>> decide to work with us, we can all have a happy holiday. if they don't, we're going to continue until we finish the people's business. >> and he says if they don't finish, we're facing a government shutdown. what will that do to the country? details in moments. >> don't tell and don't ask. meanwhile, it's a fashion statement and a song. >> ♪ pants on the ground pants on the ground looking like a fool with your pants on the ground ♪ >> that might be your ring tone. if you like that look, there's a new way to wear baggy pants without them falling to the ground. yes, it's the sag prevention cure. is this a good idea? we'll report and you're going to make up your mind. "fox & friends" starts right now. >> good thing the senate and house aren't debating that saggy pants thing or they'd never get home for the christmas holidays. >> controversial. >> instead, they're debating

things like the start treaty. the senate has to get through that today before they can even move on to other business. what is actually going to happen? the spending bill but fights are going on all over the place now. could the government actually shut down? >> the problem is this, gretch, that is that the way they line it up, first we'll do the start treaty and then we'll take up spending. what's your hurry? the government is going to shut down on december 18th. that is absolutely the drop dead date. keep in mind right now, on capitol hill, there are two bills. the house has passed a continuing resolution. they're done with it. they've passed theirs but the senate goes no, we have this other spending bill. this is the one with, you know, it's like $1.2 trillion and it's got all those earmarks in it. there's a big battle. so jim demint and others are saying they got to read the bill verbatim by the clerk, could take 30 or 40 hours, not just for the spending bill but also the start treaty and the problem with that it's in legislative language and partially in

russian. which house clerk knows russian, brian? >> beats me. let's listen to both sides weigh in. >> i don't think any of us, i don't need to hear the sanctimonious callings about what christmas is. some have to whine to stay in action what the american people pay us to do. we make large salaries, madam president. we could work as most americans do. during the holidays. >> unfortunately, the democrats, greta, are trying to push through their whole wish list right before christmas and they're using christmas as a bargaining chip effectively in a major arms agreement with russia should not be considered in a lame duck session. >> as well as don't ask, don't tell. what is the big rush there? everyone knows the big rush. the whole complexion and ratio of republicans to democrats changes in the new year so they're trying to jam in as much

as possible. >> beat the clock. >> many people thought actually the start and dream act and all these other kinds of bills was built in behind the scene with the compromise for the tax thing. we were discussing earlier this week maybe republicans agreed to help with start and the dream act if they got their tax compromise. doesn't look like that was actually part of the deal right now if they're going to hold everything else up. >> there might be enough republican votes for start, i understand, in the senate but when it comes to omnibus bill on top of all that, that's where the rubber hits the road in many respects and that's where maybe the president will sit on the sidelines and jump in and say i can't go for this. >> if congress fails to pass the spending bill and the federal government actually shuts down, what does this mean for you and me? peter doocy is live with that answer. good morning. >> good morning, gretchen. quite simply what it means, unless the new spending measure is passed, a whole bunch of agencies and programs that need federal dollars will be limited except in emergency situations starting at saturday night at

midnight, as you said, they would stay that way for at least 30 hours, maybe longer. now, the government has done this before, the longest and, perhaps, most notable shutdown began on this day 15 years ago and lasted all the way until january 6, 1996, and when that happened, here's some of what went on. the national institutes of health stopped taking new patients, the c.d.c. stopped disease surveillance. more than 3500 bankruptcy cases were suspended. they stopped recruiting and testing federal law enforcement officials including 400 border patrol agents. the atf had major delays in processing applications for alcohol and tobacco and firearms. 368 sites maintained by the national parks service closed. that affected seven million visitors and cost surrounding areas over $14 million a day. also 200,000 applications by americans for passports had to be shelved and services given to

our veterans were stalled or interrupted. all that as according to a report by the congressional research service about the shutdown back in 1995 and 1996 and you can see it details a major change in lifestyle for the american public. even if all that stuff goes away, it's important to note essential services and employees, those relating to national security and public health, air traffic control, border control and emergency assistance would still remain available. gretchen? >> peter doocy, thanks very much for that report. >> yeah, here's the thing. if you have to do this, if you pass and you want to prevent a government shutdown, there's got to be an alternative to passing this pork bill because this is all a setup. they've had 11 months to write this budget and decide how to keep the government going. they've went until the very last minute because there might not no other option. you have out of the appropriations committee, the chairman who has been sitting on the sidelines and harry reid springs this on everybody. on top of that, this is a tough decision for republicans.

do you pass this bill and put in a billion dollars for health care? and then in january, turn around and say, i want to rescind health care and fight it? wait a second, you just funded it by the term of a billion dollars. what are you going to do with a billion dollars? >> never heard senator mccain be upset about all this. he's been against earmarks for his entire career. president obama also said he was against earmarks. >> our earmark system that's called pork barrel spending in washington is fraught with abuse. it badly needs reform. >> i pledge to not slash earmarks by more than half when i'm president of the united states of america. i'm not going to tell you what i'm going to spend but tell you how i'm going to save. >> we'll go through the entire federal budget page by page and line by line, we'll eliminate programs that don't work. >> senator mccain talks a lot about earmarks. there's no doubt that the system needs reform and there's a lot of screwy things that we end up spending money on.

they need to be eliminated. >> a lot of screwy things we need to eliminate. that's an understatement. john mccain who has looked through a lot of the pages and has spotted all sorts of screwy things in it is going to be joining us at 8:15 this morning. you don't want to miss that. >> the president has not said a word. he could come out in the last minute and say, hey, you know what? i'm wanot going to support this. >> the alternative would be for him to say you got to take the house version which a number of republicans and democrats say is a good thing because the house version says, ok, it's a temporary thing until february. and that, of course, is when more republicans come in and that is when they can actually eyeball and see what's in this thing. >> he also kind of has somebody behind his back saying he doesn't have to do this. remember, they voted on earmarks a couple of weeks ago and it didn't pass. even after the november elections, that bill did not pass. let's talk about this right now because a big report is going to be coming out today. the fox news alert regarding the

overview and the assessment of where we are right now in afghanistan and pakistan. it's the annual review. as you know, richard holbrooke was working diligently on this and he passed away a couple of days ago. where do we stand now? the president is going to be making an address about where we actually do stand. what's he going to say about the troop withdrawal coming up according to him in six months? >> well, seven minutes ago, the white house released the embargo and we do have some details on what is going on. essentially they say the surge in afghanistan and pakistan seems to be working and it seems as though they'll be able to start that withdrawal next year. what's interesting is -- and they point out the relationship between pakistan and the united states. they say that the relationship is substantial and it's moving in the right direction. and yet, the problem is that the bad guys when they find safe haven in pakistan and pakistan is not cracking down enough on it. and we can't solve it simply with our military. we need more help from the

pakistanis. >> need more help. we need some help. the isi is working against us and as long as we're allowed to cross back into the border, this report goes on to say and have their safe havens and regroup, rearm and refuel and send people over the border we're not going to get anywhere. here's good news. we're forcing the insurgents to the outskirts of populated areas and beginning to root out corruption but steve, you can't use that word surge. you do not. the president of the united states does not want to use that word surge because david petraeus used it and he kept bringing it up during the iraqi discussions. that's when he was at cent com. now that he took over for mcchrystal and is now in charge of this, it's called disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-qaida in afghanistan and pakistan. >> they're not going to say anything definitive, i don't think, today because they're going to say something like there have been advances in this war but challenges remain and we'll have to see how this all pans out. there's no way that they can say definitively where this war is right now i don't think. >> yeah, not enough progress has been made yet but you hope the

groundwork has been laid. >> ok, let's do a couple of headlines for you, a fox news alert. al-qaida, speaking about the war on terror, planning terror attacks in the u.s. and europe this christmas season according to top iraqi officials who say they obtained concessions from captured insurgents much the failed bombing in stockholm was reportedly one of those plots. they are on high alert during the holidays after the botched christmas day bombing over detroit last christmas. speaking of the christmas day bomber, he's headed to federal court today. umar farouk abdulmutallab also known as the underwear bomber is facing new charges including conspiracy to commit an attack of terrorism. investigators discovered late in the case that he wasn't alone in planning the attack. if convicted on the new charges, abdulmutallab could spend the rest of his life behind bars. a man hunt under way right now in arizona for the fifth suspect in the murder of a u.s. border agent. 40-year-old brian terry was killed in a gun fight with a gang that preys on illegal

immigrants. gun fight took place in rio rico, a small town five miles north of nogales where a drug smuggling tunnel was found earlier this week. the house set to vote today on extending the bush tax cuts. it already passed the senate overwhelmingly and the house democratic leaders say they plan to approve it but one snag could be an amendment calling for a higher estate tax. if that passed, the bill would then have to go back to the senate. >> this isn't just a matter of just stumping. we can say we impacted this agreement. we think it improves the package substantively. >> republican senator mitch mcconnell saying "we urge democrat leaders to resist playing political games and making partisan changes." hall of fame pitcher and world war ii vet bob feller has died. career long cleveland indian losing his life to leukemia at the age of 92. feller known for his fastball and intense patriotism, he left

baseball for four seasons to join the navy after the attacks on pearl harbor. he was inducted into the hall of fame in 1962. he was the hall's longest tenured member. the indians released this statement saying bob feller is gone, we cannot be surprised. yet it seems improbable. bob has been such an integral part of our fabric, so much more than an ex-ball player, so much more than any ex-cleveland indians player. he is cleveland, ohio. having lived there, i can attest to that. wonderful statue of him outside of the indians stadium there. >> during the better days for cleveland. meanwhile at 11 minutes after the hour, finally, it's here. saggy pants that drive you nuts often get people that wear them scared because there's a sense they could fall to their ankles at any time. until now! >> until today and we've got some good news and i thought the guy with the three piece suit was going to deliver it. how many times have you seen guys walking around with pants like that, low riding and you think they could -- doesn't look very professional. a fella here in new york by the

name of andrew lewis has come up with something called the subs and take a look at it. it's part garter. part suspenders and that way -- it gives you kind of a professional look as half of your underpants is sticking out. >> oh, please! why not just pull your pants up. >> please, gretchen! >> so you're going to spend $30 to make sure your pants don't -- what about getting pants that come up to your waist. >> you could have taken a shot of me this weekend. that's where my pants were, right around my hips. no, i'm at work. i'm a totally different person when i'm home. but i mean, it's garters and suspenders, half suspenders and garters with larry king moving on, maybe he could get an endorsement bill. >> homage to larry. benny hill is coming over to -- auto apierce morgan. >> whatever. >> i know who benny hill is. >> there you go. >> is that a good idea? to invest $30 more so your pants don't fall down? you now see this contraption. let us know. e-mail us. >> do you want to see brian's underwear? >> exactly.

maybe nasa should work on something better. coming up straight ahead with new terror threats out today, our focus turns to england. our next guest says england is harboring terrorists and not doing enough about it. we'll talk to them. >> then brand new developments in the shooting death of an american man riding that jet ski on a lake near texas and they involve his wife. -[ male announcer ] got a cold? -[ sniffles ] [ male announcer ] not sure what to take? now click on the robitussin relief finder. click on your symptoms. get the right relief. makes the cold aisle easy. the robitussin relief finder.

