we'll see you guys then. >> we'll be watching. >> brian: i'll see you two on the radio. >> gretchen: we'll have more of the takes we were showing, especially the gun that brian was shooting. mo on the fabulous hot toys in case you still have time to go out and shop, 'cause i'm sure you do, coming up in the after the show show. who let you handle the gun? >> brian: it was my idea. bill: all right, fox news alert, merry christmas america! a big gift to taxpayers just in time for the holidays, you can seep more of your money, the house passing a package that will prevent a massive tax hike for every american and this afternoon the president will sign that bill into law. it's a friday, good morning, everybody! we're feeling good. i'm bill hemmer. martha: we are feeling good. good morning, bill, good to see new your purple and i'm

martha maccallum. after months of delays and contentious debate which we have followed closely, a show of bipartisanship when house lawmakers voted in favor of that measure. they had over 100 votes to spare on this vote. some democrats, though, still believe this deal, they're very upset about it, they say it's too generous to the wealthy. >> to add insalt to injury they have now added to estate tax provision, an estate tax provision, now mind you, the democrats side of the ledger benefits 155 million americans. in order for the president to get those terms accepted, the republicans insisted that $23 billion in benefits go to the 6600 wealthiest families in america. 6600 families.

holding up tax cuts for 155 million americans. is that fair? does that meet any test of fairness? martha: all right. well, the tax cut compromise also cuts social security taxes, and it extends unemployment benefits, which was part of the deal that the democrats very much wanted. so as you can see, lots of drama on the house floor before that big vote. the house speaker got an earful, mostly from fellow democrats who were not happy with the president's deal with republicans. congressman from florida and virginia -- congressmen from virginia and florida sounding off as well. take a look: >> republican senators have held americans hostage, held the american economy hostage, held hostage the middle class, and the president agreed to pay the ransom. now, that ransom can be paid this month, only with the consent not only of the president, but the senators and this house.

so we can stop the ransom from being paid. >> this was the wrong thing to do. it's the easy thing to do. everybody loves a tax cut. you know, let's be santa clause. let's give us -- in fact, there are 81 provisions in this tax bill. most of us have no idea what they actually do. martha: keep in mind, this is just maintaining the current tax scenario the way it was under the bush tax cuts, okay? now off camera, congressman mike quigley of the president's home state of illinois was heard saying this, quote, my brain is going to blow up after this, bill! bill: so will ours! look like no one is bringing home the bacon, senate majority leader harry reid abandoning this trillion dollars spending bill late last night in the senate. it was packed full of earmarks from both democrats and republicans. the decision getting mixed reaction on the floor. senator john mccain has the gavel. you hear mark kirk, the

republican, newly elected from illinois, in the background, and then the democrat from missouri, claire mccaskill on this. listen: >> just as the most junior member for those who are not understanding just what happened, did we just win? >> i think there's very little doubt that the majority leader of the united states senate would not have taken the action he just took if we didn't have 41 votes to stop this monstrocity. i don't think there's any doubt about it. >> so for economic conservatives, a 1924-page bill just died. >> 1924-page bill just died. >> and 6000 earmarks will not now move forward. >> yes, and i feel badly about some of those earmarks because i had so much fun with them! >> they should have said before this bill ever came to the floor and they were asked would you like your earmarks pulled out, no, no, they were perfectly willing to vote no and take those earmarks home. this is an equal opportunity sin. the problems with this process don't lie on one side of the aisle, they lie

on both sides of the aisle and the notion that republicans are trying to say this is just about the democrats is the kind of hypocrisy that gives us the lowest rating we have in terms of confidence in the american people. bill: now the decision to drop the bill will come at a time of congressional approval rating, at an all-time low, gallup polling, it's never been at 13 percent before. stuart varney ranks 100 percent with us, two topics, earmark number one, $8.3 billion contained in this bill, is it possible they will not see the light of day for the first time? >> yes. gone. they're gone. roll with it, 6700 of them, # $.3 billion worth, it was in that spending bill, the spending bill is dead. now, it's recent ruct -- if resurrected in the next year that will be at the whim of republicans and they said no more earmarks, so as of right now those earmarks are dead, caput, gone. bill: to keep the government operating, then, you need

this, what's called a continuing resolution. >> yes. bill: and what mitch mcconnell on the republican side has offered, instead of the $1900 spending bill that was on the floor, he's offered one page to keep government operating until february. >> right. bill: which would essentially be a two-month delay. >> yes. bill: they would have a new congress in washington the first week in january, then they would start battling out, to figure out what america is going to spend and not spend. >> you are correct. this continuing resolution, forget the jargon for a minute f. it means that, we're going to keep spending money the way we are now, no change until february, when the incoming congress gets a chance to dictate spending for the rest of 2011. the defeat of this spending bill means that the outgoing, somewhat discredited 111th congress will not dictate spending for the year 2011. bill: and the reason that's important, stuart, we're going to find very early in the new year whether or not

the politicians in congress are serious about cutting spending and cutting into our deaf at this time. >> it's now become all about spending and that is the republicans' chief issue here. they are in control of the house, that's where spending begins, they want to cut spending. one more item for you, bill, the loser, now, when this spending bill was defeated, out with it went that $1 billion that was supposed to be spent on implementing obamacare. it's gone. that means the republicans will have a chance to strangle financially obamacare next year. bill: that's been their effort to de fund the bill. wow. or the law, rather, i should say. stuart, thank you. have a great weekend, we'll catch you at 9:20 and fbn. stuart varney. martha: we've got a lot of new interesting numbers from our fox news opinion dynamics poll, tough numbers for president obama right now. take a look at these. 29 percent of the american public polled in this

outcome show that president obama will be reelected by 2012. that is down 15 percentage points from a year ago, as you can see on that one. now take a look at this one. we also asked this, does the president deserve reelection, 35 percent say the president deserves reelection, down slightly from september, as you can see, and a majority, 53 percent, say the country is better off with, quote, some unnamed person who is yet to be announced on the republican side. bill bi-breaking news in the wickileaks founder julian assange, let out on bail yesterday. this morning he is talking, and says he's got more to worry about than two ungoing sexual assault investigations in sweden, a british court freed assange pending an extradition hearing next year. in an interview with our sister network sky news only moments ago assange says he's increasingly worried about extradition possibilityies here to the united states. here's assange moments ago: >> the big risk, the risk we have always been concerned about, is onwards

extradition to the united states. and that seems to be increasingly serious and increasingly likely. we heard reports yesterday that a secret indictment has been made against me in the united states, not concerned to us, but i read in the newspaper there are more suggestions of that, senior legal people saying it's likely and the principal of figures that would be responsible for such indictment are refusing to comment. bill: that is a major headline, when assange admits it publicly, he's responsible for a massive israel of secret u.s. military diplomatic documents. that is breaking news. more in 20 minutes. martha: that's coming up. and snow and sleet causing major problems from the south through the mid atlantic today. this is the scene in baltimore, folks finding roads and sidewalks there treacherous. we've seen snow all over the capitol. >> you would think this is

