right now. it's happy holidays and merry christmas and now my kids in writing christmas cards are saying happy christmas. they're putting the two together. because they -- they have probably not heard in their short lives merry christmas a lot. >> that's what they say in great britain much that's an interesting point. >> i was walking through the mall and evidently santa watches fox news. turned around and a different boy yelled are you watching fox news? >> for years, santa has been watching exactly what he wanted. why wouldn't santa know your name? >> it hasn't happened every year. >> right. >> just keep getting stacked up every year brian gets a man bag. >> when we talk taxes, how many times do you say to yourself, i might get a tax refund.

what about the prisoners? how many times do you say that to me? >> every day. yeah. every day. apparently, 50,000 inmates could get as much as $130 million in taxes now without providing any wage information to the irs so you say, how did that happen? well, we're not really sure. there's a whole heck of a lot of dough that will be going back it them and buying a lot of commissary things. >> apparently what happened is the irs was investigating a quarter of a million going on with the tax refunds from people who were in prison. now, they're not saying that it's fraud but instead they're just saying we're going to investigate. >> that's a lot of tattoos and cigarettes. >> look, there's a great possibility that it could be fraud. i mean, let's just face it. >> yeah. >> because if you are filing for a tax refund, you don't have to provide where the money came from that you're getting the tax refund from, there could be a problem.

>> write off the clothing allowance and they give it to you. >> exactly right. food. >> just another example of how we can cut down on all the spending if we didn't have all these pesky problems. >> all right. as we forge ahead, let's move ahead with this segment. former speaker of the house newt gingrich is here and he says don't reject the left. replace them. is that indeed possible? newt makes it all make sense. >> yep. best known for his role on "baywatch." you're about to see a totally different side of david hasselhoff. look at his home life as a single dad when the hasselhoffs join us coming up. >> who needs make-up? leftover desserts, boardroom, now. thanks, i already have some yummy black forest cake. black forest cake? ♪ [ female announcer ] need a guilt free treat? try yoplait light. and i've lost weight. [ female announcer ] with 30 delious flavors all around 100 calories eac

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>> couple news headlines for you right now. a town in iowa, listen up, are giving away free land. the town, population 150, half way between des moines and omaha has five lots available at no cost. but you must build a house on the property and you cannot keep livestock there. different story now. e-mail us. students are told to spit out their gum in class. they might be asked to blowing more bubbles. a school in germany has launched a pilot program that encurrentlies students to chew gum saying it improves their grades and helps them focus.

>> former speaker of the house newt gingrich issuing a call to replace the left. >> joins us now from d.c. to explain. he has a 12 step plan. good morning to you, mr. speaker. >> good to be with you and when i talked to the american legislative exchange council yesterday and the republican governors two weeks ago, the point i made is the whole system we've inherited starting in 1932 is now, you know, it's an almost 80-year-old system and it can't just be fixed we have to look at a systemic way of fixing things that don't work. specific example is unemployment compensation. last year we paid $134 billion for people to do nothing. if that same amount of people had been given to the same people with the requirement that they learn and require more job skills, it would have been a human capital improvement program and the biggest

retraining program in american history at zero cost to the taxpayer. that kind of shifting to the work ethic, moving from food stamps to paychecks and shifting to investing so that america box the best manufacturing country in the world again is the kind of thinking we need is we're going to succeed. >> what do you make of what's going on on capitol hill right now where i think as of midnight last night, a bunch of americans lost their unemployment insurance because they'd run out of it through 99 weeks. >> well, i think frankly, first off 99 weeks is a very long time. >> two years. >> and i think until we -- we should be modifying it so if you get money beyond two years, you have to earn the money by going to school or doing something. i think the idea of giving people money for year after year to do nothing is fundamentally very dangerous. >> i'm intrigued by this 12-step plan, mr. speaker. so unemployment is, i assume, one step. give me another example. >> i think that every school

from k through 12 at every public college and university should every year introduce young americans from the base of american exceptionalism to get people to understand why we said in our founding document we're endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights because we need to re-emphasize what does it mean to be an american. >> social studies. i mean, we learned that in social studies. and we learned that in first grade. >> yes, and you'd be amazed today how many americans get all the way through college without learning any of that. astonishing. >> let's move on to something a little less important. charlie rangel, he's been around. he's alive for 81 years and probably been in congress for 79. he is going to get censured today. how significant? >> first of all, i feel very sad for charlie. he was a korean war vet. he's somebody who has been around as an able political leader for a long time. on the other hand, i think that the congress should not only censure him but if you look at the total charges against him, since a number of those charges

are tax related, i think the house should take him off the ways and means committee. there's something fundamentally wrong about a guy who had years of tax violations serving on the committee that writes taxes and oversees the irs. >> apparently in the last 24 hours or so, mr. rangel has been sending out e-mail blasts to his constituents and people all across the country. contact your member of congress and don't have them vote for censure. give me a reprimand but don't censure me. >> when you look at the total weight of the evidence, that ploy is helpless. the house will censure him. to censure him in the last week of the session, they should insist that he not serve on the ways and means committee. >> it's interesting. at one point, he wanted to become chair once again of that same committee. so stay tuned for that. i want to make sure we can talk about this because you're doing something important today. hosting the first annual americano forum and gala in d.c. what is it?