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>> got new reports of al-qaida targeting u.s. and europe for the christmas season like last year. there's new information that the bomber behind the attack in stockholm, sweden, may have been radicalized in the u.k. again like the underwear bomber and the shoe bomber before him. is britain the new breeding ground for terrorists? joining us from london director and founder for the center of social cohesion, douglas murray. what's going on over there, douglas? >> well, it's a good question. the answer is not quite so easy. there has been for years in britain the fre meanting of radical sentiment across this country among the substantial

muslim minority and although most of them don't follow these radical preachers, now a significant number of people clearly have fallen for this. we had the abdulmutallab detroit bomber last year and we had the stockholm bomber a couple of days ago and this goes back more than a decade now. in 2000, there was a british man radicalized here who went to blow himself up in kashmir in a suicide attack. next year it was richard reed, the shoe bomber. the list goes on and on and is growing. >> you believe the problems at the universities, not necessarily with the professors but the clerics and imams that get on campus. >> yes. i mean, this is an astonishing problem, one that america is concerned about as well. but it's a real problem in britain. if you want to see how bad it gets, look here. islamic societies and universities in this country routinely, every single week across the country invite radical clerics and preachers who preach hatred of minorities,

other groups, hatred of america, hatred of britain. just the week before last, the london school of economics just up the road from here, the palestine society hosted a man who said a few years ago when israel is destroyed by nuclear bomb, he'll go to trafalgar square and dance. when students are being taught that kind of thing, we have a problem. >> are you the only guy saying this? is there anybody else that sees an international catastrophe brewing? >> well, it's pretty lonely, i have to say, it's perfectly obvious they're simply observing what's under our noses so there are too many people in britain as there are in the states who are terrified of being accused by the politically correct crowd as it were pandering to stereotypes. accused of islamaphobia, this new crock term. it's islamaphobic that you say you don't want undergraduates to be taught about jihad. they're more afraid of what

they'll be accused of. >> instead of islamafophobia, y talk about suicidal. it could be over here especially with this holiday season. thank you. >> it will be. thank you. >> sadly, i think you're right. meanwhile, straight ahead, lawmakers promise to cut spending. why is congress proposing a budget that includes $8 billion in pork? is that how you want congress spending your money? new poll out from the fox bill next. and a new way to lose weight. spend seven minutes in the cold. lots of people swear by it. does it really work? yeah, shivering. ♪ express yourself ♪ [ female announcer ] the newest seasonal flavors are here. ♪ express yourself ♪ [ female announcer ] because coffee is like the holidays.

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>> hey, glad you're up. new mexico governor bill richardson arrives in north korea today if you're looking for him. he's hoping to persuade north korea to abandon its nuclear

weapons program as requested a visit to the country's main nuclear facility. queen of soul aretha franklin is home from the hospital where she reportedly had surgery for pancreatic cancer. she said in a statement she has friends and family looking after her and she's in great spirits. gretch and steve? >> a solar lighting project, a million bucks for the edward kennedy senate institute, $800,000 for audubon studies. >> these are just -- >> serious sly? >> these are some of the eight billion ways that they have filled the spending bill with pork. what happened to lawmakers promising to cut spending? the president of citizens against government waste joins us from washington. good morning to you, tom. >> good morning to you, steve. >> tom, let's talk about some of the earmarks, some of the pork that these guys have put in here, there is something that is so mind boggling and we're going to start with that. it's close to half a billion

dollars. $450 million for the joint strike fighter engine which is the second engine that this company has built, g.e. and it's an engine that the pentagon or rather that the white house doesn't even want. >> you're right. it's the pentagon and the white house. everybody up and down the ranks at the pentagon. the only general that wants this is general electric. this is an outrage to include this in here. they have been very clear that they would veto a defense bill that came out and had this engine, they snuck it in in the omnibus bill and we're going to keep fighting this as long as we can. this is a perfect example of how next year when they say they're going to cut spending, they're going to be saddled with these earmarks and it's going to be a tough fight. >> but didn't they try to pass a bill that would stop earmarks? i mean, were you stunned that that didn't pass after the elections in november and the results? >> again, i think they have not gotten the message from november

which is why more and more republicans in the senate, even those that have earmarks in this bill are saying they won't vote for it. anyone who agreed to the moratorium should be opposed to this piece of legislation. >> uh-huh. >> and that will set the stage for a bigger fight next year. the continuing resolution would fund the government in the prior years level. they could get back to these specific projects next year and i think they'd be gone. >> all right. here's another head scratcher, tom. $300,000 for a mount vernon avenue pedestrian solar lighting project in alexandria, virginia. this was requested by congressman jim moran, a democrat from virginia. that's one thing about these earmarks is we now know who they're from. $8 million for the ted kennedy institute for the u.s. senate requested by ed marky in massachusetts. >> and $800,000 for the audubon conservation curriculum in new york and virginia. that's requested by congressman steve israel, democrat of new york and james moran again of virginia.

these are some of your favorites, tongue and cheek. >> yeah. i guess they are. they also have $4.8 million again for wood utilization research. we spend $105 million on that research since 1985. 25 years of research and they can't figure out how to use wood. so -- and the problem -- problem with the alternate engine is that it's anonymous so we have a list of 6,631 projects so far, $8.6 billion, about half of what it was in 2010 so there's progress being made but i think the message on november 2nd was zero earmarks, not just 50% reduction. >> back track just a second, though, how can that half a billion dollar engine be anonymous? i thought that's one of the things is every one was going to have their names on stuff. >> well, in the last congressional book for 2010, 6 1/2 billion dollars out of the total of $16.5 billion did not have the name of any member attached to the particular project so they violate their own rules all the time.

and those are really the most egregious of all because nobody knows who is putting them in. >> you're with citizens against government waste. there's a lot of citizens who will be upset about this. tom, thanks for your time this morning. >> thank you. >> coming up, investigators reveal new information in the shooting death of this american man jet skiing near the american border. that development involves his wife. >> and julian assange back in court for his bail hearing. not only does he want to be a free man. he wants another request. wait until you hear what the wikileaks founder wants. it's a good one. >> happy birthday to william perry, the refrigerator, former chicago bears defensive lineman is 48 today. ♪ every time it's so right ♪ well, it feels so good [ female announcer ] when you have a softer bath tissue, you can joy going more... while still using less. introducing w charmin ultra soft.

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>> it is freezing across most of the united states. two feet of snow in the midwest. the good news -- these are the first shovel ready jobs that obama has come up since president. that's the good news. >> that's a dig. get it? >> can i just add one thing? i think the people of minnesota again in the news, they've been asked to get shovels and shovel

the university of minnesota field. we're going to talk more of this in sports. but again, the people of minnesota asked to pitch in. >> you know something more about minnesota than i do this morning? >> one thing. >> i know, you usually get irritated when we have to do stories about minnesota. >> in a fun way. >> i know. i know. >> time to do weather with steve. >> all right. check out this extreme weather from ice-lanta, formerly known as hotlanta is covered in ice. drivers slip sliding all over the place. more than 80 accidents in atlanta last night including a five car pile-up. whoa! the ice is expected to still be a problem this morning and as we take a look at the map you need 4 wheel drive there, you can see we got sleet and ice conditions all the way from the mid atlantic to the tennessee and ohio valley this morning. it's going to be a rough start to this thursday. ? the reason it's going that way is because the jet stream is right behind it.

meanwhile, continues to be cold throughout northeast and the big northeastern corridor cities here in new york city right now. only 23. a little warmer in kansas city. cleveland, though, 13 right now, our friends down in raleigh have 28. in the mid atlantic as that storm moves through and later on today, it's actually going to be six degrees cooler in raleigh. only 2 is the current wind chill as you can see right there. and it's a quick look at your fox travel cast. again, good move to do this show indoors. >> i think that's a good idea. fox news alert. looking right now at new video. wikileaks founder julian assange being escorted to britain's high court. that's where he'll once again fight for his freedom after surrendering to police on sex crime allegations more than a week ago. greg palkott live in london with the drama. greg? >> hey, brian. our london bureau is hearing in fact that julian assange is sitting in the dock in the courtroom, in the british high court as we speak. he's behind bars in the dock but

he might be outside of prison by the end of the day if all goes well for him. now, assange is wanted by sweden for extradition regarding those sex crime allegations that you alluded to, brian. after being initially denied bail on tuesday, he was granted bail but it's now being fought by british authorities on behalf, we believe, of the swedish prosecutors. the claim has been that assange is a flight risk. the terms of the bail is restrictions on his movement and his folks have to come up with $300,000 plus in bail money. and asurety. now assange's lawyer today is claiming that money is now available. again, the extradition is about the sex charges. not about what assange has been doing through his wikileaks site leaking thousands of classified u.s. documents. but what is interesting, too, brian is today, it is reported that the justice department, that the u.s. federal prosecutors are trying to put together a conspiracy case that

he is colluding with the soldier that is believed to be behind those leaks so, perhaps, the united states might be trying their own extradition in the not too distant future but again, brian, updating right now assange in court in the dock behind bars in the dock, maybe free by the end of the day. back to you. >> all right. greg, stay on it. we'll check in with you. thanks. how ironic is this? that he wants his address kept secret. he asked the judge -- don't announce my address to everybody. >> don't leak it. >> we don't want that leaking. judge said forget about it, we're announcing it to the entire court. >> 24 minutes before the top of the hour on this thursday. other stories making headlines right now. police say the gunman who opened fire during a school board meeting in panama city, florida, had a date with death. about to show you what happened but a warning, the video is disturbing. >> please don't. please don't. please. >> police say clay dukes circled the date, december 14th

on a calendar. they also found anti-government literature in his mobile home. his wife fired earlier this year from teaching special education says her husband was "a gentle giant who only wanted to hurt himself." but duke went to the meeting armed for a massacre. he fired six more times and had 25 more rounds of ammo in his pocket and in just a few hours, we'll hear from mike jones for the first time, the security officer and retired police detective who took duke down. he's holding a press conference at 11:30 eastern and you'll see it here on fox. >> investigators in texas are revealing now information in the border lake shooting that left david hartley dead. the mexican drug smugglers were authorized to kill hartley's wife tiffany, too. she did escape the shooting. they jet skied to the mexican side of the lake to take pictures of an old church when they were attacked. so far, two suspects have been identified and police say they may soon have information on where hartley's body actually is.

>> oral arguments begin today in a high profile lawsuit challenging president obama's health care law. it was brought by attorney generals and governors from 20 states. it argues the law is unconstitutional because it requires people to get coverage. this is the biggest and most politically charged of the more than two dozen lawsuits. ultimately, the issue is expected to be settled in the supreme court. >> what were you talking about with minneapolis? >> i'll accept that as a toss. i owe you one. they will meet to discuss the stability of the metrodome after the fourth panel in the inflatable roof tore open. i was hoping you'd fix it by now. repairs were temporarily called off when more snow and ice crashed to the floor last night following sunday's initial cave-in. heavy snowfall caused the collapse. officials had already determined the stadium wouldn't be ready for monday's vikings-bears game. now this, to the metrodome out of the picture, monday night's game could be played at the university of minnesota's

stadium. dozens of volunteers have been working around the clock on the field. by the way, my brother installs turf and says you should never use a shovel on it. i'm getting a live shot with him a little later. trying to remove snow and get it ready for game time and they've gotten rid of 26 truckloads of the white stuff but school officials say they'll have to use electronic heating mats to thaw it out. the other thing they have is these special tractors that push the snow off. leave the people alone. that's a quick look at the world of sports. they don't need to shovel a field for the vikings. am i right? >> that's an outdoor game. >> alan page is a busy judge. after months and months of anti-business rhetoric, president obama met with 20 c.e.o.'s to see if he can help create jobs. >> stuart varney says this is an outrage. >> not an outrage. >> you think this is so weird. he's been so anti-business and now he's going come on in here.