the blizzard of february, the way people are driving. >> we will keep forces until it's completely clear, we have everything treated and everything is in good shape. >> i was not doing very well. >> so it's a little slippery? >> very slippery. >> i don't have snow boots, so i'm wearing my rain boots and yeah, it's really slippery. martha: if you think this is bad, forecasters are keeping their eyes on what could turn into an even bigger storm pushing eth now. meteorologist janice dean is live in the fox weather center with perhaps our white christmas outlook it may sound like janice! >> reporter: does bill have a coin we can toss? bill: actually i'm broke at the moment. but i could run downstairs, maybe. >> reporter: i got to say, it's 50 lsh 50, a lot of the local forecasters were saying a lot of maybes, could be, because a lot of the computer models, there's a little bit of divergence here, some computer models showing it come closer to the shore, which means all of the big cities could have measurable snow sunday into monday, but you know what, there is a chance the storm

will stay off shore and not bring us anything. so here's one of those computer models we're watching as we head further out into time into sunday, this shows us somewhat warmer and off the coast. you can see the edge of some of that snow moving to new england. i think new england has the bigger shot of a lot of snow this weekend. but we have to pay attention to the west, guys, because the west is going to get walloped. i'll show that in a second, lake effect snow in ontario, across the west, rain and mountain snow, 6-10 feet! of snow for this year. martha: wow! >> reporter: next week, yes, they will get walloped this weekend and next week. if you like to ski, you love me f. you don't, you're not loving me. martha: i love you, janice, i love you! let's get white christmas going in the new york area for my kids as well. thank you janice! working on that for us. are you taking pictures of this video or extreme weather? send it to us, w50ed love to

see your pictures, foxnews.com/you report, upload those images. remember, stay safe when you're out there. we're going to post some of those on the website, we'll try to show some on the air. we've got snow men to show, too. bill: no coins, it comes out rock, paper, scissors, every time. janice, thank you. is the health care reform law legal? that is the enormous question being asked in a florida courtroom today. twenty states challenging the law. an update on that. martha: more on the fight over the pork-filled spending bill that was scuttled last night. is this a true sign that things might be changing in washington? that after republicans sounded off on the congressional pet projects. you heard john cac main -- mccain talking about it, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell says this: >> they want to ram this gigantic trillion dollars bill through congress and they're getting -- and they're using once again the christmas break as an inducement to vote for it. martha: he was not a happy

man. juan williams joins us to talk about what all this means. but this man you see here, president obama, of course, who urged lawmakers to pass that bill.

>> we have done nothing yet to begin to get us back to job creation, and it's clear that the obama administration doesn't have a clue how you create jobs, so john boehner and the house republicans need to lead the way in focusing on jobs and paychecks. bill: jobs will be the big story come january, newt gingrich on hannity last night, those comments coming on the heels of a fox opinion poll, it shows president obama's second year-ending on a low note, 29 percent of voters say their expectations for his presidency are great, that's down from 62 percent. at the same time, two years ago. juan williams, fox news political analyst with me now. how you doing juan? >> hey bill. bill: at some point, you're

going to come down from the heavens, right? i mean, those numbers are going to drop. but i think what you told our producers today is quite telling. this is the winter of discontent for the white house. >> it certainly is. bill: it may also be the same winter of discontent for democrats in congress. how do you deal with it? >> i think that's -- how do you view it? >> in that same fox news opinion poll, i think it's half of americans that said that 2010 was a bad year for their families and i think that directly ties into the economy. more and more people, you know, think gosh, this unemployment rate is untenable, i'm worried about my pension, my retirement, i'm worried if my son or daughter can get a job. people are just frustrated and when they look to washington they see washington in their minds engaged in self-serving acts, out of control, not focused on jobs, on the economy, things that will help them. so this is a moment where we talk about the discontent with president obama, the discontent with democrats in congress is higher than it is with obama and if you

look at actually discontent with republicans in congress, it's still very high. bill: what you described there is the whole right track/wrong track polling we look at during election years, every four years. i think this is telling. a lot of these numbers i think are predictable based on party loyalty but i found this surprising. 20 percent of democrats that we surveyed think they'd be better off with a different president. >> right. bill: now, why is that? are those hillary clinton supporters? >> you're -- >> bill: what explains that? >> i think they're disappointed with the president's performance, you know, and they're disappointed in the same direction that you saw the liberals on the hill express capacity perration with the passage of this lax taw -- expressex as perration, obama is not the guy they thought they'd be getting. you said at the start of this, of course, people aren't going to have the same level of satisfaction and high expectations as when he took office back in '08 -- sorry, '09, but you

know what, the air has gone out of the balloon in so many ways and people don't see the magic being delivered as quickly as they hoped. i tell you, one quick thing, bill, half of democrats -- i think it's half of independents say right now they'd like to see someone else as president in that fox poll. bill: you're right. >> and it's higher among republicans. but that's the killing factor right there. when you see half of independents vying off of the president, that's what his political analysts in the white house say we've got to reverse if we're looking to 2012. bill: 15 seconds. i want to get your view on this, the holiday compromise of 2010 is what they're going through right now on this tax deal, is this the moment where it turns around or do you need a lot more evidence before you're convinced? >> no, i think this is a turning point. it's not instantaneous but everybody, liberals, conservatives, goldman sachs, wells fargo, they all say this is the second stimulus that will help the economy at least for the next year and that means good news for president obama and democratic

aspirations heading towards the 2012 year. bill: and for the unemployed in this country, good news for them if that's the case. juan, have a good weekend. >> enjoy the snow, bill! bill: you got it. martha. martha: there is a man hunt underway, we've been following the story the past two days and it is heating up on the southwest border for suspects behind the murder of this border patrol agent, brian perry, and now our homeland security secretary is in arizona. how will she handle the latest violence when she sees it up close? bill: how much did you pay for a christmas tree? how about $11 million?

bill: they're selling charlie brown's christmas at starbucks! what in the world.

it's being called the most expensive christmas tree ever and i think it can lay claim. uae, united arab emirates, an $11 million job, 40 feet tall, dripping in diamonds, pearls, emeralds and sapphires. how about that for an ornament? it's the same hotel that recently installed a gold vending machine and while the uae is mostly a muslim country, a christmas tree is not uncommon at hotel necessary that area. martha: and there are towns across america that are banning a christmas tree in their town square and there's one in the uae at the big hotels. bill: i know where that would look great. in my apartment! they'd have to cut out 30 feet, but it would look great. martha: blow out your windows! bill: merry christmas! martha: this is a bizarre -- bizarre story and a tough turn but we're going to talk about this stunning twist in the suspected serial killer

investigation that is going on in new york's long island. police are now saying that none of the four bodies that were found near an exclusive beach community belonged to the missing new jersey woman. cops found the bodies while searching for her, david lee miller is live in our new york city newsroom on this. now we've got a whole other group of questions about who these victims are, david lee. >> reporter: that's right martha. this is indeed a massive investigation that is now underway. big question now, who are these four bodies, have they been able to identify them and so far, authorities say they have not been successful. we do know that they are all women. it is believed that the bodies, just based on decomposition, were dumped over a period of two years. authorities say it's not even clear if they are prostitutes, using dna and computer graphics, they're going to try and figure out who the bodies belong to but it is very possible they might never be i.d.s. police, meanwhile, are expanding the search. there you can see the scene, they have cadaver dogs and

have extended the search for about 10 miles, meanwhile, the police officer is trying to calm worried residents. >> i don't want anybody to think that we have a jacket ripper running around suffolk county with blood dripping from a knife, which might be the impression that some people would get. >> reporter: the big question at this hour, where is shannon gilbert, her family desperately wants answers and it appears, martha, this christmas, at least five families will have missing daughters, unless there's a new development. martha: awful story. david lee, thank you very much. bill: big story in this area, too, and a big mystery. the wickileaks leaker be brought to the u.s.? there's big news on that. and the president's health care law, legal or not? we're awaiting another judge's ruling on the law that will affect everyone. martha: and the hero who stopped a shooter in his track social security now speaking out, security guard mike jones, an amazing guy in his own words.