>> well, the americano.com is a web site dedicated to bringing together conservative and moderate hispanic-americans and creating a dialogue about prosperity, about national security, about immigration, about reforming the government and they're having their first annual conference here. it's really about a huge conference, i'm amazed how much they've pulled together. over 60 speakers. president of spain is speaking this morning. the ambassador from mexico is speaking. we're honoring the president from colombia tonight. we're also honoring lincoln diaz, the congressman from miami. the miami symphony is here to play tonight. and it's really a great opportunity to bring together conservative and moderate hispanics to talk about the future of hispanic-americans. >> the question is will they get an autographed copy of your brand new best selling book. that's something only newt gingrich can decide. >> we're trying to get it in spanish for everybody. so we want to make sure that you can buy it in the language of your choice. >> good answer. >> great book. thanks so much for joining us. great to be here.

>> ok. >> coming up next, the hasselhoff family heading into our studio. there they are right there. walk towards the cameraman. that's right. they're giving us a look inside their life off screen at home. david looks like he's walking in slow motion. maybe he is. >> he takes direction very well. >> good actor. >> first on this date in 1954, wisconsin senator joseph mccarthy censured for his communist witch hunt in 2001 and declared bankruptcy. in 1984, wham. yes! has the number one hit "wake me up before you go, go." one of my favorite cd's. to stay fit, you might also want to try lifting one of these. a unique sea salt added

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>> shows like "baywatch" and "knight rider" made david hasselhoff a household name by far, the hardest job he's had is father to two young women. it takes viewers inside his household and shows challenges he faces as a single parent. >> david hasselhoff and his daughters join us live on the suddenly crowded curvy couch. >> really crowded. >> good morning to you. >> good morning. >> full of hasselhoffs today. >> so the idea is you have opened your home out in california to some cameras that will see it all, right? >> yeah. we kind of have opened and invited the cameras this time. >> what, are you crazy? >> no. you know what? instead of running from the cameras and having them say what they want. now we have an opportunity to say what we want. >> it's like c span. sees it all. >> yeah, we get that kind of show who we really are and kind of the process of what it's like

to being david hasselhoff with daughters that get up at 4:00 a.m. >> why is the make-up here at 4:00 a.m.? >> and why is there a sound guy in my bedroom? >> exactly. why won't he leave? >> exactly. >> that was a good one. wasn't it? >> very funny. >> so besides it is trials and tribulations of watching them put on their make-up, what are the other trials and tribulations of raising two young women? >> bringing them into a business that is kind of sometimes brutally unfair and sometimes breaks your heart. >> sometimes? >> yeah. you know, most of the time, it's fantastic, you know, when you're in -- when you're on stage and you're performing and the girls know this because they've been on stage and performing, it's fantastic. it's just kind of the other stuff that goes with it. point in fact. haley had a great series, huge, 10 episodes, critically acclaimed. "new york times" just canceled. and those ups and downs. that's what the show is about

and the fact that we're just like midwestern family like everybody else. >> any reluctance to do this? >> no, not at all. there's been so many bad tabloids and we want to prove them wrong. we're a loving family and all best friends. we have so much fun and hopefully it's entertaining to people, you know, we want to show the world who we really are and get to know who we are. >> if i'm not confused, i believe the episode we're looking at right there is when you taylor decided you're going to leave arizona university -- arizona state. >> university of arizona. >> thank you. got it wrong, sorry. >> arizona state. >> i was thinking about this saturday. >> so you're going to leave but your dad comes to the rescue, flies into town and tries to talk her out of it. >> yeah. >> yeah. i mean, university of arizona has been so much fun. i love school but singing has always been a passion of mine and she finally had a break from work so we decided that we were going to start our group together and really work at it really hard. >> finally had a break. >> yeah. and i'm just waiting for them to finally agree for her to come home.

>> it was fantastic. >> so then the first conflict this year. >> i was loving her being in school because i never finished school, you know, i went to california studio arts and left to become a waiter to become an actor and, you know, there was one side of me that said please finish school. and i love going to the university of arizona and hanging out with the wildcats and my daughters there. i was the hoff. >> do you plan to complete your education? >> yes. very important. >> absolutely. >> david, can you explain this? you are like the number one guy in the world in austria. or over there. number one -- >> hit single called "looking for freedom" it went number one in 10 weeks and then the berlin wall came down the same month. and this -- >> yep. it became an anthem for east germans, we just came back from east germany. >> all right. >> i'm going back on this new ye year's to sing 20 years later. >> that's unbelievable. if you don't mind, we'll watch

december 5th at 10:00, 9:00 p.m. central, is that right? >> that's correct. >> thank you very much. >> great to see you, hasselhoffs. coming up on our show, the relief effort in haiti about to get more expensive and everyone is turning to the u.s. to pick up the tab. is that fair? that story top of the hour. and the life you want to live. 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 where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b,