>> yes. >> i'm not outraged by this. it is a rebranding effort, isn't it? this is an attempt by the president to say ok, i may have said some nasty things in the past, fat cats, i may have been down on you policy wise but really, everything is going to change now. we're going to be nice. it was a p.r. effort. an outreach. basically, those 20 executives were all allies and friends and supporters of his. this was a p.r. exercise, p.r. campaign. it was actually a bit more than that. i think this was also an attempt by the president to get a handle on this growing economic recovery so he can say somewhere down the road. >> take credit. >> this recovery has started. i jaw bone business. i got them to spend that money. i'm going to take -- >> then it's an expansion. >> he invited only people that supported him initially so they all accepted the invitation. >> they were largely supporters and they were basically in support of their positions in the past. >> could it be both, rebranding,

p.r. and legitimate? because he knows that -- we know the difference between a real recovery and a fake recovery and if the economy doesn't turn around, we -- he needs them to act, to lend and he needs to listen to what they need to make that happen. >> that's taking a very rosie point of view. he may be moving towards the center, what are you laughing at? >> he doesn't believe this. i know you don't. he may be doing a clinton, moving towards the center to take advantage of the growing recovery that's coming along. right? >> i was laughing at your term rosie. >> well, i was just saying. >> ask brian, mr. rosie himself. >> all right. thank you very much. >> you're welcome. >> who's on your show? >> there you go. there you go. all about earmarks, the tax compromise and what are we going to do about it? will the republicans walk away from earmark? yes, they will, leaving the democrats hold earmark bag. >> that's the best head shot of

s. e. cupp. >> rosie show coming up. >> thank you, captain outrageous. >> thank you, sir. >> straight ahead, they bought the property, got the permits, did everything right. now the environmental police say they can't build a house on their own land. the couple whose dreams are being squashed by the federal government joins us next. >> one of these photos taken after a full night of sleep. the other with a lot less sleep. is this proof that beauty sleep really works? which one has sleep and which one didn't? >> i don't remember what sleep is. >> me either. >> today, president obama met with a group of c.e.o.'s from top companies about creating more jobs for americans. that's what he wants to do. met with all these c.e.o.'s, yeah. the c.e.o.'s told obama we'll see what we can do and went back home to china. hey, guys, i know i've been bad at this in the past,

so i've come up with some mnemonic devices to help me learn your nas. hello, a "penny" saved a "penny" earned. oh, that's 'cause fedex ground helps you save money. that'sht, penny. do you know ours? heavens to betsy. dwayne the bathtub. magic wanda. ah! what's mine? uh, you're a dan fool. oh. it's just a device, dan. you c take it personally. yeah, i suppose. [ male announcer ] we uerstand. you need a partner whhelps you save. fedex ground.

>> quick headlines now. after years of recalls, drop side cribs are being completely banned in the u.s. more than 30 deaths have been linked to the cribs in the last decade. the ban includes the manufacturer's sale and resale of the cribs and by the way, "people" magazine's most intriguing person of the year, sandra bullock. she won an oscar, adopted a son, divorced her cheating husband all in 2010. parents brad pitt and angelina jolie could be the break those two kids need as well as sarah palin. steve, i'm sure you were right on the cusp. >> darn it, maybe next year. all they want to do is build their dream house on land they bought in idaho. isn't that pretty? when they started building, they got an unexpected shock. despite getting all the proper permits to build right there, the e.p.a. ordered them to stop the building saying the land was protected as wetlands. now, they would have to get a

$200,000 permit just to take their case to court! now, they're taking their legal battle all the way to the supreme court. michael and shantel join us from seattle this morning. good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> that's a beautiful little plot of land we just saw in that -- in the still pictures right there so you started to build the house and the e.p.a. said stop, this is wetlands. how is that possible? there are houses on both sides of you. >> that's correct. how is that possible? >> that's your argument, isn't it? >> exactly. we would actually, you know, like to prove our case and to show them it is not wetlands. >> uh-huh. but we've been shut down. >> do you think somebody -- the only way the e.p.a. could have found out that you were building a house there is if somebody, one of the neighbors or somebody else called and sniched on you. do you think that could be the case? >> yes. pretty good chance. >> yeah. >> ok. so explain this to me.

you bought the land for like $20,000, $25,000, it's going to cost you $200,000 in an e.p.a. permit to build there? >> that's correct. that's what they are pushing for. >> that's crazy. are you going to do it? >> no. hopefully with the help of the pacific legal foundation we can take this to the supreme court. >> yeah. here's what the e.p.a. says. they say while we cannot comment on this specific case, building on protected wetlands requires a permit to ensure that the wetlands are not damaged. the e.p.a. is required under the law to take a number of steps to protect the wetlands including where the law is not enforced. e.p.a. and the army corps of engineers considers a wide variety of factors. here's the main factor. that is your plot of land is between two houses. if you're a wetland, you would think that the other two houses would be a wetteland as well. does this feel like the government is overreaching, mike? >> oh, definitely.

>> why are they doing it? shantel? >> i just think they're exercising some ability to stomp on the little people. i don't know. it's not fair. it's -- we buy the land. we want to build a house. we go through all the right permits, process, and then they stop us and they didn't have a warrant. they didn't have any paperwork. they just stopped us. >> you're right. it sounds like they're stomping on the little people. a land grab. keep us posted on what happens. mike and shantel sackett out there in seattle today. thank you very much for telling your story. >> thank you. >> crazy. all right. straight ahead on this thursday morning, are you a motivated results driven team player with a proven track record for success? experts that won't help say that you use words like that, won't help you get a job.

actually, what will it do and why are we going to talk about those? we'll find out straight ahead. then one of these photos taken after a full night of sleep, the other with a lot less sleep. doctors say it's proof that beauty sleep is the real deal. details with the a team. caltrate soft chews because they have 20% more calcium per chew than viactiv or for the delicious flavors like chocolate truffle and vanilla creme? mmm. -mmm. -mmm. [ female announcer ] hard to say really. new caltrate soft chews, we put the yum in calcium. new caltrate soft chews, naturally colorful vegetables are often a good source of vitamins, fiber, or minerals. and who brings you more natural colors than campbell's condensed soups? campbell's.® it's amazing what soup can do.™

>> in health news this morning, the f.d.a. now considering revoking its approval of a breast cancer drug that dozens of women credit for saving their lives. many say the f.d.a.'s decision has nothing to do with safety and effectiveness and it's all about cost. what's really being debated? our medical a team join us right now. good to see you both this morning. >> hi. >> let me start with you, dr.

siegel. avastin proved to take on really deadly cancers, right? and you saw a pattern of success. >> it's a targeted therapy. it means it works in some people, not in others. it's been shown to be effective for colon cancer, kidney cancer, breast cancer to some extent. now, there's a big study that shows that it doesn't prolong life in breast cancer but i would like to look at it from the point of game of quality of care. how many people are feeling better on it? how many people are seeing their tumors shrink in that needs to be studied. i view it as a valuable arrow. it's expensive but works in many cases. >> so $100,000 for therapy for one course. could there be any sort of economic answer as to why the f.d.a. might pull it now. too expensive? >> the f.d.a. does not take money into account and a lot of cancer drugs are, unfortunately, quite expensive. this has to do with the fact that the medication was fast tracked. that's important. it means we're getting medicine faster to oncology medications that can help save lives much

the burden comes later for us to show it's really helping to save lives. it comes back to the medical community to do more research to find out who benefits from this, who doesn't. there's side effects that you can see in patients that get this. >> a much lighter study came out confirming that, maybe not, that beauty sleep is for real. let's take a look at some of these pictures here. so the guy here, you see the normal night's sleep compared to the sleep deprivation. do you see any beautiless on the picture on the right? >> i think that swedish people in general are pretty beautiful. >> thank you. >> there you go. >> you get no sleep. >> is this study for real? >> no, it's not. we already know that sleep is very good for you. cuts down on diabetes, cuts down on heart disease. cuts down on stroke. it probably is better on your skin. to take 23 people and have a subjective group of judges say these people look better than those, that's not science. >> waste of money for this study? >> that's right, absolutely.

i believe in beauty sleep. i don't get enough of it. but in one picture, he's smiling, one he's not. it's crazy, right? >> a third topic. this may be crazy as well. could frigid temperatures actually lead to weight loss? i think it might have something to do with metabolism, right? >> yes, and it has something to do with brown fat that we have on our thighs and our back. when that gets ignited, you burn more calories. it's a totally ridiculous idea because if you get exposed to very cold temperatures, you may get sick. there's a study out of britain that shows -- they put people in buckets of ice water and they found they were more likely to get the cold. i don't want to do this. not healthy. >> people shouldn't go out and exercise in the nude. >> absolutely not. no excuse for being outside in the nude and this might make people feel a little better about this cold weather but, you know, we're back to plain old diet and exercise as usual. >> i think dr. siegel and myself spend too much time in the cold weather. hope you feel better. >> you, too. >> it seems like a group is

suing over christmas decorations every day in the united states. in abu dhabi, they may have the world's most expensive christmas tree. what? and 23 years ago, a teacher made a promise to this first grade class. today she's come through with the promise. incredible story of generosity next hour. know the stain. after an alpaca? i have. it was awesome. ♪ call 1-800-steemer ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] here's hoping you find something special

in your driveway this holiday. ♪ [ santa ] ho ho ho! [ male announcer ] get an exceptional offer on the mercedes-benz you've always wanted at the winter event going on now. and stay connected with three years of mbrace service complimentary.

>> good morning, everyone. thursday, december 16, 2010. thanks for sharing your time with us today. we start with the fox news alert. the white house just released its reviews of the war in afghanistan. new details including pakistan providing a safe haven for al-qaida. how do we handle a country that's pretending to be our ally? >> last year it was the underwear bomber and now new information out of iraq. yeah, iraq that al-qaida is planning another attack on the west for christmas. can it be stopped? hope so. >> plus it's crunch time for congress while the two parties clash on capitol hill, will their inability to agree on a

pork filled spending bill and tax cuts shut down the federal government. yes, that was the top of brian's head. sorry. >> "fox & friends" hour two starting right now. this is richard schroeder, you're watching "fox & friends." >> there's a guy that was born with a silver spoon. >> i heard that. and he was in champ. remember? anybody not watch champ. let's say his dad wasn't feeling good after the fight. >> what are you talking about? >> ricky schroeder was in "champ" when he was ricky schroeder and his dad had been in a rough fight. >> we later get to know he and hugged him. then i cried. can we toss it it? >> movie trivia through the holidays, during christmas time, if you want to watch one.

the senate is going to meet. they just passed the tax compromise bill overwhelmingly. now they'll take another big bill that is the start treaty and our relationship with russia. they have to get through with that before moving on to the spending bill which is is an even bigger proposition right now. if they don't get to the spending bill, the entire government should be -- could be shut down by the 18th. that's only three days away. what will happen? >> it's going to shut down. that's the officially mandated drop dead dated. if they do the start treaty today. that's the first thing on the docket for the senate, jim demint has said he would like to see the entire bill read aloud and it could take the clerk a day or two to do that. but there's a problem because it's in legislative language so after that, they would get to their spending bill, that thing we've been talking to you about about the great big pork palooza. that could take 30 or 40 hours and simply are not enough hours in the days before this

december 18th deadline so it looks like there could be a government shutdown. in fact, a senior democrat aide says yes, there could be a government shutdown for one or two days. but it's not our fault. he says the g.o.p. are being obstructionist. really? let me think, couldn't they have passed this last month? a month before that? a month before that? absolutely. >> here's both sides weighing in and it looks like one is a delay of game and one is determined to be -- make the lame duck session everything they want on their agenda. >> action, do the work the american people pay us to do. we make large salaries, madam president. we could work as most americans do. during the holidays.