>> when the superintendent came up from behind that counter and franklin harrison and he came and hugged my neck, that's when i lost it, like i am now, like -- just crying, i cry at chick flicks, too, you all --

bill: 9:30 in new york, everybody, if you're just waking up, some of the top stories, the market about to react out of the decision of the white house, the president signing a bill extending tax cuts this

afternoon, a lot of investors baking that decision in their investments. fda recommending against a blockbuster cancer drug, it says avastin is not as effective as promised. 9:30 in new york. martha: all right. we have breaking news this morning on wickileaks founder julian assange who has just said he has more to worry about now than he did with the ongoing sexual assault investigation that was going on of course in sweden. a british court freed assange yesterday, we all watched him walk out of there look very victorious, pending an extradition hearing next year. now in an interview with our sister network sky news, assange just said this about his organization's decision to post online stolen u.s. documents. listen to this: >> the big risk, the risk we have always been concerned about, is onwards extradition to the united states, and that seems to be increasingly serious and increasingly likely. the question then becomes

what's going to be done with that secret indictment, how will it be executed. martha: very interesting. all right. so what kind of legal battle is he facing? judge andrew napolitano, fox news senior judicial analyst and host of fox bit network's "freedom watch" joins me now. welcome, judge, good to have you. he seems to be saying now he's less concerned about the sex assault charges in sweden, he says they were shot down, he believes they'll be shot down ultimately, but he says there is increasing heat on him from the u.s. >> well, he's probably right. i mean, grand juries in the united states meet in secret. the idea being that if they don't indict the person, then there's no bee smirching their public reputation so when he says a secret grand jury is meeting in the united states to draft charges against him he may be right but we don't know it for sure, but it is a legitimate concern because if he is charged with espionage here and the american government seeks his extradition to the united states, that will

probably happen, because espionage is a legitimate crime. by legitimate crime, i mean it is a crime here and it's a crime in great britain. this oversexing ching that the swedes want to ask him about is not a crime in great britain. that complicates the extradition to sweden. byby the way, oversexing is not a crime here as well. martha: do you agree the charges will go away? >> i do, and the reason i think they will, either the american extradition will supercede the request in sweden or the british judge will say this is nonsense and reason he'll say this isnon sense is the following, i have spoken to julian assange's lawyer and i said to him what witness will you put on the strand to resist the extradition, he says that's easy, the swedish prosecutor who dismissed the oversex charges. martha: and assange spoke about that when he came out. let's play this other sound bite because this goes to the wickileaks charges, which most people here,

that's their primary concern in this case. let's plan to what -- let's listen to what he has said about that. >> there have been many calls by senior people in the united states, including elected ones from the senate, for my execution and the kidnapping of my staff, the execution of the young soldier, bradley manning, who they -- it's a very, very serious business, and the united states recently has shown that its institutions seem to be failing, they are failing to follow rules, the law, and we're dealing with a superpower that does not appear to be following the rule of law. it's a serious business. >> i'm going to take the voltaire angle on this, i disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it. the supreme court said that in the pentagon papers case when daniel elsberg actually stole documents from the defense department and gave them to "the new york times" and the supreme court said "the new york times" can't

be prosecuted but daniel elsberg can. the espionage ability of 1917, which attorney general holder said they are thinking of charging him with violating has been gutted by the supreme court, because our attitude about the first amendment today is we have a right to know these things. and the person to prosecute is the thief. the government says it's bradley manning, not the publisher. that will be his defense if he's charged with espionage here. martha: it sounds like he's also trying to mitigate his situation by talking about these calls for his execution, and all of this, these, you know, very kind of -- >> well, the calls for the execution, i think, are political, and overblown. in fact, there is no death penalty that would be available here. martha: right. >> it would be a life in jail term should a court decide that he was an actual spy who stole these documents himself. on the other hand, if he is just the publisher, somebody showed up own day and said here's what i have, then he is absolutely insulated from

any prosecution, criminal or civil, from the act of publishing. martha: tell me what you see in the crystal ball, what's the next move, will he be extradited and charged? >> i think the u.s. government is under great public pressure to do something. i think they will seek his extradition, he will be extradited, and then a federal court will dismiss the charges against him and he'll be back on his way to doing what he does. martha: that would be a great victory for him to have that happen in a u.s. court. we'll see what happens. judge, thank you very much. >> merry christmas to you! and to hemmer over there as well! martha: you can watch judge napolitano on the fox business network, "freedom watch", every night at # o'clock a.m. eastern. he's pointing at you so you'd better watch! bill: all right. now to new details this morning in the debt of a university of virginia lacrosse player, you might remember the case back in may, yeardley love, found dead in her apartment, her ex-boyfriend, also a lacrosse player at the same

school, accused of her murder. now george huguely's lawyers are trying to get their hands on her medical records. doug mekelway is live in washington. how big is this development? good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. i think this is a huge development. you'll recall, bill, when news of the murder of yeardley love first stunned the university of virginia campus, the guilt of her boyfriend, 24-year-old george huguely, seemed all but certain, he refused myrrh miranda rights, he admitted he repeatedly hit her head against a wall in a fit of rage, her autopsy found the cause of death to be blunt force trauma. huguely's defense attorney at the time ofd an explanation that seemed to defy the evidence. he said, quoting now, that her death was an accident with a tragic outcome, end quote. the court hearing this week, the meaning of that comment became a lot clearer. a former medical examiner, hired by the defense, told a judge that he doubted the autopsy findings. this pa tholings, jack

daniel from richmond, told the court a combination of the attention decifit disorder drug adderall and .14 blood alcohol content in yeardley love's blood may have led to cardiac arrest, in the 24 minutes of frantic resuscitation by medics may have caused internal bleeding. the defense has asked the judge to release love's university medical records. >> it could backfire on the defense, because essentially you're trying to sully the character of the victim who based on what we know now essentially got her head bashed in. >> experts are wondering if this petition to israel her records may be part of an overall strategy to seek a plea deal, something that could be advantageous not just to the defense but also perhaps to the prosecution, because the first, the death penalty case is hugely expensive, especially in a small county like albamall

county. bill: such a tragic case. thank you, doug. martha: here's something you don't see every day, folks. take a look at this. that's what we call lawmakers gone wild, folks! there were actually injuries that came out of this. where did it happen? stick around. bill: shocker. new developments on the shooting death of a u.s. border patrol agent this morning. we will talk in moment toss an arizona sheriff who fights the battle against illegals every day. after this.