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>> gretchen: good morning, everyone. today is thursday, december 2, thank you for sharing your time with us today. republicans say democrats still are not getting the message and

it's causing gridlock in washington. we'll have a live report straight ahead. >> steve: no hail maries on this football field. the student punished for praying, pointing up there after a touchdown. he joins us live with a message for that referee. >> brian: the relief effort in haiti about to get more expensive for us? should the united states be forced to pick up a multi-million-dollar tab? we report. you decide. "fox & friends" starts right now. # >> brian: welcome to the time hour of today's show, which is the one day before friday, which some call thursday. look at the big board. michelle malkin is here. she doesn't even know it yet. donald trump will be here in 30 minutes. donald paul and rand paul to close the show. maybe the next president and the latest political thought from

michelle malkin. >> steve: it will be a busy final hour, as you hear the music for the apprentice in the background. >> brian: they've adjusted and donald will tell you. >> gretchen: first we have to kick off this last hour with our headlines. the house is expected to vote for censure against charlie rangel. it's not clear if he will speak in his own defense, but he asked supporters to contact other members of congress on his behalf. in an e-mail blast he said this, i am truly sorry for mistakes and would like your help in seeing i am treated fairly. the 40 year veteran law maker acknowledges problem, but insists he never meant to violate house rules. police in michigan say they will call off the volunteer search for those three missing boys who disappeared on thanksgiving day. detectives have little hope that they will be found alive now and they plan to tell volunteers beginning friday night to just stay home. the boys' father reportedly dumped the kids on the side of

the road. this is his story, so they would not see him commit suicide. skelton is currently going through a bitter divorce and custody battle which may have been his motivation for the kidnapping. in two hours, the man convicted in the gruesome murders of a connecticut family will be officially sentenced to death. a judge will sentence him, found guilty of killing a mother and her two daughters, during a brutal home invasion in 2007. he could address the courtroom himself and the only family member to survive that attack, dr. william pettitte, is expected to speak. the u.n. spent more than $730 million for peace keeping efforts in haiti and now it's asking for more dough. it's calling on who? the united states to provide another 235 million to help extend the mission through next year. the u.n. isn't very popular in haiti. peacekeepers from nepal are blamed for starting the cholera epidemic that killed over 1400 people. not much progress is being made toward housing for the people

made homeless by the january earthquake as well. and there is widespread suspicion of fraud in the just completed u.n. supervised election. a day after meeting with top white house officials, the debate on tax cuts may be coming to a close. wendell goler here live to explain. a settlement, a deal? >> well, not quite, gretchen. but republicans say the president is ready to extend all of the bush era tax cuts and that means at least temporarily extending the tax cuts for the rich. meanwhile, democrats are pushing for a renewal of the extended unemployment benefits that expired yesterday. south carolina republican senator jim demint suggests that the extension of the upper level income tax cuts will be at least two years. senate minority leader mcconnell wouldn't put a time frame but he said yesterday definitively, there will be an extension. >> we're going to extend the current tax rates. we're not gog raise taxes on

anybody. the only thing we're discussing now is just how long that extension will be. >> the president's budget director and treasury secretary will be back on capitol hill today after two sessions yesterday trying to reach a compromise on the tax cuts and treasury secretary geithner is meeting with the president right afterward this afternoon so the deal may be coming together soon. we're not sure. mr. obama said yesterday the key is to make sure that the tax cuts for the middle class don't expire. maryland congressman chris van holland, one of the lawmakers involved in the negotiations, says democrats are determined to extend the jobless rates that expired yesterday. the extension would be about $13 million a year. he said the extension of the upper level income tax cuts would be $70 billion a year. so it looks like that's where the negotiations are right now. how long to extend the extended unemployment benefits and how long to extend the upper level

income tax cuts, but it appears a deal may be coming together. gretchen. >> gretchen: all right. very interesting information. wendell goler live at the white house, thank you very much. >> steve: live in colorado springs right now, there we have our regular thursday guest, michelle malkin. good morning to you. >> good morning, steve. >> steve: what we're hearing is it looks like they're going to have a vote on the tax cuts probably first and foremost would be middle class only. the republicans have said, you know what? unless we focus completely on the tax cuts and cutting government spending, we don't want to work on anything else in the senate. >> yeah, that's right. and the republicans in both the senate and the house so far have been holding the line on this. we had 42 republican senators basically laying down that ultimatum. we've got to deal with these obama tax increases first before we do anything else. and remember, there are so many political payoffs that are currently in the pipeline,

morphos, harry reid trying to ram through this very unpopular expensive and wreckless illegal alien amnesty dream act. that shows you how warped their priorities are. it's good that all of the republicans seem to be on message that jobs are job number one. in the house, just to add to wendell's report, what i'm hearing is going on, it's a lot of funny business and it's one last political stunt by the outgoing house speaker, nancy pelosi. apparently what she wants to do is block republican amendments on this house tax cut vote and what it would do is prevent house republicans from putting down their ultimatum, which i have recommended for months now, which is all or nothing, that we can not treat wealthier producers in this society and in this economy differently than the middle class ones.