>> unfortunately, the democrats, greta, are trying to push through their whole wish list right before christmas and they're using christmas as a bargaining chip effectively in a major arms agreement with russia should not be considered in a lame duck session. >> first of all, why is half the bill written in russian? aren't members of congress actually supposed to read these bills. if that's the case, do they have a translator sitting bay in their office? i don't know. that seems ridiculous on its face. >> by the way, it's also not clear that if we do anything on missile defense that the whole thing isn't null and void. the russians might walk away from it and there's not an urgency on the russian side to see it passed. >> the federal government actually shuts down. what does that mean for you and me? peter doocy is live in d.c. with the answer to that question. good morning. >> good morning, gretchen. we have some concept of what happens if the government shuts down as it might on saturday night at midnight because it has happened before.

in fact, the longest government shutdown ever began on this date 15 years ago and lasted 21 days all the way until january 6, 1996, and during that time, all departments that were critical to national security and public health and border patrol and emergency assistance were still available even though their employees had to be paid retroactively but during that time, during that shutdown, the feds had to cancel plans to recruit new law enforcement officers and they had to delay hiring 400 border patrol agents, the cdc also stopped the surveillance so nobody can get any info about the spread of the flu of the aids for those 21 winter days and elsewhere, workers at 609 different toxic waste sites were sent home and the effects of the shutdown were felt in more beautiful areas like the places maintained by the national park service that had to close. that affected seven million

visitors and cost surrounding areas about $14 million a day. also, anybody trying to come to or leave america while the government was closed for business had a tough time. that's because 200,000 american applications for passports were put on the shelf. that's on top of 20,000 to 30,000 delayed applications for visas by foreigners that wanted to come here. all the stuff that i detailed, that's according to a report by the congressional research service and you can see that it details a major lifestyle change for american citizens if the government shuts down two days from now. gretchen? >> peter doocy live for us in d.c. thank you very much. >> you know, the crazy thing about this is all the senate would have to do would be just simply to go along with what the house has already passed. they've passed a bill that would continue to run the federal government through february. but instead, what the senate wants is what the senate wants. and the senate wants to pass this great big pork-filled $1.2 trillion bill with, what,

6,000 different earmarks in it. they want to jam that through. that would go for a year. >> 12:15 on wednesday is when everybody on capitol hill found out about it. that's disingenuous, this push to not shut down congress is. harry reid has to feel confident today. he has six republican votes in his pocket. susan collins is active. so is thad cochran. bob bennett and george voyanavich is said, i'm going to weigh in. i might as well get things from my constituents on the way out which is obscene. >> this is their last chance. for people who believe in earmarks this is their last chance supposedly because a lot of people that will be coming into congress in january were against spending like this. but you'd think that maybe the president would weigh in on this because remember, i don't know if you do or not but during his campaign and since he's been president, he said that he's against earmarks.

>> our earmark system was called pork barrel spending in washington is fraught with abuse. it badly needs reform. >> i pledge to slash earmarks by more than half when i'm president of the united states of america. not going to stand here and simply tell you what i'm going to spend. i'm going to tell you how i'm going to save. we will go through the entire federal budget, page by page. line by line, we will eliminate programs that don't work. >> senator mccain talks a lot about earmarks. there's no doubt that the system needs reform and there's a lot of screwy things that we end up spending money on. they need to be eliminated. >> the president will go along with it. john mccain is doing everything he can to derail it. he will be joining us an hour and five minutes from now to talk about this topic and he's angry. >> we're not saying that everything in there is not absolutely necessary. what he's saying is can you stop jamming it in and make it transparent? if it isn't transparent, is there a reason?

8 minutes after the hour, more news is breaking. >> a white house review released one hour ago says the u.s. is making progress towards containing the taliban and al-qaida in afghanistan and pakistan. but it also found the afghan government is still too weak and pakistan is still too uncooperative. the review puts off key decisions about the pace of pulling out troops in afghanistan. president obama has already signalled he thinks things are going well enough to start bringing troops home next summer. >> another fox news alert. al-qaida planning terror attacks in the u.s. and europe this christmas season. that's according to top iraqi officials who say they obtained confessions from captured insurgents. authorities already on high alert especially after last year's botched christmas day bombing. the man accused in that attack umar farouk abdulmutallab is in court today facing new charges including conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism. he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. a man hunt under way right now in arizona for the fifth suspect in the murder of a u.s. border agent.

40-year-old brian terry was killed in a gunfight with a gang that preys on illegal immigrants much the gunfight took place in a small town just five miles north of nogales where a drug smuggling tunnel was found earlier this week. the house is set to vote today on extending the bush tax cuts. it already passed the senate overwhelmingly and the house democratic leaders plan to approve it. one snag could be an amendment that calls for a higher estate tax. if that passes, the bill would then get dicey and have to go back to the senate. >> do they let the tax increases go up in the first of the year for all americans because they can no longer live with making the estate tax go away for 99.8% of the estates in this country. do they want to hold off for the wealthiest view in case they hold everybody else hostage. >> but republican senator mitch mcconnell saying "we urge democrat leaders to refuse playing games and making partisan changes." those are your headlines. >> no one else will tell you out

there, we're looking at double digit, almost double digit unemployment so a lot of you are scrambling to get jobs and making sure you have the resume to make a difference. well, we have some help. it's on its way. words that should not be used and are overused in today's day and age in 2010. >> that's right, linked in, the social networking site has 85 million members and they've looked at the resumes of them and they figured out the top 10 most overused things. they are so -- they show that you lack creativity, they say and here they are. top 10 most overused words in a resume. entrepreneural. problem solver. fast paced. team player. a proven track record. how many of you have those in your resume right now? >> or dynamic, results oriented, motivated. that's a big one. innovative. and the number one, i agree with this one, extensive experience. >> i don't use them, none of them describe me. i always have one ready.

you do? >> i got it right here and brian kilmeade describes himself as zesty. >> which is weird. >> it's also the soap i choose. >> you should start off with a three piece man who dares to take -- what's the word i'm looking for? risks. >> fashion risks. >> fashion risks and others. >> and so if they say that if you've got these words on your resume, you could actually be doing yourself more harm. try to be a little creative. but what is a good creative word to use to describe a person who is really somebody who needs to be hired? >> how about this? what's that word? e-mail us. >> unemployable. that would be -- it's so negative. it's probably a positive. >> unemployable? >> right. so what you're saying is i'm dumb. >> i dare you to hire me. double dare. >> try that. go ahead. >> reverse psychology. >> take it away, guys. >> all right. straight ahead, have you seen these commercials about paying it forward? we wanted to know who makes them and who is the group behind

them? we found out. very cool story behind the message is coming up. >> then more spending, higher taxes, does congress really want to end the year on a sour note? andrea tantaros never sour, juan williams knows that well. they'll disagree and smile the whole time. charming, delightful and something special. i'm out of adjectives. >> yes, you are, mr. zesty. join the jaguar platinum celebration !

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>> as the democrat led congress heads into the sunset, what type of story will they leave behind? are they ok with increasing government and raising taxes or will they do the right thing by the american people and get the job done? meter is running. joining us for a fair and balanced debate, fox news contributor andrea tantaros and fox news political analyst juan williams.

juan, senior democrat, aide says yeah, we might wind up with the government shutdown for one or two days but i blame the republicans! they're obstructionists. >> remember, republicans tried to shut down the government when clinton was going through this same kind of phase in his life and clinton shut them down because the american people didn't approve of that. so i don't think that the republicans are willing to go to that extreme. but you can bet that if they do, democrats will jump all over them and take political advantage. >> oh, do you think so, andrea? >> that would never, ever happen. on some level, i think juan and i would agree, shut the lights off and let them sitting in the dark, they'd be tripping over all those pages. yeah, i don't think they're going to do that. i think they're going to get a continuing resolution done. this bloated bill, i got to say, this is the most irresponsible budget process that we've seen in congress in a very long time. they didn't pass one appropriations bill. and republicans, they were for earmarks before they were against them. i think this is a real opportunity, honestly, for the president to come out and say

and rail against both parties. now, i know he doesn't take advice from me generally but to rail against both parties and say this is very irresponsible, this is bloated. even though republicans are going to vote against it. he should rail against his own party. and win some credibility back with the american people. if he's really against wasteful spending. >> i'm amazed. i think you're being very honest. >> but i must say, they'll pass an omnibus spending bill. you watch. they want to get something done. the problem is earmarks and this big pork spending which at the moment is all political posturing. it's like this much of the budget. for everybody making a big deal out of it. >> but we thought -- >> this is where we're at. >> we thought earmarks were over? what made you think that? mitch mcconnell flipped from one side to the other. >> you've been in washington too long. listen to you say it's only a small part of the budget. $8 billion in earmarks? >> you know how big the budget is? it's not even 1% of the budget. >> start cutting everywhere. $8 billion is a huge amount of money much that's the mentality now, steve. oh, it's only $8 billion.

$36 billion here. $1 billion for arthropod research. that's real, harry reid. >> that bugs me. >> the swine is my favorite. how piggish. >> that money stays there and it then becomes the discretion of the president. now i know you guys, you republicans, would you rather have the president make the decision or people who actually represent folks in the district? >> here's what i don't understand, democrats have just been howling and howling and howling and are still howling over this tax compromise. why? because it adds to the deficit and then they go and support this out of control budget? it just doubles back on the deficit. >> i don't know if it's out of control budget. most of the budget is social security, medicare and defense. >> that needs fixing to. >> they were together at the beginning. by the end they're -- >> andrea and juan, thank you very much. >> merry christmas. >> merry christmas. >> straight ahead, have you seen this commercial?

>> your homecoming queen is -- >> ♪ look at you >> here we go. becca winegar. >> we wanted to know the story behind these moving ads. who makes them? we found out the very cool story is coming up. >> then a new record for pamela anderson. wait until you hear what she's doing at the age of 43. good morning. the angels start second guessing where they tread. ♪ cl 1-800-steemer ♪ express yourself ♪ [ female announcer ] the newest seasonal flavors are here. ♪ express yourself ♪ [ female announcer ] because coffee is like the holidays. it's better when you add your flavor. coffee-mate. from nestle.

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>> it's time for the news by the numbers right now. first up, 9. that's how many companies the united states government is suing for the b.p. oil spill. the justice department says it hopes to recover billions of dollars from b.p. and the other companies to cover the spill's damage. remember that? next, $11 million. that's how much christmas tree in the lobby of the emirates

palace hotel costs. $11 million is believed to be the world's most expensive tree adorned with almost 200 pieces of diamonds, pearls and emeralds. >> that's fantastic. and finally, 13. that's the number of "playboy" magazines "baywatch" bombshell pam anderson will have posed for after the next one comes out in january. that's the new record. anderson's eight page spread will be accompanied by a short article encouraging readers to support animal rights. she's a big animal rights supporter. she is 43. gretch? bri? >> i know you have. but i'm going to ask anyway. have you ever seen this commercial? >> and now your homecoming queen is -- here we go. brenda winegar. all right!