martha: we got new

developments in the battle over president obama's health care overhaul. state attorneys general and governors across the u.s. claim the law is unconstitutional as you know. three days ago a virginia judge agreed with that, void ago key provision of this law that mandates you to buy health insurance. now 20 states, in this case that is before the judge now, are asking a florida judge to do the same thing. leading the suit is florida attorney general bill mccollum: >> the argument that should be persuasive to this court and we all hope will be is that it is unconstitutional because there's no enumerated power in the constitution that gives congress the right to tell somebody they have to buy a product or they'll suffer a penalty. martha: well, they are trying to get a tie here basically because two judges so far have struck down similar challenges to this law. our latest fox news opinion poll show the american people come down like this on the issue. we asked should the government be required --

should require you to buy health insurance, 28 percent said yes, 69 percent say no. we'll see what the florida judge says. bill: to the border and the hunt for a killer in arizona, the fbi and local police looking for one more suspect in the murder of border patrol agent brian terry, shot and killed tuesday night after a shootout with suspected band aves here the arizona-mexico border, now his death prompting a visit by homeland security secretary janet napolitano, who is headed to arizona. what will she report to the white house? we talked about a sheriff down there yesterday, he told us this is what he believes needed to be done: >> i told the president, he gives me half an hour, i'll tell him how to secure this border. we need 6000 armed soldiers, we need to build and complete the double barrier fence that he suspended, stopped the construction, and then now the concept -- a novel concept, enforce the law. you come into america, you're breaking america's laws, you're apprehended and

formally deported. you come back into our country illegally, you go to prison. these are part of the mccain-kyl plan that will secure our border. >> that's sheriff babeu from arizona. eric is auth sheriff in arizona, he deals with crimes every day on the better and welcome here. you're in to hisson, not far from where we spoke with sheriff babeu yesterday. is he right, you need 6000 armed soldiers in order to make that border secure? >> well, there's a lot of misinformation about the use of the military along the border. you can't put any u.s. military on the border to enforce the law at all, because of -- on american soil, you can't do that. you can use the national guards to do that, but we can't do it based on the way they're being used now because when they put them on the border, they federalized them for a variety of reasons, and so they fall under posse

comitatus but there would be nothing to stop the legislate euroo. >> bill: what happens -- if an illegal is apprehended under that law you just mentioned, what happens to them? are they not apprehended and held and deported? >> well, it's again the law for us to do that. it's against the law for the military to do that. that's why they don't do it. bill: babeu was saying 650,000 illegals across the streeted our border in arizona alone just last year. i think that number is striking to so many. if you don't believe soldiers should be down there on the border, what should happen? >> well, there's a number of things that could happen. but let me address the issue you just raised. the fact of the matter is that in the last ten years, the number of arrests have been reduced by 75 percent. last year, it was a little over 200,000.

in 2000, it was over 800,000. and we have more than doubled the amount of agents and resources and so forth on the border. so i think you can assume that we have decreased the number of people coming across the border by about 75 percent. bill: but still, it doesn't seem like that's enough, does it? >> of course not. you know, one of the things that we have to do as a country is get together. we have to decide what border security is. there's never going to be a secure border, period. there's no way to do it. they couldn't even do it in berlin. you know, you look at the news on your own news, last month were two huge tunnels in san diego. there's two, the last month, in nogales. bill: but sheriff, you know if you erected a border from california down to texas, and if you armed that and did it in a legal way as opposed to the way you described in your first answer, that you would knock

down illegal immigration substantially, and yeah, there might be a tunnel here or there but you're talking about dozens, not hundreds of thousands per state. >> let me tell you, this border issue is a very, very complicated issue, and people tend to put very simplistic solutions forward. one of the big problems we have is with our ports ofo on points of entry and we have a substantial amount of character issues on our own side of the border. just last week, they stopped a semi a few miles that had come through the port of entry with several tons of marijuana. bill: so what is your solution? i know janet napolitano is down there, you're not going to meet face to face with her but what do you think the solution is if the other sheriff is so wrong? >> there are a number of things that have to be done and the political rule of the congress isn't there. they talk about border security, but one of the key ingredients of border security is immigration

reform. and every time we raise immigration reform, the right wing is going to say that's amnesty, we can't do that. you know, they have simple solutions to everything, and the politicians will and hide like they always have. bill bill and many would argue they're not cracking down on american business when they hire illegals. i understand the point you're making. but this is still an issue, if you've got 650,000 crossing per year in arizona alone. i know janet napolitano is down there, we're waiting for news out of there, sheriff. thank you for your time, i know you fight this battle every day. >> merry christmas. bill: you bet, merry christmas to you and your family. we'll bring you back, because this will be an issue still in 2011. head to foxnews.com/ "america's newsroom", leave a question about border security, also, twitter, bya, we call that, online, because you asked. martha. martha: well, a couple of big wins for the gop in the

tax deal and the scuttled porky spending plan they were dealing with last night. but is there real change afoot in d.c.? a fair and balanced debate coming up. bill: also the man who brought down the florida shooter is now talking about his experience. and the security guard, mike jones, he's got a great story to tell. you'll hear it. >> i'm not a hero, folks. i just did my job. >> yes you are. [applause]

bill: forget about that filibuster, half a dozen lawmakers are in the hospital. i should not be laughing here -- with serious injuries after this happened in ukraine's parliament. roll it: >>

that's how it started but it continued for quite a while. members protesting an investigation of the former prime minister, blocking the speaker's podium, pro government opponents busting into the room, later they were throwing chairs all over the joint. among the injuries a fractured jaw and multiple concussions. ukraine, we've seen that scene before. martha: a few issues like that around the globe lately. in the meantime, this is a fantastic story this week, the man who helped to stop the florida school board shoer -- shoot ser speaking out, mike jones exchanged gunfire with clay duke. remember this horrific scene that we showed you. his heroic action may have saved lives of half a dozen people. >> i filed the first shot and i knew the superintendent fell backwards and all the board members all backwards and he and i engaged in a gun battle, and i had lost the

superintendent and i let him down, and i love him and the board and i love the school system, and that was all on my mind, and when the superintendent came up from behind that counter and franklin har ison, and he came and hugged my neck, that's when i lost it like i am now, like just crying. i cry at chick flicks, too, you all. i shot the man in the back the first time and i thought i was going to jail. there were just so many things that go through your mind. but it was the instinct and the training, and i'm just glad that they're all here and alive, and i'm not a hero, folks, i just done my job. >> yes you are. [applause] martha: you know, this story was really -- it gives us a unique, wonderful look at this one community of people and they all turn out to be great, you know, decent people who care about each other, and this guy, mike jones, used to be on the school board, and then he left the school board

after several years and then became the security guard for the school board, so that superintendent is a man who's very close to it and he -- superintendent, he was close to and he thought he was gone. he said he was shot, and he went in there thinking he had failed, as he just said, to watch a man stand up from behind that counter was just -- an unbelievable moment. bill: they said mike jones was always there for him, that's the one thing that came out of the press conference yesterday. how would you like to watch that guy watch "terms of endearment". martha: i'll sit with him with a big box of tissue any day. i love that man! i love mike jones. bill: it will be the new trend in 2011, you watch. mike jones, you got boehner and maybe hemmer. maybe not! >> martha: love him. all right. well, we have been watching all that's been going on on capitol hill. the unemployment benefits live on, that's what thewanted, but will it help people who need it most? eric bolling has an interesting take on that coming up. bill: you bet. and he says he's worried,

julian assange, will he be headed to the u.s. is an extradition next? we'll hear from julian assange who gave an interview moments ago. all the latest news. go to foxnews.com while we're on the commercial break on "america's newsroom". we're back in a moment. johnny mathis. >> ♪ >> ♪ >> ♪ ♪