i think what i'm worried about is we're not hearing that, all or nothing and permanent for everybody. i mean, we had enough redistribution of wealth. we've had enough experiments from the democrat majority. they've tripled the deficit and now they're going to lecture the republicans about fiscal responsibility? shuh. >> brian: i got bad news for nancy pelosi. by the way, nancy pelosi is a little sad today because her global warming panel is going by the board's republicans made that clear since she took control in 2006, that has been her focus. are you surprised and saddened? >> yes. here is the crocodile tear that's rolling down my cheek. for the end of this select committee. i hope this is just the beginning of the house republican, house cleaning on so many of these wasteful committees that were intended and specifically set up to kill

jobs. remember that that select committee on global warming was responsible for foysing the failed cap and tax plan on america and i think one by one, this is the way to start eliminating all of the fiscal irrelevant responsibility that the democrats now are paying lip service to condemning. >> gretchen: john boehner, his spokesperson said we have pledged to save money by reducing waste and duplication in congress. the select committee on global warming, which was created to provide a political forum to promote job killing national energy tax was a clear example and it will not continue in the 112th congress. there is one republican from wisconsin, he's a top republican on this panel and he says that they should keep the panel because then the panel could keep obama's energy policies in check. what do you think about that? >> well, i mean, he's got a poin there. however, there are plenty of other already existing watchdogs and panels in place to do that.

i have to say i've been surprised by the bp oil spill commission because they've been the hardest and most aggressive at exposing all of the lies of this administration to undergird their bogus deep water drilling moratorium policies. >> steve: speaking of exposing, the guy behind wikileaks apparently the british authorities know exactly where he is and even though interpoll has put out all points bulletin, let's bring him in, apparently he has not been arrested because there was some clerical problems with the paperwork from the country of sweden. so he's still sitting out there about to send again. what do you make about the way the white house has handled this? >> well, there is a lot of macho theater going on and i think that they've got mixed messages because on the one hand they want to join with the rest of the international community in aggressively condemning him, hunting him down, making him pay

the consequences, and on the other hand, you've got robert gibbs at the white house press office poo-pooing the whole thing, we're not afraid of him. they treat him as if he's some blogger in his pajamas in the basement. >> brian: that's what he said basically. >> yeah! and i think it's undermining the gravity of the situation. i have to say, i've bent over backwards to try and not condemn this administration and not to jump on hillary clinton and julian assange's assassination attempt, character assassination attempt at her, but they're making it very difficult for me to defend them on this. i think they're obviously large -- there are larger issues involved here in protecting whatever administration's state department is on the table here. and their private communications. i just don't think that the messaging is working here because it is not conveying a

consistent sense of gravity. >> brian: bill clinton said flat out, people could lose their lives because of this. so to come out and side line it or diminish him as a 35-dollar -- who paid 35-dollar for a domain name and he's just a blogger, we shouldn't be afraid of him, that is relatively insulting because we understand there is much more at stake. >> yeah. and i think what it tells you is that the political strategist, all of the chicago team players that they brought to the potomac know how to exploit a crisis, but do not know how to handle and manage one when it's in their lap. >> gretchen: congressman hoekstra agree and he says these kind of leaks were bound to happen. listen to this. >> we should do everything to maintain the integrity of our databases by going after people who steal them and compromise them at the same time, we also have a responsibility to make sure that we don't create an environment where people have access. we created an environment where this accident was just waiting

to happen. we were extremely sloppy. we didn't exercise cyber 101. there is plenty of blame to go around. >> steve: yep. there is plenty of blame to go around. you're nodding your head, plenty of blame. >> certainly. i think he's got it right on there and i think it's mind boggling to most americans that some 500,000 people had access to this database. it was a disaster waiting to happen. >> brian: by the way, until he's arrested, it's not going to stop. thanks, michelle malkin, for joining us this morning. make it a great day. >> take care. >> brian: straight ahead. >> gretchen: crack down coming against shady home loan companies. will more small print protect you? bob massi breaks it down in a way that you can understand it. that's next. >> steve: then he's done it more than a dozen times before, thanking god after scoring a big touchdown. but now he's been punished. a high school student penalized for praying, joins us live. >> brian: but not penalized by god.

>> gretchen: bogus loan modification companies. they've been scamming homeowners out of thousands of dollars for years, but now the federal trade commission is saying enough is enough. they've announced a new rule to impose tougher regulations -- this will start next month. will homeowners really be protected now? here to help us answer that question, fox news legal analyst who specializes in real estate, bob massi. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> gretchen: so will homeowners benefit from this?

>> this is a good thing. what i'm upset about it's taken so long for the ftc to act. bottom line is this, as of the end of this month, the end of december, there are certain things that will come into effect. for example, there could be no more false and deceptive advertising, meaning mean loan modifications out there would advertise to the homeowners, we can get your principle reduced. that is false. principal reduction literally does not exist. here is what's important. at the end of january, what's going to come into effect is no longer could a loan modification company charge a homeowner up front money to modify their loan. so if you go to a loan modifier that is a nonlawyer and they say, we want x amount of dollars to modify your loan, the ftc says no. as of january 11, no longer can that happen. the only way they get paid is if the loan modification takes place, the homeowner accepts the modification and then and only