>> well, ads like these are airing all over the place and we wanted to know the story behind these moving messages. who makes these ads? the answer, a group called values.com. >> joining us right now is one of the many faces of the campai campai campaign, orel lee brown. how did you get involved with this? what happened with you that made you take action? >> it was in 1987 one morning i was on my way to the store to get me a bag of peanuts and a soda and as i stood waiting for that light, a little boy said lady, would you give me a quarter and i had a $5 bill. and so i said to the little girl, i'm going to the store, you can go with me and so she and i went to the store and when we walked in, it was like she just stopped and i said, get whatever you want. the first thing she picked up was a loaf of bread and i began to watch her. and i said once again, get what you want. so she ended up getting bologna,

cheese, came to $5.86. this was a store that i had visited for the last nine or 10 years. so al said to me, miss brown, where's your soda? this is what i normally would purchase. and so when i gave her the little groceries, i began to talk to her, i said where's your mother? in this soft voice, she said home. do you go to school? and once again, she said sometimes. and so the light turned. she made a right on 94th avenue and eighth street and it should have been into the store because it should have been there. but when i went to bed that night, i could not sleep. and i went continually, could not sleep. and so i got the phone directory trying to find out what school she went to and the school was brookeville. so i called the principal and told her what had happened, wanted to know if i could come and see the little girl. she said sure, come on over and i went over there. she had two first grade classes. we went to both class and she was not there so the principal said let me see if all the students are here today. and she went back to the office and there was three students, girls that was absent.

give me a number. when all the students are here, i'll call you and you can come back over. and a couple of days went by and she called me, she said miss brown, all my students are here today. you can come over. i'm excited, jump in my car and run over there. i knew i get a chance to see her! she was not in the first class and oh, no, i get to the second class, she was not there and i don't know where it came from. i just said to the principal, may i adopt a class? she said to me, lady, who are you? you know, here i am looking for a kid. >> a real estate agent who made $45,000 a year. you then adopted the entire first grade class. >> i did. >> you put away $10,000 a year. >> i did. >> and you watched those kids and made sure that they all went to college. >> well, yeah, almost. it was a promise that they went to college. >> you did this all on your own? >> why? >> i had to. i had to. in 1987, if you go back, at that time, oakland was stated as the murder capital of the world. we was losing too many of our

students and once again, i don't know -- i've always said i guess it came from god why i did this. but i know that 19 of those students were saved. >> you became one of the faces of values.com. >> yes. >> bill cosby is somebody that saw you and sought you out and helped out, too. >> absolutely. >> amazing. >> it is. >> when you talk to these 19 poor kids as they're described on this billboard, they're now productive citizens in society. what do they say to you if you hadn't come into their lives? >> jeffrey is one of the ones who went on to columbia, is doing well and he was interviewing with some station and said, that there was four of them, there was a pack and all three of them was dead. if it had not been for me, he would have been dead. i don't believe that. but at least we was able to make his life a little bit better. >> so you're adopting another class and you urge other people to get involved, right? >> absolutely. since the inception of the program, we are on the six phase

of students. we have gone through three colleges and right now, i have 20 students in college, four at usc berkeley. >> wow. >> that's fantastic. the world needs more people like you especially around the christmas season. so great to have a good news story. >> thank you. thank you. >> if you'd like more information about how you can get involved with values.com you can go to our web site at "fox & friends" and link you to the information. oral lee brown, congratulations. >> thank you so much. >> great job. as you'll see, don't have to be a billionaire to make a major difference. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> straight ahead, we change gears. new information on the murder of an american man. jet skiing on a mexican border. we've told you this story from day one. it involves his wife. >> congress considering a bill packed with billions in earmarks. what cut comes from your check as a result? william in los angeles. >> and they're some of the cutest dogs we've ever, ever seen but they still do not have a home. how you can help right before

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>> a new poll, congress' approval rating, all time low of 13%. you know, i'm no mathematician, i'm a little dyslexic but at 13%, approval rating, isn't that pretty much a disapproval rating really at this point? even i'm dyslexic it's 31%, it's still bad! it's still bad! >> yeah. would that approval rating have anything to do with the fact that americans have said stop the spending to congress and now congress wants to spend billions on pet pork projects? well, william lajunesse has his tax calculator out and he's up and at em in los angeles. >> two interesting things, how this deal came together considering republicans say they not only oppose this. they say they barely knew what was happening and secondly, the real mystery now is how many republicans are going to jump ship and will any democrats cross over and vote against this trillion dollar bill. now, voters may be outraged over

the polynesian voting society, museums and roads to nowhere but washington is not, this has been their bread and butter for decades. the shock value isn't the what, it's the who. our sources say this deal was hammered out principally by senator daniel of hawaii and the republican from mississippi. not only are they the joint chiefs of the committee but the reigning kings of pork. in this bill $421 million in hawaii. $560 million for cochran and mississippi. some examples with the senator inouye, $26 million for hawaiian health care $6 million for hawaii refuge. let's go to senator cochran right now. he also is getting $21 million and this is for a basically a gulf coast test center for ships. $5 million for natural products

expo at the university of mississippi. let's go to the tax calculator so i can tell you and show you exactly how much this will cost you. if you earn, basically, under $15,000, it's going to cost you about $0.34. if you make $30,000 to $50,000 $13, if you make $100,000 to $200,000, this bill, this pork, if you will, will cost $99. and if you make over $250,000, it's going to cost you almost $1,000. we also want you to vote. this bill will be debated tomorrow. you have an opportunity to tell congress what you think. do you believe this is a wise use of your money? now, i will tell you inside washington, there you go. you can vote. we'll probably get, you know, 5,000, 6,000, 7,000 people voting on this thing by the end of the day. now, here's the key you guys is again there's how many people are going to cross over. republicans say they need at least three votes. you've got some lame duck republicans who apparently are already going to vote with

democrats. that's from utah, one from ohio and another from missouri. they're going to vote for this omnibus bill. you have the democrat that says she'll vote with republicans. i'll send it back to you guys. basically they're counting noses already and republicans, there's about four of them who are totally up in the air. then you've got the moderate democrats who may but with republicans. very interesting. back to you. >> all right. william live in l.a. billion here. billion there. it starts to add up to real money. >> fox alert for you. reports this morning that four u.s. embassy personnel were attacked while picking up pizza at a restaurant in yemen. witnesses say a man attached a satchel to their armored car and that it exploded. apparently, no one was injured. but the vehicle was damaged. right now a 28-year-old jordanian man is in custody. he reportedly had multiple i.d.'s on him as well as a gun and explosives. he's suspected of being a member of al-qaida. >> all right. you're looking at new video of wikileaks founder julian assange

at britain's high court fighting for his freedom after a decision to release him on bail was appealed earlier this week, today swedish authorities confirm to fox news they have nothing to twoo the appeal as was earlier thought. now assange is accused of sex crimes against two different women in sweden. you remember the australian businessman caused an international uproar and continues to release information after leaking thousands of sensitive government documents on his web site, wikileaks. >> he's a businessman? i thought he was a journalist. >> i thought so, too. >> investigators in texas are revealing now information in the border lake shooting that left 30-year-old colorado man by the name of david hartley dead. authorities now say the mexican drug smugglers were also authorized by their cartel to kill hartley's wife tiffany. she escaped the september 30th shooting. the couple had gone to the mexican side of falcon lake to take a picture of an old church while they were riding on jet skis. that's when they were attacked. so far, two suspects have been

identified and police say they may soon have information on where his body is. >> you could call chicago's latest political controversy box state. rahm emanuel swears that he has 100 boxes in the personal storage of his home. he's trying to prove he meets residency requirements to run for chicago mayor. the couple renting his place say they've never seen any of his stuff so does the couple think he's lying? >> i can't presume to say whether he was or wasn't. i know what's in my basement. >> could you have been mistaken when you said there were as many as 100 boxes? >> no. >> amy told me what she did. my wife. and she had family and friends that were there that helped her do it. not only pack the boxes, put them in storage. >> a hearing to determine if emanuel is eligible to run continues today. >> meanwhile, the new york jets coach who tripped that miami dolphins player on sunday is finding himself even in more

trouble this morning. he was suspended indefinitely, suspended indefinitely, did you hear that, after jets management found out he used some of his players to carry out the dirty move. he apparently instructed them to stand in a wall forcing the dolphins gunner to run around him. but the jets say none of the players knew that he was trying to trip mr. carroll which, of course, brian, as you know, he did just that. >> they lined up on the line to make sure if he went out of bounds, he'd be stopped. meanwhile, let's talk about something heartening. if you can't open your home to a new pet this christmas, maybe you can open your heart and help with the donation. here's how. sergeant charles miller and denise woodside are officers from the southeast area animal control authority also known as saaca. with them are holly and chilly willie, two young pups for adoption as our series continues here. welcome. >> thank you. >> all right, first tell me, which one is -- which one is

holly? >> i'm holding holly. >> howled is holly? >> 3 to 4 months old. >> why is holly available? >> holly is available. she was brought to our shelter as a stray and she actually had a severe skin condition and our veterinary division actually treated her and now she's better. and she's ready for a new home. >> all right. she's about 3 months old. a chihuahua mix. >> thichihuahua mix with her beautiful black markings. >> let's find out more about chilly willie. >> chilly was brought in actually at about 5 weeks old. he was relinquished from the family that had him. couldn't keep him. one of our staff members took him home, fostered him until he was old enough for adoption. he's now about 3 months old and look at that. >> look at that. >> not only that, these two look like they get along. >> they do. they've been having a blast. >> i can imagine and, of course, we have them dressed for the

northeast so they can adapt to different areas, correct? >> they did fine. we actually had the flight over here, they did better than some of the children on the flight. >> that's -- but let me ask you something. a lot of people go to the store and buy these dogs. very expensive. but here, you're saving the dog as well as getting a dog for free, correct? >> that's correct. also, these dogs along with our other adopted animals are spayed or neutered, microchipped, dewormed, vaccinated and receive a vet check. >> if they escape, you can go find them and they're registered if someone else picks them up. >> correct. if they're scanned and have i.d. on them and has the proper contact information, we'll contact the owners. >> they're basically full grown, right? >> yes. these guys still have some growing to do. i mean, they're at the proper age for adoption. you got to remember, these are the lucky ones. we have several animals at our shelter still that are looking for homes and a lot of our animals are animals that have been rescued from abusive situations. >> holly is shaking a little bit. first time on national television. she's a little nervous. >> you two were fantastic. you look like veterans. thank so much, sergeant charles

miller and denise woodside and again, if you can't adopt a dog, you can certainly help out. foxandfriends.com has all the information. tomorrow, the final day of our series, we'll be here with some adorable bichons. thank you, steve. i could have got myself in trouble with that. back over to you. >> thank you very much. >> i would have like to heard you try that. need a job? john stossel says the government's got that under control. >> we need to stimulate the economy. this will do it. by destroying some things and they'll have to make new ones. that will create jobs. stimulate. stimulate! stimulate! >> man, i could have used that tv. stossel is next with more of the top 10 government promises gone wrong. >> i'm going to call the police and tell them he's destroying property. meet the man behind the god still loves you bus. straight ahead.