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martha: could say, christmas game early, for american workers, nobody will see their taxes go up on january 1st after the house pass understand the tax cut compromise bill. down to the wire. really. all of this, very big business, got pushed up until the christmas break, for congress, the legislation heads to the president's desk, we understand

he'll sit down and sign it with the big pen around 3:00, a little after, this afternoon, and has a big meeting with union leaders this afternoon and they are not happy about what has been signed -- will be signed into law, that is how we start a brand new hour, i'm martha maccallum. bill: congress burning the midnight oil to get it passed. there are many lawmakers, republicans and democrats, who are frankly not happy about it. >> a trillion dollar debt? good-bye social safety net. short-term gains, usher in long term gain, beware tonight begins the undermining of social security and medicare. and i yield back the balance of my time. bill: what a night it was, supporters of the compromise making this argument on the floor of the house. >> by transferring vast sums of cash out of the private sector and into washington, congress would be taking a club to

investment, entrepreneur ship and innovation. the building blocks of what we need to foster economic growth and job creation. martha: that is the battle, folks and the bill may be a symbol of a new political reality, in washington. that is a big question, that hangs out there as we head into christmas, next week, mike emmanuel is live at the white house, the president will sign it into law and, will have a few things to sign. >> that's right, good morning. the president is going to sign it at 3:50 p.m., white house aides i've spoken with sound pleased that they were able to get something done, considering washington has been polarized in recent months, and, as you said, the president will meet with union leaders before he signs it into law, and will be a similar situation, to what we saw the other day when he had 20 ceos to talk about jobs and the economy. this time with union leaders, we know they are not happy with certain aspects of the compromise. but, we have heard the president

over the past ten days, or so, out every day, pretty much, arguing for why this is important, why he believes in the package and what he doesn't like about it but in the end why he chose to support it. bottom line, he didn't want people's taxes to go up during a fragile recovery and wants to extend unemployment benefits to people during a very difficult time. martha: reading chris stirewalt's column, one of our analysts at fox news and he says there is an extreme makeover going on at the house behind you. very loud complaints, mike from democrats, nancy pelosi was railing about the concession that have been made, is the tide changing? what are we seeing here. >> reporter: it will be interesting to see who is invited to that signing. because, speaker nancy pelosi to the very end, until late last night was strongly opposed to it and here's a sample of her closing arguments. >> the republicans insisted that $23 billion in benefits go to

6600 wealthiest families in america. 6600 families. holding up tax cuts for 155 million americans. is that fair? does that meet any test of fairness? >> reporter: perhaps the white house should take that as an rsvp no for the the signing. >> and he's talking about the people who bear the biggest brunts of tax burden and it will be part of the ongoing debate. mike emmanuel, i love it when it snows in washington. it looks beautiful behind you. thanks, good to see you. merry christmas. bill: the snow matches the buildings and we heard nancy pelosi's issues with the bill and she was hardly alone in the dissents, however, 139 democrats voted for it. but, those who voted against it brought drama. from late last night. >> one vote, we're going to increase the already projected

record deficit for this year of $1.3 trillion, to $1.7 trillion. every penny of income forgone here tonight will be borrowed. much of it from china. >> wake up and listen to the sirens. the sirens of the election, that we're about the deficit in america and you wants to add $1 trillion to that deficit. wake up and listen to the sirens, of the people who are needing of help. i can't believe that you talk about this bill, as fiscal sanity. it is fiscal insanity putting us in another trillion dollars of debt. >> we should be a country that fights for those who really need the help. we should not be a economy that says, you know what? if you are a billionaire we want to give you a little more. who is going to pay the bill? who is ultimately going to pay for the tax cut? it will be our children and our grandchildren. >> i'm reminded also of what dr. martin luther king, jr.

called to our attention, a bad check such as the one being written, today, will come back marked insufficient funds. bill: that was from last night and we wanted to know what you think. in our fox news polling here's what we found when we surveyed america. 2/3 approve. 68%. 26% disapprove. martha. martha: let's take a closer look at the winners and losers from the deal, tax experts say individual taxpayers win because the compromise leaves in place tax rates that otherwise would have gone up and everybody's taxes will go up and will stay at the same rate you have been paying and for 2011, only the bill imposes an historic rededuction in your social security taxes, and will be more in your paycheck because of that as well and savings per worker... it cuts 2 percentage points, off of the workers portion of the 6.2% tax, among some of the losers, could be bond investors. worries about the deal's long term fiscal impact, the debt that was spoken about that will be saddled on the country

because they didn't have a commensurate spending cut with the tax deal and sparked off major sell off in securities since it was announced, so watch the financial markets. bill: 3:00 this afternoon, spending takes center stage in the house, after the senate shot down the $1.2 trillion bill, literally pulled from the floor by harry reid. carl cameron is live on the hill with more. congress has to look at this again, is there a chance you are looking at a government shut down now? >> reporter: not anymore. last night's total surprise from the democratic majority leader when he pulled the spending package off the floor averts a threat of a government shut down and now they'll face a new dead lined for the stopgap measure that would continue government operation until february of next year and republicans take over the house and they'll take the opportunity to write a new budget but the continuing resolution will be short and

will not have any of those $8 billion earmarks, 6,000 earmarks involved in the omnibus and in essence the republican leader, mitch mcconnell was able to whip his troops back into line. there were as many as nine republicans who had been thought to support the omnibus, in the end they withdrew their support and harry reid had to withdraw the bill and now the house an is that the will work out the cr today and, tomorrow, to avoid s the shut down. bill: that's next, then. >> reporter: that's the next thing. bill: the fear of shutting washington down is evaporating. >> reporter: now there is the question of the clock and additional items on the democratic agenda, and you have the lame duck speaker and nancy pelosi who, today will have the house members voting on the defense authorization and, tomorrow, in the senate, reid plans to bring up don't ask, don't tell and repeal gays in the military policy and as well as the dream immigration act and, all throughout this, in the senate they have to deal with

the start nuclear disarmament treaty, and funding for 9/11 responders and there is a big to-do list reid would like to accomplish but mitch mcconnell's ability to block it all, which means, the lame duck session, confining it to the government and the tax cuts may be the sum total of what they achieve. bill: one thing you can'ti chane is the calendar, carl cameron. martha: what about the soon to be house speaker, john boehner. we'll hear from him in less than an hour from now and the tone of his statements, there is a new sheriff in town, folks but can he really do what he says he wants to do. bill: also he wants to be the mayor of chicago. problem is he rented out his home and moved to washington to work at the white house and is the former white house chief of staff, rahm emanuel, even eligible to lead the windy city? we may find out any moment now.