then can they be paid. the only exception to that is if you are a lawyer. if a lawyer does loan modifications, they have to be a practicing lawyer and the money paid has to be put into a trust account and when they get the modification approved, then they get paid. this is a very, very good regulation long overdue. >> gretchen: how do you know then if the particular company that you're working with is complying. >> that's fantastic. that's exactly what you have to look into. look, if you are contacted by phone, if you're -- if you see things advertised on tv, immediately contact generally speaking in most states, loan modification companies are dictated by the mortgage division of the state where you live. so you find out what agency oversees the modification company and you call and you say, hey, i was contacted by abc company. are they, in fact, under a guideline of an attorney? do they work with an attorney? because what's happening is this, this is forcing loan

modifiers, for example, i had calls from companies who say, hey, could we work with you? i said, no, i don't want to be involved in your business. i hate what you do. i don't believe in what you do generally speaking. but you have to find that out. you contact the attorney general's office in your state. there are specific divisions that oversees the jurisdiction of loan modification companies. >> gretchen: bob, if you're so on top of this and undoubtedly other people are and were, what took so long? >> you know what? i just think it got away from everybody and what's upsetting is a year ago, for example, in state of nevada, a loan modifier didn't even have to be licensed and bonded. that was in most states. then they said if you're going to open up a loan modification company, you have to put up $100,000 bond. your people have to be fingerprinted. we have to do background checks. it ended up being like a telemarketing business. one was open on every corner all over the country. so they were very slow in reacting and you could talk to people that have done loan

modifications. they've been scammed by thousands of dollars. some of the companies charge 5 to $10,000 to modify a loan that never really works and then they walk away with the money. so i'm glad they did it, but they really, really are late in what they did. >> gretchen: all right. very good news for people in those tough situations as of the new year. bob, always great to see you u have a fantastic day. >> merry christmas. >> gretchen: merry christmas to you as well. it's the age old question, could there be life on other planets? where is brian when i need him? nasa ready to help settle the debate once and for all. he's about to face censure. charlie rangel. so how is donald trump involved with that? he'll be here live. then he's done it more than a dozen times before, thanking god after scoring a touchdown. but now he's being punished. the high school student penalized for praying. he joins us live to explain.

>> gretchen: has nasa found life beyond earth? we could know in a matter of hours. nasa holding a news conference 2:00 p.m. today to discuss what it calls major new evidence of extraterrestrial life. australian investigators say a man could be responsible for the qantas problem. >> steve: high school football player penalized for praying? 17-year-old ronnie made his way into the end zone during a game and then dropped to his knees right there and pointed upward to the sky, a move he's done

several times before during the season already and now he has been penalized for it. >> brian: scored a touchdown and said a prayer. joining us now from seattle, washington is ronnie himself. first off, 15 yards for praying in the end zone. were you wrong? >> that's up to the ref's interpretation on the call. i'm not one to defy the rule. >> brian: you watch the nfl every sunday. you see the guys do the same thing. you're a junior in high school. they don't get flagged. you do. doesn't it seem wrong? >> i think the nfl and the high school game are completely different. those guys are pros. that's their job. it's different rules and again, i don't define the rules. >> steve: what is the rule? >> i think the rule is if you're going to bring attention to yourself, you'll be arrogant and self promoting and taunt the

other team, then that's unsportsman like conduct. that's the call you want to make. >> brian: how dare you show your arrogance like that scoring a touchdown and refusing to put the ball in the opponent's face and taunt him. instead, look the other way, drop to your knee and pray briefly and get right back up. the taunting there is so over the top. >> steve: what has your coach said about it, because i know he has weighed in on this. >> he said he's proud of me. he doesn't get mad at me or anything. he's supporting. we look at it -- each play is important and once the play is over, we can't do anything about it and look to the next one. >> steve: why do you think the ref called you this time? you've done it a bunch of other

times. >> i think he probably -- it's the way he interpreted it. he could have been thinking many different things and that's what came to his mind. he threw the flag. >> brian: next time you said you're not going to do it and here is what the interscholastic statement has said. call was based o a national playing rule which stipulates that any delayed, excessive act in which a player draws attention to himself is a foul. that does not explain their case. >> steve: and the crazy thing is, you're not drawing attention to yourself. you're pointing up, aren't you, ronnie? >> yes. the goal is not to bring attention to myself. it was to give honor to my lord. >> brian: i'm a little clairvoyant. i predict you will score again and celebrate in which way? >> what i plan to do is give the ball to a ref, head to the side lines and then i'll point up and do that thing there. i don't want to jeopardize my

team's success. i still want to glorify my god somehow. >> brian: by the way, congratulations, you're in the semifinal now. right? >> we're in the finals, saturday. >> brian: this saturday you're in the state finals. good luck. >> thank you. >> steve: i got a feeling a lot of people will be praying for him. we thank you very much for joining us today from the pacific northwest. straight ahead, the investigation into the murder of a hollywood agent takes an unexpected turn. the guy police were looking for found dead. >> brian: then design flaw that's making fender benders cost thousands to fix. 6,000 bucks. >> steve: look who is over here at the studio. how donald trump is involved in charlie rangel's situation. we'll talk to him about the connection. donald trump live next here on "fox & friends." >> brian: he wants to help him.