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>> all right. welcome back. the numbers in the senate's omnibus spending bill are mind boggling. billions of dollars potentially being wasted on lawmakers and their pet projects. >> i don't know anything about that. in the last few years, the government has wasted money creating programs and reforms that have done more harm than good. john stossel knows all about it. he's here with his top politician promises gone terribly wrong. >> over three of them, anyway. >> three most important. >> no. i'm going to save the most important for my show. >> fantastic! >> number 10 was cash for clunkers which the auto business is struggling. we have to create more business for them. so let's destroy some old cars. and that's why, you know, it's

the logic of it. nancy pelosi said after the earthquake in haiti, this is the real deal. >> m.c. stossel. >> she said that oh, that will create new businesses activity, help the renewal in haiti because you can see the jobs created when you crush cars and buy new ones. you can see the jobs created in haiti to build new buildings. but what you don't see is where all that money would have gone. people might have bought new computers or saved for college. you don't see where the money would have been spent more productively. maybe it would have cured cancer. cash for clunkers raised cash for two months. right back down the month after that. >> number five -- look at that. >> there's the auto sale. >> the little green part. >> that costs you billions of dollars and destroyed thousands of perfectly decent used cars. used car prices went up $1800. >> he does. he's got a hammer. >> hammer. >> i want to talk as long as i want. >> you can. talk a little bit about credit card reform.

>> the card act. that was going to solve all the credit card abuses. ban some of these fees banks charge. what happens? mortgage rates go down. key bill rates go down. credit card interest rates went up from 13% to 15%. people end up paying more. some banks cut off 15% of their customers. people can't get credit. they go to pay day lenders, they charge 500% interest. some people go to loan sharks and they break legs. >> number 4, health care overhaul. we were supposed to balance the budget and solve the health care crisis. >> we've talked about that. we don't know what the full effects will be. already three companies have dropped child only coverage. principal financial has gotten out of the business. many employers say we're not going to cover our employees if we have to cover so much stuff. >> we know the exemptions that the companies have gotten. they play a role. >> especially unions in new york city, the hundreds of exemptions. if you kiss the politician's ring, you're exempt but everybody else has to follow the rule.

>> all right. find out what he takes the hammer to, his top 1, 2 and 3 tomorrow night, 9:00 p.m. right here on the fox newschannel. thank you very much, mr. stossel. >> thank you. >> ok. >> you've been over to home depot, haven't you? >> i did this once with a baseball bat. >> i remember that. >> it works better. >> coming up next, a christian gains the upper hand in the war on christmas. meet the man chasing the atheist bus with the god bus. >> on this date in 1971, sly and the family stone had the number one song in america. "family affair". everybody sing along. can getting enough vegetables make you feel good? oh, yeah. v8 juice gives you 3 of your 5 daily servings of vegetables. v8. what's your number? because they have 20% more calcium per chew than viactiv

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>> an all out atheist advertising blitz is under way across the country. those groups feel there's no better time to fight christianity than at christmastime. but one group of businessmen

won't give up christmas without a fight. they have hired a truck now with the message "i still love" signed god, to follow the buses with the atheist ads around their city. joining me now is the owner of the truck and president of lime media. heath hill. good morning to you. >> how are you? >> how did you come up with this idea to have sort of the anti-atheist bus follow around the atheist message? >> well, a few business owners and individuals got together on a friday and just kind of took some time to look at the message that the atheists had put out. one of rejection and overall denial of god and looked at it as an opportunity as christians to let them know that god still loves them even in -- even with their message out on the buses. >> so a lot of people especially christians get upset when the atheists come out in full force with their billboards. of course, they only do it not in july but in december, right before christmas.

so do you actually think that by doing this, you can change the minds of these atheists, what is your goal? >> this will give you some insight. one e-mail that we received, the atheist asked where we cited that quote that "i still love you god." and i responded back to him that it's a series of quotes throughout the bible that even in rejection, god still loves us. god is still there and for us, it just an opportunity to share that love and really not make it controversial but just focus on the message that we gave. >> now, how do you know where these buses are going to be or are these atist signs on all public buses so you have a pretty good idea of the pattern? >> yeah, there's four buses and we've got some insight into the routes that they run so we're familiar with what routes they're on and so every morning, the driver just gets in behind them and follows them around.

>> that must really tick them off. does that really tick them off? >> you know, we have had some negative mail from them but overall, the response has been phenomenal. we get a lot of thumbs up and a lot of horns honking and that kind of thing. so we'll see. it's hard to say. >> uh-huh. now, i know that the people who are paying for this, businesspeople throughout your community want to remain anonymous, right? >> right. >> and why? >> and the whole point -- the whole point behind that was they didn't want to make it about them or about the people involved but more just about the message and what they're trying to communicate this season. >> how long will you run these buses? >> you know, it's hard to say. there's a lot of internal talk. we've even talked about taking them into other markets so stay tuned. >> all right. we will. and we appreciate you telling your story this morning on "fox & friends."

merry christmas. >> merry christmas to you. >> coming up on our show, a school denies a muslim teacher's request to go on leave to make the pilgrimage to mecca. that's a three-week trip. the department of justice is suing the school. what? is this really what the d.o.j. should be doing. michelle malkin is here next to weigh in on this topic. bacon, bacon, bacon. that's what some lawmakers have on the brain. not everyone. senator john mccain joins us to shut down the

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>> gretchen: good morning, everyone. it's thursday, december 16, 2010. i'm gretchen carlson and thank you for sharing your time with us today. democrats waking up in washington and waging their own war on christmas. threatening republicans to pass their christmas wish list or else. >> they decide to work with us, we can all have a happy holiday. if they don't, we'll continue until we finish the people's business. >> gretchen: if they don't finish, we're facing a government shutdown.

what will that do to our country? >> brian: who are these people? >> steve: a fox news alert. new news al-qaeda is planning attacks like this one in sweden. right here in the united states. once again, the timeline, christmas. >> brian: school denies a muslim teacher's request to go on leave to make the pilgrimage to mecca. that's a three week vacation. now the department of justice is suing the school. is this really a case for the doj? is that a okay with you? "fox & friends" starts right now. >> this is vicky and you're watching "fox & friends." >> steve: doesn't put you in the holiday spirit like that from snooki. >> gretchen: your staff had no idea who she was. >> brian: what a shame, 'cause we didn't club in new jersey. >> steve: that now is the

situation. >> brian: got you. very nice. >> gretchen: i'll check out both of your situations later on. >> brian: what? >> gretchen: reports this morning that four u.s. embassy staff were attacked in a restaurant in yemen. witnesses say a man attached a satchel to their armored car while picking up pizza and it exploded. apparently no one was injured, but the vehicle was damaged. right now a 28-year-old jordanian man is in custody and reportedly had multiple i.d.s on him, as well as a gun and explosives. he's suspected of being a member of al-qaeda. another fox news alert, because al-qaeda is planning terrorist attacks in the u.s. and europe this christmas season. that is according to top iraqi officials who say they obtained confessions from captured insurgents who said that. authorities already on high alert, especially after last year's botched christmas day bombing. the man accused in that failed attack, abdulmutallab, in court facing new charges, including conspiracy to commit an attack of terrorism. he could spend the rest of his

life behind bars. the house set to vote today on extending the bush tax cuts. it passed the senate and house democratic leaders say they plan to approve it, but one big snag could be an amendment calling for a higher estate tax. if that passes, the bill would have to go back to the senate. >> it's just a matter of just saying we impacted this agreement. we think it improves the package substantively. >> gretchen: republican senator mcconnell saying, quote, we urge democratic leaders to resist playing political games and make changes. police say the gunman who opened fire during a school board meeting in florida had a date with death. we're about to show you what happened, but a warning, the video is very disturbing. >> please don't, please don't. please. (shots fired).

>> gretchen: police say clay duke circled december 14 on a calendar. they also found antigovernment literature in his mobile home. his wife apparently fired earlier this year from teaching, says her husband only wanted to hurt himself. duke fired 14 shots at school board members and had 25 more rounds in his pocket. in a few hours, the security officer who took him down will speak for the first time at a press conference. another fox news alert, a live look now outside britain's high court in london where wikileaks founder julian assange is fighting for bail. there have been new developments in the past hour. greg has all the latest. what are the latest developments? >> at this moment in britain's high court in a courtroom in central london, assange is sitting in the dock. u.k. officials have wrapped up arguing that assange should stay in jail, should be denied bail. assange is wanted by sweden regarding sex crime allegations.

on tuesday, he was granted bail. that's being fought by british authorities acting on behalf of sweden. the claim has been, is today, that assange is a flight risk. the terms of the bail, restrictions on his movement at a specific u.k. address once he would get out. also that supporters got to put up something like $300,000 plus, his lawyer saying that money is now available. again, clarifying, this extradition has to do with allegations of sex crimes. nothing to do with the release of thousands of classified u.s. documents. there are new reports today that the u.s., justice department, is trying to put together a conspiracy case that might allow them to try to extradite assange wherever he might be, either in the u.k., back in sweden. the very latest we're getting from the courtroom, that is from outside of the courtroom, the reporter has come out from one of the newspapers here. he seems to think that it is leaning in assange's favor that he will be granted bail. he reports that the judge is

casting some doubts on the swedish case. the sex crime case. and because of the weakness of that case, that he is perhaps thinking about granting bail to assange. one more note, one restriction on his movements, a report to a police station every day in the country where he's supposed to be staying. the problem is that police station is closed between christmas and new year. a real hassle. back to you. >> gretchen: allall right. thanks. >> steve: apparently our producers are now hearing that it sounds like he will be sprung, perhaps as early as later today. >> gretchen: that will be controversial. michelle malkin from colorado springs will be here to give her thoughts and that's the senate meeting today on the start treaty. they got to do that before they get to the spending bill, which could shut down the government. >> yeah. i have two words for all of this and that is manufactured crisis. this is how the left operates. they wait until the last minute

to deal with some of the biggest problems and then whine about the state of emergency that they've created. they shirk their responsibles and waste our time and money pointing fingers and blaming each other for it. this is business as usual. it has been for the last several congresses, and i think most normal people who have to meet payrolls and meet their tax deadlines, tax filing deadlines, et cetera, and don't have the luxury of declaring states of emergency when they don't do their work are sick of it. >> brian: too much is on the line when it comes to this start treaty. written in april, but both sides have different opinions on what happens with missile defense. the russians say if we start or continue or progress, they're walking out of the deal. we say, there is no problem there. that's -- newt gingrich this morning wrote a column said no republican should vote for this. >> well, unfortunately, we're not going to have any prolonged debate about it because christmas is coming.