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join today and get a free month of boniva at myboniva.com, or call 1-877-287-9140. bill: a change in tax ticks in the war in afghanistan, the military conducting nighttime raids, critical to the war and they involve a balancing act and on the one hand increases protection for civilians and boosts the coordination with higher levels of afghan officials. while, not putting roadblocks in the way of the special operations unit to carry out the raids, general david petraeus, the man leading the war, ordered the shift in tactics, hoping to reduce tensions with afghan president hamid karzai.

martha:... about to get an extreme makeover come january, congress will be an out post for the american people in washington, what john boehner is about to say, less than an hour from now will have a live news conference and we're getting anning an inkling of what he is going to talk about there, but the question is, will things be any different come the first week in january and how much pressure is the tea party going to put on everybody when the new congress rolls into town? that is a very interesting element to all of this and rich lowry, editor of the "national review" and the fox news contributor, and a senior advisor to president clinton's presidential campaign, good to have you here. we have new polls and i want to pop it up to start it off here and it has to do with the election, best describeser feelings on the outcome of the midterm elections, 60% say they are happy with the way things turned out, 27% say they are

unhap unhappy, a pretty big number in the "happy" column, and, what will democrats do if their argument for spending more to create economic stimulus in this country seems to be moot at the point. >> i think what they will do is going to -- try to continue to work with republicans, to focus on the recovery, and to focus on job creation. which, frankly, is -- was one of the big messages we saw out of the election. it is jobs, jobs, jobs, that is what american families are concerned about. and they are concerned about not being able to put food on the table and not being able to give their families what they need, so, that is what democrats are going to continue to focus on, and, we hope that republicans will continue to work with us on this, look, your question is a good one, what will we see thinly 112th congress, government can work and we saw proof of that with the tax deal, a negotiated compromise that focuses on middle class workers and on small businesses and, creating jobs. and we would love to be able to continue to focus on that and hope the --

>> the underlying question is, how do you do that, anybody wants jobs and the economy to turn around, what do you make of mitch mcconnell's one page saying we can do it on one page, will we get real reform. >> last night ways huge deal. within five hours, you had harry reid's senate with the huge democratic majority, 58 votes, whatever it is, not able to pass the business as usual spending bill and a few hours later you had nancy pelosi's house, filled with this huge democratic majority and a bipartisan vote, to ratify the bush tax cuts, at all levels of income, so this is a sign of a new order in washington, washington -- a new day in washington, before the first tea partier has arrived. and you will see more change come january. >> there is the feeling, the gig is up, you simply -- and clair mccaskill is right, she said it's an equal opportunity blame game in terms of putting these things in and republicans had earmarks in those bills as well and, that -- what is your read?

is it really different or is the economy going to start turning around and everything will go to hell in a hand basket. >> i think you are right. there is equal blame to go around, clearly democrats are to blame on some of this as well, but what is interesting about what happened with the omnibus bill is that harry reid had continued to negotiate this with republicans up until the last minute and they were put into an earmark -- like you wouldn't believe -- >> and... wanted the bill to pass. >> of course -- >> he wanted the bill to pass. >> because he understood the importance of making sure the government is continued to be funded and at the end of the day it was good for both parties that it passed because voters are absolutely concerned about this, that is one thing we saw, with all of the elections, but, here's one thing republicans have to be careful with, martha. this -- the election results were not a mandate for republicans, and voters have said that, over and over again. martha: you know what?

they weren't... for anybody and -- >> exactly. martha: and if anything, john boehner is right when he says washington needs to be an out post for the american people, the whole -- needs to be flipped around. >> can we be clear on what happened -- >> go ahead. >> what happened with the omnibus? almost every democrat wanted to it vote that through. martha: of course, they did. >> every republican opposed it, except for republican appropriators and what happened, there was a revolted, against the appropriators and they buckled for the first time anyone can remember, and -- in washington which was a huge, huge deal, and, harry reid wanted to push it through, because, there are a billion dollars in funding or obama care and a bunch of other priorities he wand and instead of doing what the house did, which was just a continuie ing resolution and let's not spin it after the fact. martha: have some sort of old guard, for lack of a -- better term, have some members of the g.o.p., the old guard, woken up to the pressures jim demint and

others are putting on them to be serious about this. >> at least temporarily. it will require constant pressure and what happened yesterday, it was an inside and outside game and you had jim demint and john mccain and others stirring up the grassroots to inundate congress with cause an outrage over this and also had mitch mcconnell adeptly playing the inside game and he was on the phone all day with his republican appropriators, harry reid's targets convincing them it would be a huge rebuke to the voters and what happened in the election and he prevailed and the inside-outside game won and that is a formula for victory going ahead. martha: a huge night on capitol hill and we'll see what it portends for january 5th. maria cardona and rich lauery, thanks, guys, happy holidays. bill: word on an arsonist, a volvo of a person setting a

building on fire. martha: politician love to make promises, how many can they keep? the top ten promises gone wrong with john stossel. he has the list for us. ho, ho, ho! >> empower. empower. empower. . >> vice president biden says title 9 changed civilization. >> we made a significant advance in civilization. >> title 9 did that?

martha: hold your shovels, they don't need any more, they have the universities of minnesota ready to go for the vikings game and they say they are pretty much cleared out, 30,000 -- unbelievable scene, 30,000 cubic yards of snow over the past couple of days, they paid everybody who showed up with a shovel ten an hour, to get up

there and do the work! obviously the metrodome caved in, basically under the weight of the snow and they'll play the game at university of minnesota and it looks like they are ready to go for the vikings and the chicago bears on monday night, so, bill, keep your shovel, right here, they are set to go. bill:s send those folks to washington! they are effective and they are efficient and they are productive! well done, minneapolis. martha: well done. bill: promises gone wrong by the u.s. federal government, uncle sam entering the discrimination debate, more than 30 years ago, with a law that is called "title 9", most known for trying to give women a fair shake in high school and college sports but is it take this game away from both men and women? john stossel did some looking into this. here's stossel. >> reporter: cal were national rugby champions, but the school said they are no longer a var it's supported and they

announced though news. >> we're in shock. >> reporter: the coach jack clark it's about title 9. >> we have 60 males and weaneded up demoted out of the athletics program because of the male head count. >> reporter: if you are trying to even out the number of men and women, on the team of 60 players, it is a hard, even if they are national champions. >> we have four players on the national team and 12 all americans last year... >> reporter: the school told them the team was cut to save money, but get this. the team is self-sufficient and they raised enough money to pay for themselves an even offered to help pay for women's teams. >> proposed helping to fund women's lacrosse and women's gymnastics. >> reporter: but that wasn't enough. that shocked cal's gymnastics coach. >> i asked the athletic director if i handed her a check now for millions of dollars, would we be reinstated and she said no. >> reporter: no? why? because under title 9, even if the athletes raise their own

money and pay for a team themselves, it doesn't matter. the head counteds must be even. bill: this is all part of a special, hosted and reported by john stossel. he's the host of "stossel" on fox news's network. he's with me now. how are you doing. >> good, bill. bill: you don't found ten. >> in one hour. bill: the ten good ones, are you making the case title 9 was harmful? bad for america? when they were trying to even out the genders, they did more harm than good. >> harm. i would argue and unnecessary. because, it was going to happen anyway. at the time that it was passed it was the sexist world and my college was all men. now, it is coed and there are more women in college than men. at the lower levels there are girls soccer teams all over the place, when the parents want it, colleges respond to the market and the attitude among the lawyers is government must enforce this! and... bill: an interesting example in