>> steve: time for some headlines at half past the hour. tax cuts are expected to be the focus of talks today between president obama and vice president biden. they'll be sitting down with treasury secretary tim geithner at 3:00 o'clock eastern. republicans have not said they will -- have said they will not bend on extending the bush era tax cuts to all. >> gretchen: bizarre twist in the murder of hollywood publicist ronnie chasen. late last night when police in l.a. tried to question a person of interest, that suspect pulled out a gun and shot himself. police don't have a motive in the death. she was shot last month when she was driving home from the premiere of the new film "burlesque." >> brian: america's auto industry calling for bumpers to be lowered on sport utility vehicles. this after crash tests showed suv caused an average of $6,000

worth of damage when they crashed into smaller cars at 10 miles per hour. auto makers say designing suv would lower bumpers would make them less marketable. i'll follow that story with everything i'm worth. >> steve: a town in iowa is giving away free land. town of marn, halfway between des moines and omaha, has five lots available to you at no cost, but you have to build a house on the property. no trailers, please. and you can't keep livestock there. >> brian: turn is out. >> steve: i want some of that land. >> i'm going there today. >> steve: let me tell you about the town. it has a population of 150 and is trying to beef up that along with its economy as well. by the way, donald trump is joining us shortly. >> gretchen: a fox business alert. the labor department releasing weekly jobless claims. 436,000 new unemployment claims. they were filed last week. that's more this week than economists anticipated. they were expecting 422,000 claims.

maybe because they've been down a little bit the last few weeks. >> steve: now we were just talking about him, here he isers, ladies and gentlemen, donald trump. good morning to you, sir. >> that's a sad lead in with the jobs. >> steve: no kidding. something else that's going on today is the fact that charlie rangel is probably going to be censured by the house of representatives. there is a story out there that you were going to be called by the ethics committee and people thought oh, he's going to speak on behalf -- good things about charlie rangel. not so much. >> not one way or the other. charlie came up to my office and to many other offices of many people, lots of other people, and he's building some kind of a civic center in a school. he said, could i have $5 million for the civic center? you know what i said? i said no. i use good judgment. it's called judgment. somebody said why did you say no? i said because i have better places to put my money. he wanted that. i didn't see that -- i guess he wrote on congressional stationary to me and others on congressional stationary asking for money for some kind of a center, the rangel center.

>> steve: did it feel like a shake down? >> no, it didn't. it really didn't. i feel badly for him. i've known him for a long time, being in new york. but it's too bad what's happened to him. >> gretchen: do you believe that censure is the right punishment for him? >> would you do me a favor, would you leave me out of this debate? i've known him for a long time. in certain ways he's very lucky. if it happened to you, you, or you, called jail time. so maybe he's lucky to be censured if that's all that happens. >> brian: i got nine more questions about him. do we have time? i'm kidding. you jumped on the phone with us and i was intrigued by your take, instant analysis on the north korea and south korea situation. south korea quickly said, oh, my goodness, for the first time in 60 years, we're under attack. two people died, dozens wounded, when north korea decides to open up on some island. your reaction? >> i have two reactions. first of all, south korea isn't even signing a trade pact with us. they make hundreds of billions of dollars of let's call it

profit on the united states. the president goes over there recently and they embarrass him by saying we want more. you wouldn't believe me. this deal that we're making is so bad and they won't even sign it. then they get bomb and we send -- i say two things. why aren't they paying us? they make a fortune. why aren't they paying us for security? why are we doing this for nothing? we are the dumbest people. i see that they embarrass us by not signing the trade pact, then i see the boats sailing, these magnificent destroyers, most incredible thing i've ever seen, and they're all going over, i mean, what's wrong with us? why aren't they paying? by the way, i'd say number one, sign the pact that we want, not the pact that you want. and number two, and more importantly, i want you to pay us for protection. you know what, they'll do it. all you have to do is ask. otherwise they're not going to exist with like a million and a half man army, it's so stupid.

>> gretchen: one of the things you talked about is china's role in that and much more. in this wikileaks document dump, didn't we see in that that china would be okay, at least one of their officials would be okay with north and south korea merging together and eliminating north korea. would was that a promising revelation? >> china could settle this whole situation with a phone call. north korea is petrified of china. they could settle it with a phone call. but they don't want to settle it because they're tweaking us. when i look at the job numbers and i see what's going on in china where it's booming, you know why it's booming? 'cause they're making all of our products. >> steve: we don't make anything. >> we don't make anything. we do health care, but that's not like making health care. that's taking care of our sick and people. but we don't make anything. when i order curtain walls for buildings and order furniture, not that i want to do business with china, i've done business with china and i don't like it. these are sharp people that are looking to do damage to this country. they could solve north korea in

one phone call if they wanted to. more importantly, they're taking all our jobs. so when you see jobless numbers up, i watched the economist, how can the economy boom when they're taking all our jobs? they make all of our products. we are rebuilding china and our country is going to hell. >> steve: that's the number that came out just about -- >> that's a big number. much higher than they thought. >> steve: they're watching us in the white house. what should they be doing? >> in my opinion, you have to bring jobs back to the united states. you mentioned iowa before. there is a town in iowa, i watched it on 60 minute, newton, iowa, where may tag moved to mexico because of incentives by our government, and now the town is reeling. i look at what we're doing and i say, why are they doing this? bring jobs back to this country.