christmas is coming, we've got to get this work done now! >> steve: it looks like if they don't do it, get it done by the 18th, there will be a government shutdown. stay tuned. the people who are bringing you this manufactured crisis also brought us porkulus 2010. we're talking about the pork in there. some of the favorites include $400,000 for solar parking canopies and plug in electric stations in my home state of kansas. do they have that many plug in cars that they need to spend all that dough on that? >> yes. one wonders how many actually exist in the state of kansas. i think there is larger public policy questions here about whether the federal government should fund these kind of alternative technologies which have not really produced much. but i think it's a typical example of the kind of green pork that has been stuffed into the bill. >> gretchen: how about 1 million

for cooperative grouper snapper fisheries data collection -- i can't even say it -- for the florida wildlife conservation commission? >> well, yeah. i like this one 'cause, of course, most taxpayers think all of these earmarks are fishy and this one is literally fishy. certainly the state government should fund this kind of research and i think i don't have an objection to most kinds of basic r and d, but there is an irony here in these earmarks funding this kind of fishing science at a time when much of the federal government and the obama administration certainly, is undermining the fishing industry. >> brian: on top of that, too, two people who tend to, during their careers, lean on earmarks, are doing if in their death, 8 million for the ted kennedy institute. 10 million for john murtha. but 8 million for ed marky. we have to do it for ted. >> yeah. i think this one is one of the

more noxious ones. there was a noxious weed management one as well. $8 million to help construct this thing in boston. and i guess it's perfectly appropriate, you know, that one of the porkiest senators would be rewarded with one of the porkiest earmarks. >> steve: a senator who hates earmarks is john mccain and he'll be joining us in a couple of minutes. stand by for that. michelle, what do you make about this, the department of justice is suing on behalf of a muslim woman worker who wants three weeks unpaid leave for a trip to mecca, which begs the question, why is the united states department of justice involved in this? >> well, i've long said of this justice department that it is more appropriately titled the department of social justice because the attorney general, eric holder, is essentially a social justice activist who has the power to selectively enforce

the law. this woman may or may not have a case. i'll leave that for the courts to adjudicate. but the problem is that you have an attorney general who has completely diminished credibility when it comes to neutral application of the law and we have many whistle blowers, j. christian adams among them, who talked about the explicit social activist agenda of this justice department and, of course, he has explicitly promised muslim groups that -- he's pandered to them and talked about the need to put their agenda up front in the civil rights legislation. >> brian: in all practicality, if you were a small business owner and you want to hire somebody, but you know by law you have to give them off for three weeks so they can go to mecca, who is going to make that hire? >> yeah. brian, you're raising very important, much larger questions about the sense of entitlement. the culture of entitlement we've created in the workplace at a

time when so many workplaces among them public schools, are strapped for money and this is the kind of thing that you wonder what it means to have a reasonable accommodation anymore. >> gretchen: michelle malkin, we have to wrap it up there. we have the senator coming up next. thanks very much. have a great week. >> thanks, you, too. >> gretchen: as we've been telling you, john mccain is fired up over the pork stuffed budget bill. >> $500,000 for oyster safety in florida. $349,000 for swine waste management in north carolina. >> gretchen: i hope the senator majored in math and he joins us live next. >> steve: and the government's plan to save families from losing their houses not working and foreclosure filings are restarting now. real estate attorney bob massi predicted this six months ago. what's the solution? bob's on deck.

>> gretchen: the white house's plan to help save 13 million families from foreclosure has not been so successful and may have actually made the housing crisis worse. the federal reserve predicts in 2011, u.s. mortgage foreclosures could go up even more. joining me now is fox news contributor and realty expert, bob massi. good morning to you. >> good morning, gretchen. >> gretchen: so there seems to be another report that came up this morning that says something different. and i want you to give clarification in case people read this in the newspapers this morning. a headline that says, foreclosures fall to lowest level in 18 months, and yet we just announced that it may be worse than ever. why this report? >> well, because of the fact, remember a couple weeks ago we reported about the sign where all the affidavits were basically done on a fraudulent fashion, most of the big lenders froze the foreclosures. that's the only reason why that report has come out. there is no way the foreclosures are down. they're only down because they put a stop to it for a period of

time and now all of the lenders have said we're going to start all over again. >> gretchen: you say it's actually worse now than it was before and you say it's because the government's program failed. in what way? >> here is the thing, gretchen, when they set up the modification program, that program, the infrastructure was set up for fail your and the reason i say this, honestly, is they really didn't understand the extensiveness of this problem. they didn't understand what paperwork level. you could talk to people that tried to get loan modifications and they will tell you how many times they had to send the same documents over and over again, the fact that things were lost. it was false hope for the american homeowner in this country. so i actually got into this modification a little bit myself before i started educating on it just to see what it was like. and i'll tell you something, i had a guy turned down for a loan modification, i swear to you,

for 3.17 a month deficit because after his expenses, he was 3.17 in the negative and they turned down a loan modification. it was a failed system that continues to fail. >> gretchen: so you say ultimately then, because of that, the taxpayer will pay. how? >> here is the problem, how are we going to solve it? it's a real problem. there is only two ways to do it. the first way is a way that i don't like and that's the fact that the government -- and i don't want them involved 'cause they screwed it up already -- is going to either step up and say we will pay the deficiencies on foreclosures to the lenders. we will pay the deficiencies on what we call short sales we've talked about where there is a deficiency on what the homeowner owes, if, in fact, the house will be sold and we will subsidize you or we have to let this level out, let it go its course of foreclosure, let things balance out the next couple years and start over. it's either or. there is no middle ground. >> gretchen: both of them don't

sound too good, bob. >> no, they're not too good. one thing i want our viewers to understand real quick. the reason why lenders cannot principal reduce, and this is important because people say, bob y is it that they will sell a home to a stranger for present value, but they will not reduce my loan? the reason is, gretchen, because they are publicly traded companies. if you and i were share hold increase that company, let's say we're shareholders in bank of america and they came up with a protocol and said, we're going to reduce principle, there will be a huge shareholders lawsuit saying wait a second. our dividends have been changed, you don't have the power to do it. that's the reason why. they will not voluntarily reduce principle to the homeowner and that is -- there is a lot of other legal reason, but that's the basic reason our viewers have to understand. i don't like it, but that's the reality. >> gretchen: we always appreciate you telling the truth and educating our viewers. always great to see you. if i don't see you, merry

christmas. >> merry christmas to you. >> gretchen: senator mccain fighting against earmarks. so why won't anyone listen? >> $500,000 for oyster safety in florida. $349,000 for swine waste management. >> gretchen: the senator from arizona joins us live next. happy meals under attack again. a mom says mcdonald's is brainwashing her kids.

>> steve: welcome back. you heard his tirades on the senate floor, but what can be done about all the earmarks in the senate's budget bill? >> gretchen: senator john mccain joins us live from d.c good morning to you, senator. >> good morning, gretchen. >> gretchen: i like your performance the other day. you had a heck of a lot of fire and man, you broke out the

calculator because you had your math down to a t. here are your top pork chops for 2010 starting with 165,000 bucks for maple syrup research in vermont. and the list goes on and on. i know this has been a passion of yours for years. >> yeah. one of my favorites, by the way, is $300,000 for the polynesian voyaging society in hawaii. look, a lot of this is amusing and entertaining, there is 23% unemployment in arizona today. people are hurting. people are hurting badly and we could be helping people through difficult times instead of spending $1.1 trillion, 8.3 billion in earmarks. 8.3 billion, one of my favorites recently, $1 million for a sewer pipeline in north pole, alaska. population 1,700. 425,000 to restore the boon bill hardware building in boonville,

mississippi, population 8,000. and there is a billion dollars in it to start implementing obamacare. >> brian: there is a billion dollars in there. there is a lot at stake there in the $1.2 trillion, including the $9 billion in earmarks that you've run down, some of it. but senator, is it different -- it's a different time now. the president has been quiet. do you think he'll use this opportunity to come up and kill this bill? >> the president today should say, because we may be taken it up this afternoon say i'm going to veto this bill. it would be over then. instead, the white house has been totally silent. this is the same president that campaigned against earmarks and by the way, what this is is a thumb in the eye to all the tea partiers, all the people who voted to stop this spending. i'm saying to the tea partiers this morning, grab your pitch forks. let's stand up against this. it can be stopped. >> steve: no kidding. the meter is running, senator. you're coming up on the drop dead date where the federal government is going to go out of

business -- run out of money for a day or two. the democrats say, it's those darn republicans. when you look at the earmarks in there, it's not just democrats. there are a bunch of big republicans with earmarks in this thing. >> brian: at least six. >> look, it is republican disease as well and it's got to be stopped. it has got to be stopped. there is three kinds of senators here in the senate. republican senator, democrat senators, and appropriators. and it has got to be stopped and now is the time to do it and if i were one of those 23 democrats senators up next time, i'd be a little nervous about voting for this bill. >> gretchen: i want to get your thoughts on this, senator demint has said, let's read these bills out loud and -- >> i'll be demanding that the bill be read. >> gretchen: you would agree with senator demint, 'cause some people say that's just a stall tactic and it's politics at its best. but you're saying this is that

important that you would do that? >> i will do it. it's 1,900 some pages long, of course it should be read. how many senators -- we're still thumbing through it trying to find out what's in it. of course it should be read and it should be stopped. and we should be allowing amendments to remove a lot of this stuff. but most of all, it is a practice which the american people rejected soundly last november 2. it is an insult to the voters of america. >> brian: senator, we have so much to go through, but the start treaty, this deal with the russian, a lot of people have some questions on it. some word was you were starting to be won over and be in support of it. is that going to pass? are you in support? >> i don't know if it's going to pass. i think that jon kyle has a very legitimate concern about modernization, but most of all about time of consideration of a very important treaty. i have concerns about the

missile defense part of it. i will be proposing several amendments to try to fix that as far as missile defense is concerned. so i'm not sure how this is going to turn out. but we certainly need ample time to debate it. >> steve: also, senator -- >> the problem is, we didn't do anything all yearlong. never had a vote on a friday. we're jamming everything in for christmas and they're trying to jam through their agenda. harry reid forces votes on the dream act, all of this litmus test of issues that will help with the democrats' political base. and it's really a disgraceful performance. no wonder approval rating of congress is now down to 13%. get down that low, you're down to paid staffers and blood relatives. >> steve: no kidding. before you go, the afghanistan and pakistan annual review has come out from the white house and essentially what they say is we're doing better over there and it looks like we will be able to pull some troops out next year. but pakistan has really got to help us more.

they really don't help us enough. >> there is three problems. one is the president repeating this 2011 withdrawal date. that discourages our friends and encourages our enemies and i'm glad to see him emphasizing 2014. i appreciate that. second is corruption and corruption is ripe and that has to be addressed and third is sanctuary in pakistan, the taliban and other al-qaeda agents are using. we've got to address that and we need better cooperation from pakistan. they have been somewhat helpful, but not nearly enough. we can't win war when is you give the enemy sanctuary. >> gretchen: senator john mccain, always great to speak with you and we'll just keep our eyes on capitol hill to see what happens in the next couple of days. >> the pitch forks, grab them and come to capitol hill, tea partiers. >> brian: thanks senator. >> steve: merry christmas. straight ahead, the latest jobless numbers released in two minutes. will there be more bad news?

eric bowling will be here in the studio in just a moment. he's got his cue cards. >> brian: michael vick is asking how much is that doggy in the window? he wants another dog for christmas. he says he's had them his whole life. >> steve: you're kidding? >> brian: it will be part of his rehab. >> steve: tell me you're kidding.