california. there are others that i think are fascinating. and more recent times, too. cash for clunkers. you will make a case about cash for clunkers? credit card reform? health care? all of this with unintended consequences. >> we should be careful o language, credit card reform? law change? reform means make it betterer, health care reform means make it better. i think there is good evidence, these things make life worse. bill: i have a list here, and, instead of the top ten i have nine. you have to tune in tonight to check out number one. in for hannity, 9:00 eastern time, politicians, top ten promises gone wrong, john stossel has it for you tonight, cool stuff. >> you got it. martha: this is crossing the wires, bill, looking at news out of washington. we have talked about harry reid and apparently he wants to work through this weekend, senator

jon kyl from arizona on the floor now, the senate democratic leader, harry reid says he thinks they can get through some of this other lame duck agenda, if they get their -- back to work on saturday and wants republicans on board on that. a and wants to get through the arms treaty known as start and the spending bill and the repeal of the ban on gays in the military by saturday. says harry reid and we'll see if he gets the cooperation from the other side of the aisle on that one. and in the meantime, he went from prison to a 600 acre estate in the english countryside. wasn't that nice? wikileaks founder julian assange has one fear, that is preoccupying his thoughts now and it comes from our side of the pond, live from the england, what is keeping him up at night these days. bill: 99ers, americans who have been without a job 99 weeks or longer and will unemployment benefits and the tax cuts compromise do anything to help them? you will be surprised at this answer. stay tuned for that. eric bolling is on deck. martha: you want to know what

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compromise is on its way to becoming law, it will happen this afternoon and reports, this morning, say it will not help the 99ers, the group of americans who have been out of work longer than 99 weeks and will not get an extension for government help and that is unacceptable for democrats, and texas congresswoman sheila jackson lee had something to say about that. >> mr. speaker, i ask that we send this bill back to the drawing board and work with the president so we can really help the unemployed, 99ers and not just grow the deficit. bill: it is not that simple, eric bolling is with the fox business network -- how are you doing. 99 weeks is a substantial amount of time and there is a debate whether or not you tack onto that but the bill, the way it reads will not tack onto that. >> i think what congresswoman jackson lee is looking for is both, not only fund the current plan which the bill does, adds around $100 billion, to the current plan, which allows

people, depending on which state you live in, at 99 weeks, you are cut off at 99 weeks, two years down the road if you cannot find a job they'll cut you off, unless she gets her way and they come back and say, let's add more time onto that and we should know one thing, bill, i'm sorry. when president obama took office, the allowed -- maximum allowed was 26 weeks and the amount of time you stayed on unemployment, was 19 weeks. now, the maximum allowed is 99 weeks and guess what happened to the duration, you stay on, unemployment almost doubled, 34 weeks. bill: there is a moral debate, too, as to whether or not you help or hurt people. by giving them unemployment benefits, are you helping them get a hand up at the moment, while they need it? >> no. bill: or does it discourage them from -- >> two years, my friend. the problem is, these things are funded by taxpayers. taxpayers who are working hard, kissing their wife good-bye in

the morning and saying good-bye to the kids and working hard, and paying sometimes 50% of what they make, to the government, and, you know, look, the bottom line is, yeah, sure -- should there be something, yes, two years is way too long. scale it back. bill: labor department reports this, i think this is important, more than a million people have been out of jobs, or looking for work for about two years or more. and, next year, for the first time in our history, the labor department will start tracking unemployment for a period up to five years. >> right. bill: you know what -- >> you know, listen, it is getting better and better, in some states, in this area, around here you can make 450 -- you can receive $450 a week. at some point, you go, oh, boy, do i take 450 to stay home or make 550 to work and put the kids in daycare, it is a wash and we need to skill it back. bill: if we can create jobs we

won't have to talk about this. join eric bolling, 9:00 eastern time, except on thursdays, when it airs at 10:00. >> have to wait for stossel. bill: you bet. martha: guys, he has gone from solitary confinement in prison to roaming the grounds of a 600 acre country estate. he's living well now, wikileaks founder julian assange on his new found freedom after a judge granted him bail. >> well, it is great to smell fresh air of london again. first some thank yous. to all the people around the world who have had faith in me, who supported my team, while i have been away... martha: the rock star treatment there. and, that is where he is staying, pretty nice place, right? he's not necessarily breathing easy, though. while he is staying at his supporter's mansion in england. he says, this morning, breaking

news today. he is believing that the u.s. is ready to take action against him. for dumping hundreds of thousands of stolen secret documents with no intention to stop. greg palkot is live in london, interesting, his tone today, when he talked about the united states, greg. >> pretty, pretty defiant, martha, the bail carries with it quite a few conditions including checking with the police every day who understand he has just done that but it doesn't appear to have much of a gag order, at least on his political views, he has been speaking outside of the stately manor, that you talked about, to a bunch of media organization including sky news. what he seems to be sake is the u.s. has it out for him and is obsessed with the idea the u.s. is gunning for him and he claims, there is a secret grand jury which has been con veevene deal with them and that has not been confirmed by washington officials and says, the u.s. is looking for any way it can to get him on some kind of

espionage charge, maybe a collusion or conspiracy charge, here's what he said. >> the risk, we have always been concerned about is onwards extradition to the united states. and, that seems to be increasingly serious and increasingly likely, we heard reports yesterday, that a secret indictment has been made against me. in the u.s. >> reporter: despite efforts by the united states, to shut him down one way or another according to him today the flow of documents will continue, and will even pick up, we can't find anything in the court order that blocks his usage over the internet, martha. martha: okay, yeah, i guess we can expect more, greg, thank you very much. greg palkot, on the breaking news, julian assange. looks like he has a cold. maybe he's better off... bill: he'll get plenty healthy... martha: get out of solitary, for

sure. bill: the koreas are locked and loaded. south korea now is ready for a live ammunition drill, yet again. that will happen sometime in the coming days and north korea says they better cancel those plans. there is a new threat on the peninsula, we'll get to that. martha? martha: here's an interesting one, folks, designed to raise money and awareness about cancer. and, two 8th grade girls wore them, and got suspended for wearing these rubber bracelets, the phrase that got them kicked out of school and how they are fighting back. >> you have one and you are a guy! why did you wear it. >> because, it is awesome, breast cancer. >> they were trying to make it controversial. >> it will obviously bring awareness, but, for adolescents? they will take it in a whole different direction and probably -- than probably an adult would.