you're never going to increase jobs. how can you increase jobs when every time something happens, they move plants out of the country? watch what happens to boeing. did you see the other day? china announcement, they're going to start making airplanes. that's wonderful. first of all, they manipulate their currency. they totally manipulate their currency. china, it's almost impossible to compete. here is the good news. we make much better products. when i buy chinese furniture, it breaks. you know who i call? nobody. there is nobody to talk to. when i buy chinese sheetrock and thank goodness i didn't, but you see what's happening with the sheetrock, people are dying all over the place when they use it. we make better products. but they manipulate their currency and it's very, very sad. somebody has to do something about it before it's too late. >> brian: what about those who accuse us of doing the same thing by printing out $600 billion because we seem to be short? >> we're trying to do the same thing, but we don't know how to do it because they're smarter than our leaders. >> gretchen: let me take a political turn here because a lot of what you're talking about is what you would be dealing

with if you ran for president. when will you make that announcement, because it would have to be relatively soon? >> i'm actually thinking about it for the first time. for many years, you guys have said this often. for many years, people have wanted me to run. i didn't want to run. i'm doing great. my company is unbelievable. i'm having fun. this is a great time to be buying things because the country is so battered, you can buy things cheap if you have a lot of cash. so i've been buying great things for low prices. i love what i'm doing. but i hate what's happening to the country. when i see what opec is doing with oil, the country is doing badly, yet we're paying a fortune for oil. they set the price of oil. they fix the price of oil. 11 guys, all guy, they sit around the table and they say, oil will be at 86. and that's it. oil is at 86. now, if we did that, if we had stores on madison avenue and did that, we'd be arrested and put in jail. so i look at china and opec and they can be broken so easily.

you tax -- somebody said, they're our banker. hey, i've had bankers on -- i've done very well with bankers. i want to tell you something, you tax chinese products. two things will happen. the products are going to be less coming in and more importantly, we're going to start making toys in alabama and north carolina. >> brian: i want to talk to you about -- my last question is -- >> it's so privilegial, the apprentice in comparison. >> brian: it's a success story. >> it's a great story. >> brian: your world is business. cut and dry, yes or no, the world you're going to get into is not like that. it's nuance, can you exist in that world? >> i don't know. i'm a very honest guy, i'm forthright. i think i can. if i decide to do it i can. i know everybody in that world, i've contributed to all of them. i go democrat, republican. i'm a republican, but i know them all. maybe that's a good thing. maybe somebody should be able to deal with all of them. they're all friends of mine. some are enemies. >> gretchen: you would be able to solve the tax problem looming for the past few days?

>> i think both sides are making fools of themselves. i think it's very sad and in the meantime, we need jobs. >> steve: so what you would say to congress is, you're fired. of course, that tag line, you made very famous with "the apprentice." the longer this show run, the better it gets. >> we're down to three and we have a great show on tonight and then the finale is next thursday. it's been terrific. we just finished shooting "celebrity apprentice" which goes on march 6. probably have to make a decision right after this. >> gretchen: now we've got you down to at least a month. sometime in march. who is on celebrity apprentice? >> fantastic. deion warwick, gary busey, jose canseco, a bunch of really wild people. and they have been -- star jones is on. they have been absolutely unbelievable. marlee matlin is fantastic.

>> brian: tonight's show, there is a warmth to this season. right? >> there is a warmth because they're so down and out. when it started, it's been so great, but we wanted to go back to the regular despite the celebrity success, to show what happened with the world. when i started this five or six years ago, we were booming. everything was booming. it was phony money. all nonsense. but everybody thought they were booming. they really weren't. but it was positive. now, these people are down and out. they had great jobs, now they don't have. one of the people, beautiful lawyer, went to a great law school, had a great job, now selling cupcakes. another one was a builder in texas. great guy, clint. and he went bust. they're all going bust. so we have a lot of people that went bust. and it's reflective of the economy and that's why we want to do do it. >> steve: be tube side watching it on that other channel. >> i love your show. >> steve: thank you. >> i think you have a great

show. >> steve: ladies and gentlemen, the guy who could be the next president of the united states, donald trump watches the show, you should, too. >> gretchen: and make sure you make that announcement in march here. >> we'll think about that. >> steve: thank you. >> gretchen: a tornado rips through this town tearing down a family's home and trapping their dog. >> brian: republicans are promising to stop democrats in their tracks in an effort to keep taxes low for all americans. will their holdout plan work? congressman ron paul, his son, senator-elect rand paul, here live together.