>> steve: an important fox business alert for you. the labor department releasing the weekly jobless claims. 420,000 new unemployment claims filed for the first time last

week. that is a drop in what economists expected. they were expecting 425,000 claims. >> brian: that's great news, right, eric bowling? >> it's good and bad news. good news is it's a little touch better than what they were expecting. but again, this 420,000 is elevated. that 420 represents first time initial jobless claims. you walk in the office and say, i haven't been unemployed before. this is what i need. i need help. the continuing claims number in excess of 4 million people still on unemployment benefits. so elevated. anything above 400,000 is elevated and again, we talk about this all the time. but 350 is where you want to see the economy to be. >> steve: the way they're describing it on the ap is it's the third decline in four weeks. >> they're tiny declines and then we see these revisions. bottom line, it's still an elevated unemployment number. even if the stock market looks like it's holding steady or the

housing market is still going down, this number is bad. this is the big one. this is the one we want to see turn around. >> gretchen: the way government does business, i find it hard to believe -- >> a lot are phone surveys and those are less accurate. one you know who is applying 'cause they want the benefits. >> brian: here is the key, you say this might be good, but look out every day items are going up, like gas and food. >> brian, this is the most aggravating thing. of all the things i do, we hear ben bernanke, say don't worry, we don't have inflation, it's not a problem. i know we do. gasoline, since mr. obama was sworn into office up 1.38 a gallon, that's $138 billion tax to consumers. here is what happens, they put out a number every month called the consumer price index. an index of goods and services that you buy. the basket. the problem is they leave out food and energy. energy is off to the races.

food, corn, sugar, coffee, all making record highs. cotton, clothes we wear, 140 years of trading, the highest price ever traded this month. things we use are going up. >> gretchen: why? >> because of the dollar. we keep injecting more and more money into the system. they make it easier. they make more dollars chasing after the same amount of goods. that means people who buy and sell things with the u.s. dollar, they need to chase with more dollars. prices of goods go up. problem is, the only thing holding prices down on the consumer price index, the one we want to go up, housing. >> steve: no kidding. >> that could be a while. >> steve: thank you very much. >> brian: we'll watch your show tonight. >> i should wear a banker suit like that. >> brian: i'll be in the shower and you can use it. >> gretchen: dry clean it before you do that. we'll catch you on "follow the money." wikileaks founder assange expected to be freed from prison as early as today. this after a british judge

rejected an appeal to keep him behind bars. assange accused of sex crimes against two different women in sweden. his supporters say the charges are trumped up and politically motivated. you'll remember he revealed thousands of government secrets on wikileaks earlier this month. >> brian: investigators in texas are revealing new information in the border lake shooting that left david hartley dead. authorities now say the mexican drug smugglers were authorized by their cartels to kill hartley's wife, tiffany. she escaped september 30 shooting. the couple had gone to the mexican side of falcon lake to photograph an old church on jet skis when they were attacked. so far, two suspects have been identified and police say they may soon have information on where hartley's body is. they were chasing her. >> steve: that's what she told us. a mom from sacramento, california is suing mcdonald's with the help of a washington, d.c. public advocacy group.

the class action lawsuit claims mcdonald's ads, their billboards and tv commercials and especially the toys, brainwash kids into making unhealthy food choices. >> that really concerns me that mcdonald's has that kind of influence on my children and on the things that they would request from me on a regular basis. >> steve: the suit was filed in san francisco where city officials just banned toys from kids' meals that don't meet certain nutritional standards. mcdonald's defends its happy meal, saying most parents understand they're a treat that can fit into a balanced diet. moderation, people. >> brian: homeless veteran chose the true meaning of christmas when he finds cash, returns it. it was lying on a boston street and gave it to police. >> steve: nice. >> i knew i could get a nice

christmas present for each one of my kids. >> brian: the wallet's owner offered to buy christopher lunch as a thank you, but he said no. he'd buy her lunch. >> do you take hugs? >> yeah. >> thank you so much. merry christmas. >> brian: since word got out, strangers have been donating money to help christopher's family's christmas. >> steve: that's nice. >> gretchen: what a story. the white house issued its own assessment now of the war in afghanistan and probably to no one's surprise, the report is positive. wendell goler is at the white house with an analysis. good morning. you had a chance to sift through all the documents. >> well, gretchen, the declassified summary of the president's afghanistan-pakistan report says the surge in troops ordered at the end of last year, which was fully in place at the end of september, is working and things are on track to begin with the report calls responsible reductions by the middle of next year. but the number of troops brought home likely to be modest.

the pace relatively slow. interestingly, the report makes no mention of afghan president hamid karzai, concerns about government corruption in last year's report caused an uproar. the report cites progress, substantial progress, in fact. dismantling the leadership of al-qaeda, which is hiding on the afghan-pakistan border, but it says pakistan isn't helping nearly as much as it could. retired general jack keane, who did an assessment a couple of months ago, says the situation is worse than pakistan not helping us. >> i had the same conclusion that the sanctuaries in pakistan, the one in the east and the one in the south, both aided and supported by the pakinstani government and their military, the fact of the matter is, accomplishing our mission by 2014 is at risk as long as those sanctuaries are in place. >> the report says the taliban's gains in afghanistan in recent

years have been stopped in some parts of the country, rolled back in other parts of the country, but it says the progress is fragile and could be lost without a long-term commitment to both afghanistan and pakistan. it supports an intensified push by the afghan government for reconciliation with some elements of the taliban next year and makes no change in plans to turn security over to the afghans by 2014. we'll have the president's take on this a little more than three hours from now. gretchen, back to you. >> gretchen: wendell, live at the white house, thanks very much. >> brian: we just know one thing for sure, our men and women are making history. they're doing a fantastic job. straight ahead, the f.d.a. might yank its support for a cancer treatment that actually works just because it costs too much. should the government really put a price on somebody's life? >> steve: then your credit or debit card probably has one. radio chip that transmits the number to anybody, even thieves if they got that logo on it.

we'll show you how they do it and how you can protect your card. >> gretchen: all michael vick wants for christmas, a puppy? we're not kidding. should someone stop that wish from coming true?

>> brian: glad you're up. you better get something on. in the headlines, officials will meet this morning to discuss the stability or lack thereof of the metrodome after a fourth panel in the inflatable roof tore open. repairs were temporarily called off when more snow and ice crashed to the floor last night. following the cave in that was caught on camera. michael vick says he would love to own a dog again and says it could be part of his rehabilitation for running a dog fighting ring that killed or

tortured countless animals. the thing is, a court order prevents him from owning another dog. he said he's had them his whole life. >> steve: thank you very much. the f.d.a. is deciding the fate of nearly 20,000 women who are battling breast cancer. the government is considering revoking approval of the drug abaston for the treatment of late stage breast cancer. is this because of cost? fox news legal analyst peter johnson, jr. has a prescription for truth. a couple years ago, it sounded like this was on the fast track to be approved and now we're hearing not so fast. >> there was a fast track approval. when you look at the story, at least i do, i kind of say to you and i say to the people at home, have you ever gotten a call from someone, a friend, family member who says, the cancer has stopped growing? that's because of a drug that they're taking. is there any happier moment in that person's life or yours when you hear that? even if you know that cancer may not be cured, but it stopped

growing and their lives are going to be longer and better and stronger and they'll spend time with their husbands and wives and children and grandchildren, that's what people who are taking this drug are saying. about 17,000 a year it costs about 80,000 a year. they're saying, listen, f.d.a., don't play cost-benefit analysis. don't play politics. don't play obamacare rationing. say, this has benefit to some people, especially in late stage breast cancer. not all people, but some people. so they're saying to the federal government, don't take it away from me. don't impose a death sentence on me because if i live too long, you may have to spend federal government, 80 or $100,000 a year. >> steve: you know, peter, when you hear these stories about how those stimulus jobs cost $400,000 a copy, and then you hear that for 80 tore $90,000 a year, you can have somebody live longer, i think that's a good

investment! >> you're right. we have to make a decision in this country. i understand the burdens of the deficit. i understand all the burdens we have in this country. but is the goal of our medical care in this country to affirm life or to say you will not live forever as a result of this drug and since it will not cure you, we will not provide this drug to you and the f.d.a. will say, this is not approved for this. you know what happens once the f.d.a. says it's not approved? medicaid and medicare is not going to allow it and private insurance won't allow it. what happens to those 17,000 people a year, some of whom had t has benefit for, some of who it extends their lives, some of whom it improves their lives? we need to make a decision in this country, whether politics is going to trump medicine, whether the bureaucracy is going to win over people's lives and the extension of their lives. in finishing, i read a woman named priscilla howard, she wrote in her local allentown

paper, i have received this treatment. i have led a very active life. i work, i see my children and grandchildren dancing and travel while i recognize that the drug may not work forever, it is working now. neither my oncologist nor i wish to stop using it. should she be forced to stop using it? let's hear what america has to say on that. >> steve: excellent point. peter johnson, jr., e-mail him right now. important story. >> it is. >> steve: thank you. straight ahead, have you heard this, thieves reading your credit card or debit card right through your pocket as you walk down the street. next we'll show you how it is done live in the studio and how you can protect yourself if you got a card with that thing on it. right now, bill hemmer has like 50 credit cards on him. >> you can borrow two of them today. >> steve: thank you. >> another big day for health care. a judge will hear arguments from

20 states challenging the law. we'll talk to one of the attorney generals who is presenting at that case today. not every republican likes the tax bill. mike pence tells us why he's ready to vote against it. earmarks are becoming a scarlet letter in d.c we'll tell you why. and another border agent shot and killed. a local sheriff will tell u about the dangers in southern arizona. join martha and me. we'll see you in ten minutes on "america's newsroom."

>> gretchen: it is a new era for identity fraud. crooks can use electronic pick pocketing devices to steal your credit card numbers while they're still in your wallet. >> steve: how real is this threat and what are the biggest risk as soon as john is the author of "privacy means profit." he's also an identity theft expert who was once a victim himself. >> brian: twice actually. >> yes. >> steve: john, i hold in my

hand, this is one of your credit cards and it's got this little logo on it with those little beam right there. that means it's got an rfid chip in it. right? >> it's transmitting remotely, wirelessly to your scanner. >> steve: what i'm going to do is put this in my back pocket. you're suggesting if evil doers, thieves have one of these readers and, for instance, if i'm standing in line and you were to come up behind me like that, do we have all the green lights? that thing just read all the information? >> without having it out of your pocket. >> steve: what can they do with that now? >> the reality of this is, it's very labor intensive way to get your credit card number. it's easier to steal a purse or wallet. what they get is your credit card number, they get your name and the expiration date. the same amount of information that a retailer or waiter gets when you hand them the card. it's actually very little data.

>> gretchen: there has been a lot of news about this device. what you're saying is for somebody to actually carry around a laptop and battery and this, that it would be easier to snatch your purse? >> it would. and by the way, they don't get any more information than you're handing out every day to shop on-line, you need what's on the back of the card, the cvv code and a waiter can get that. but when you're scanning with this, it's overblown. you have to realize the guy in the news segment was selling sleeves that protect these. >> brian: you want to tell everyone if you have that label, tell them you want it off? >> exactly. call your credit card company and get it off the card. >> brian: where are we most at risk, john? >> you're more at risk surfing wirelessly in a cafe than with this. or having your purse stolen. >> steve: when these first came out a couple of years ago, it was you don't even have to enter the number. you just tap it like that and go. >> yeah. >> steve: it's convenient. >> interesting technology. it is a risk. it's not a high risk we should

be focusing on. this is not going to be a problem. >> brian: the main problem to look out for, we're on-line, we bang in our credit card, we all right? >> if you monitor your accounts, if you have credit card account alerts and monitor it, you're not at that much of a risk because even if something happens, you shut it down quickly. no liability to you. >> gretchen: that's the key, to be on top of it all. >> absolutely. >> brian: name of the book is "privacy means profit." for to us profit, we have to take a break and we'll come back and wrap things up.

>> gretchen: why don't you promo your radio show? >> brian: coming up, collin quinn will be joining us, donald trump, tony blankly and chris wallace. all coming up between on radio. >> steve: meantime, speaking of web sites, fox news shop.com, that's a great place for you to go. if you are a big fan of the fox news