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>> i'm jon scott, when jenna lee joins me at the top of the hour, awaiting the signature of the president. the house and senate passed his

tax cut compromise late last night and now it is a done deal, but that does not mean congress is finished. senate still considering don't ask, don't tell repeal, the start treaty, the dream act, and, did we mention, paying for the operations of the u.s. government? also... a frightening escalation on the korean peninsula. and, we'll talk to a man who may have saved a school board in florida, as well as christmas. that is coming up, happening now, at the top of the hour. see you then. martha: we have a good one, folks, a free speech battle under way and brewing at a pennsylvania middle school over those -- you know the colorful rubber bracelets the kids love to wear and some raise money and awareness for different causes including cancer research, look at this bracelet. it has bern banned now, from the eastern area middle school north of philadelphia and it says, i-heart-boobies. and i giggled when i said that, and you know the contraction out of the problem and they say the phrase is too sexual and they suspended too 8th grade girls for refusing to take off their

bracelets and now those girls are fighting back. they are taking it to the court system in philadelphia and this are charging the first amendment rights have been violated. so, let's bring in arthur, an 8th grader at heart, criminal defense attorney, and the fox news channel -- >> you give -- >> and joey jackson is a former prosecutor, my goodness, i mean, where... what is the big deal. >> you would freak out. mother martha. you would freak out, if your 12 year-old boy... martha: my son wanted to wear it. >> you would. martha: no, i wouldn't. bill: your son comes home from 7th grade and has a bracelet that says i love boobies. martha: this could happen in my house, i happen to come from a family that suffered and recovered from breast cancer and i am very interested and involved in this cause. and, i would say to my sons, do you understand why you are wearing the bracelet and if he could explain to me... >> he'd deny it. the little girls in my class are

blossoming and have attributes we am fondled of. martha: of course they do, what young man wouldn't. tell us about the lawsuit. >> freedom of speech for a 12-year-old, look, a principal, dean of a school has to do what he or she has to do to maintain decorum and order and the same way, in yankee stadium, they know -- don't allow people to wear t-shirts that say boston whatever on it because it was causing too many fights an brawls and the public safety and here, the young boys, were actually, there was three -- i believe, young boys, touching the young girls in their private places, and, as an inspiration, as their bracelets. bill: they are saying, some boys -- >> they are saying boys have been grabbing at girls as a result of the frenzy over everybody, wearing the bracelets. joey. >> thank yankee stadium. martha: first of all, the phrase on the t-shirt, there is nothing offensive on that.

>> here's the point, let's talk about breast cancer first, one in 8 women will develop symptoms for breast cancer, right? what do we have? education and awareness and when you have that you provoke a debate, like you said, martha, if your child came home, you say, do you know why you are wearing it and start to talk and it leads to the other points which is prevention and if it is early detected, right? detected at the early stage, 90% of the time, it is... >> 12-year-olds... >> you can never start too early and here's the legal point. what we talk about, and you will be proud of me, i will cite the supreme court, where your friends are, okay? there is a case, about arm bands for protesters of vietnam war and what did the courts say? they said if it does not substantially impair or disrupt classroom activity it is fine, it is passive and as a result of that, it is expressive, and, therefore, it is constitutional. martha: precedents you are citing... the question is, if it passes and -- >> the question is, the question

that was asked, during these -- initial depositions was, doesn't it cause disruption and cited the three boys who grabbed the three girls. martha: and that never happened in middle school without the bracelets? >> hold on, one out of 8 women, i think you said, some -- >> will develop. will develop. >> my research is one out of every guy, gets prostate cancer, what will we do? i love -- what do you want to put on there? >> whatever you want to... >> what will you put there, guys. martha: a cute name for those? put on a bracelet? i'm not sure. >> if we are talking about something, the second only to lung cancer, the second leading cause of death among women, we have to protect women -- >> it is going through the court system as a first amendment case in philadelphia and we'll let you know how it turns out and how the judge decides, obviously, they are causing disruptions in school and whether or not they should be banned is another question and joey, arthur, thank you very

much... martha: bill? bill? probably also you can chled when y -- chuckled when you saw the bracelet. bill: incredible images into "america's newsroom," inside of a salon as it burns to the ground. there is a person inside there, what happened seconds before that has police now on the hunt, more of that tape in a moment here, and also you want to stay fit and trim, stop watching what you eat and start watching where you eat. ♪ ♪ it's all right. now ♪ ♪ in fact its a gas... ♪ [ male announcer ] you know her. we know diamonds. together we'll make her holiday. that's why only zales is the diamond store. where you can get up to $1,000 off now through sunday.

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bill: now to jacksonville florida, a fire comes and investigators are trying to catch the suspect and putting out the tape and amazingly the person got out of there okay, but, there is a $2500 reward out there, and for our viewers in florida, that is the number, 8 77-no--- 877-no-arson, if you have any information about the case. >> ♪ ♪ star of wonder, star of light...♪ martha: can't get enough of this beautiful christmas music this time of year, we are singing it into every break and how about this holiday tale, about the true meaning of christmas. here is 50s, icon pat boone reading "little star" to a young group group of children. >> a long time ago, in the farthest corner of the universe, there was a tiny star, in fact,

he was the smallest star in the heavens. his name was little star. little star was sad. and lonely and the other stars didn't make fun of him, they simply ignored him, because, he was so tiny. martha: according to the story, this little star had a very important role on christmas night, anthony destafano is the author of this book, we love your inspirational books and they are wonderful and give children a sense of the true meaning of christmas which we try to remember, this time of year, and make it central to everything and tell us the story of writing the book, pretty special. >> actually wrote this story about 30 years ago, i'm sorry to say, 30 years! in a high school english class, taught by frank mccourt, who became famous, and wrote "angela's ashes" and before that he was a high school english teacher and i was one of his student and he assigned everyone to write children's books,

because he thought in order to break teenagers out of the errors they make in writing over elaborately and use too any adjectiveses and adverbs, make them write children's books and forces them to write clear, simple sentences and it was a good technique. martha: and he has the original manuscript of what you wrote 30 years ago. >> the actual story, that frank mccourt gave an "a" to, back then but it took three decades to get it publish. martha: and it tells the story of the star that was in bethlehem, change down over the major and, led the shepherds and the three kings, to the baby jesus. >> he's the christmas star, the stahl smallest star in the heavens and on the night jesus is born he looks down and sees the holy family suffering in the bitter cold and felt sympathy an reaches out and wants to warm them with his light and his love and he winds up sacrificing himself and burning himself out,

because he burns the whole night through and actually does something christ-like and teaches the true meaning of love. martha: where does he end up? we can spoil the end, because the kids are at school. >> the reward given by god is he is remembered forever and ever and ever and, we place a star on top of the christmas tree to remember him. martha: a beautiful story and a great christmas gift, too, you can sit down with your children and read it and it will help to remind them the true meaning of christmas, thank you very much for bringing that to us. good to see you. take care, good luck with the book. >> merry christmas. martha: indeed. >> congress approving a tax deal, what is on the president's disk, awaiting his signature and a live report what it means to your bottom line and they are still going at it on the floor of the senate, what are they pkó@v@ zx7?

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bill fighting obesity might be a matter of walking away from your desk at lunch tile, good morning, everybody, researchers saying eating in front of a computer screen makes you

far more likely to snack later in the day. martha: we do that all the time! we never leave our desk for lunch. rarely. bill: scientists in leangd looked at two different groups, one group working on a computer -- that is exciting stuff there, isn't it? look at that stuff! martha: a little turkey. bill the other full concentration on the meal, the group with computers felt distracted with their food and reported feeling full after lunch. the study shows the folks often had trouble remembering what they ate. martha: ci never remember what i ate! how about that? bill: now you know. we'll be up on 17 in a couple of minutes, eating our lunches right there at our computers. martha: have a great weekend o'clock everybody. "happening now" starts now. bill: it's going to be a great weekend. isn't it? martha: it's going to be a great weekend! rick: at least you guys get lunch! we're working through the noon hour on the east coast. jenna: definitely eating in