>> gretchen: couple headlines. did you know chuck norris was once bit by a cobra and after five excruciating days of pain, the cobra died. that may not be true, but this is. texas governor rick perry will make chuck norris an honorary texas ranger later today. a dog is rescued after a tornado destroyed his home while he was stuck inside. look at this video from waga. rescue crews found the dog under the rubble trapped behind a wall. he was freed without a scratch. great news. brian. >> brian: they bailed out wall street, but is the white house

now using your tax dollars to save europe's economy as well? the administration says no. but some new reports suggest otherwise. peter barns is live right now in washington, d.c. following this story. peter, what can you tell us? who is telling the truth? >> hey, brian. one of the reasons stocks jumped 250 points yesterday was because in part of a report out of brussels quoting an unnamed u.s. official that the u.s. would be ready to help europe contain a debt crisis by increasing its commitment to the international monetary fund. any increase like that would be backed by u.s. taxpayers. but the obama administration shot this down immediately. a treasury official saying we don't have anybody in brussels and an extra commitment to the imf is not something we're discussing right now. notice the wording was, right now. we also found out that, well, the administration in fact does not have anybody in brussels right now, it did send a treasury secretary big shot to

europe this week for meetings in madrid, berlin and paris, which are kind of in the neighborhood, i think, brian. >> brian: put it this way, peter, the american appetite is not into bailing out banks. so that is a republican and democrat time bomb. correct? >> yeah. no question. the administration has said from the beginning that this is a european problem. europe has to fix it with no help from the u.s. but, in fact, the u.s. is helping through the imf, which is making loans to greece and ireland. now they announced plans to double its lending capacity. that would require a bigger commitment by the u.s. and that would require congressional approval. brian. >> brian: thanks so much. coming up straight ahead, republicans in congress plan to hold out and force democrats to keep the bush tax cuts for every single american. will that work? father and son team, congressman ron paul, senator-elect rand paul here live. first let's check in with the

co-host elect, bill hemmer, for what's on your show at the top of the hour. >> co-host designate. good to have fun with you on the radio yesterday. brian has a radio see. did you tell them? >> brian: i'm keeping it a secret. >> what a day this will be. there will be a vote on tax cuts in the house. there will be a vote on charlie rangel's censure. dana perino makes sense of this issue. bobby jindal has a plan to get states out of their financial hole, they'll explain that. breaking news on the wikileaks matter. nasa says it has a huge announcement today from deep in space and we'll explain all that. we'll see you in ten minutes here on "america's newsroom."

>> steve: welcome back.

the deadline looms extending all of the bush era tax cuts still up in the air on capitol hill. the democrats have scheduled a vote later on today extending only the middle class tax cuts. but have continued to indicate that they will let tax cuts for the highest income earners expire at the end of the year. joining us for reaction is dr. rand paul, the republican senator-elect from kentucky and his father, texas republican congressman dr. ron paul. guy, thank you very much for joining us live today. >> good to be with you. >> good morning. >> steve: good morning. congressman paul, i see you've got your congressional pin on your lapel. senator-elect rand paul, what is that on your lapel? >> that's not one red cent more. the louisville tea party came up with that and we say they've taken all our money and we don't have one red cent more to send them in washington. >> steve: okay. that's clever. then let's talk about the money in and what they're doing with

it. what do you think about the whole idea that the democrats are just saying, dr. rand paul, that we're only going to -- what we're going to do, the republicans are, is we're going to hold the feet to the fire of congress and we're not going to cus on anything except government spending and the tax hike. >> yeah. i like kind of the way glenn beck puts it. he says, you can't be for job creation if you're against the job creators. the democrats don't -- they want to raise taxes on those who create the jobs. i think that's a big mistake. the other thing about raising taxes is that businesses make predictions based on multi year, five-year, ten-year plans. they base those tax cuts already in existence on their plan. i think if you change that midstream, it's really a recipe for disaster in a weak economy to raise taxes. >> steve: all right. congressman paul? >> you know, they always say for

us to correct our problems here, people have to sacrifice. i don't buy into that. if you get your taxes rate, somebody is sacrificing, they're taking your income commoncally speaking and by the rules of that, we shouldn't have to sacrifice. i want to do away with the income tax. can you imagine, if the income tax had been suspended two or three years ago or gotten rid of, would they have felt like this was a sacrifice? the real sacrifice comes when we bail out all the people who made all the money in the boom years. the people who lose out when government quits spending, i don't call that sacrifice. i call that fairness. they get alt dough and the people who work should get the reward. >> steve: congressman paul, now president obama is proposing a federal pay freeze for two years. isn't that something the republicans have been saying all along? >> i'm sure they have and i'd be all for that. but what is that in the scheme of things? good symbolism and maybe a

distraction from cutting real spending elsewhere. so i don't want people to dwell too much on that. i don't even think a freeze is all that beneficial. i've seen some statistics show that the government sector makes a lot more money than the private sector. why don't we start cutting it. that's what we really need. but i think that political gamesmanship he's playing. >> steve: dr. rand paul? >> well, if you look at the statistics recently and look at total compensation of federal employee, they're making almost twice what the private employees are making. it's $120,000 average total compensation for federal employees, over 20% of federal employees make over $100,000 a year now. so i agree with my dad. we need to cut their pay. not just freeze their pay. we need to cut their pay and approach back to what the private marketplace is paying. >> steve: okay. the doctors paul, we thank you both for joining us live. get the hide abed ready because your son is moving to dc

shortly. >> i told him i'm not -- no. >> steve: good enough. guys, thank you very much. there will be more "fox & friends" in two minutes right here on the fox news channel.

>> brian: what an unbelievable show. did we get everybody in? is there anybody left in the green room? >> steve: three action packed hours. more on tap for tomorrow. apparently a new show called "bridalplasty" where brides