to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. on december 11th, 1991, columbia university hosted a talk about free speech, and that would not usually be a big deal, except for this particular talk, it hosted this talk from someone who had disappeared off the face

of the earth. it made headlines around the country when columbia somehow convinced this guy to show up in person and give this talk. because for nearly three years before this talk, there had been no public sighting of him. nobody knew where in the world he was. nobody knew for sure if he was even still alive. >> it is wonderful to be back in new york. this year more or less exactly three years ago, since then i haven't been anywhere. let me begin by asking you to imagine a hot air balloon drifting over a cavern carrying several passengers. a leak develops. the balloon starts losing height. and the pit of dark yarn comes closer. the wounded balloon can bare just one passenger to safety. many must be sacrificed to save the one. but who should live and who should die? and who could make such a choice? i have now spent over 1,000 days in just such a balloon. >> that was december 1991, surprising everybody by turning

up in person with a lot of body guards after he had not been seen in public in almost three years. three years prior in 1988, he had published a long complicated, very good novel called "the satanic verses." he was already a big deal by that time, but it was really a good book. it won a big literary prize in the uk. it was very well received as a novel. it was very well received except among those who thought it was so blasphemous that he should be killed for having written it. >> the book has angered muslims all over the world who say it portrays muhammad's wives as prostitutes, and suggests the koran is not the direct word of god as spoken to mohammed. the american flag was burned to

protest the publication of the book. police prevented large numbers of demonstrators from entering the capital. last sunday six people were killed during protests here. >> they were big and deadly protests in pakistan and in south africa and iran and in iraq and in egypt. the book was banned in india and in south africa and then in pakistan and south dakota rab and egypt and somalia and sedan and qatar. that all happened late 1988 at a time when the book had only been published in britain. but then in february 1989 on valentine's day, iran decided to make it official. so this is 1989, which means iran had only had their revolution ten years beforehand. that was 1979. this was 1989. 1989 is the year that the leader of that islamic revolution the year that he died. iran was sort of an insecure country at that time. this young, unstable, very radical e regime without a

friend in the world they weren't exactly clear what was going to happen to them after their supreme leader was going to pass on. he was in frail health. and at that very sketchy unstable, insecure time in iran, the ayatollah looked around the world, saw muslims rioting and decided he would basically put a cherry on top. he condemned the book, but condemning to death issuing a worldwide death sentence for the author of the book and also for any editor or publisher aware of its content. he said it was the religious duty of all muslims around the world to kill him and any of the editors and publishers involved, quote, without delay. he later added although it was the religious duty of all muslims to try to kill him, any nonmuslim who did so would be rewarded with a cash bounty. that was valentine's day,

february 14th, 1989. two days later, the largest book seller in the united states at the time wall don books announced they would not sell the book in the united states. the following day, another large chain which also was part of the barnes & noble chain also announced they would not sell the book. this was 1989. there's no kindle. there's no ipad. there's no ordering your books online for someone to send it to you in the mail in a brown paper wrapper. this was 1989. there's no online at all. if you want wanted a book you got it from a bookstore. when the biggest bookstore chains in the country started saying we're scared of the threats, we're not going to carry the book, that means people would not be able to get the book. so it was issued by iran on february 14th. walden books caved february

16th. barnes & noble caved february 17th. at that point, it wasn't even published yet in the united states. it was due to be published on the 22nd. all of the biggest bookstores were saying we're not going to carry it. it seemed like it was working. he was still alive and editors and publishers were still alive, but the book itself was getting submarined by corporations who were too afraid to allow the book to be sold. that's how it seemed it was going to go. until americans shook it off and realized that this meant the ayatollah was running american book stores, deciding what america could or couldn't lead. and basically the first amendment got up on its hind legs and people protested and shamed the bookstores into selling that book. >> across the country writers

held protests. >> pass kwrepblgs from the book read by robert stone. 500 people jammed the room as some of the world's most celebrated writers spoke out against the ayatollah's death sentence. >> hundreds of writers ban their protest outside the iranian mission to the united nations. they also picketed the major book chains, which had refused to carry "the satanic verses." >> publishers will be more timid about what they will public and writers about what they will write in fear of who it will offend.

>> reporter: there were also protests in washington and san francisco, in boston as 75 people marched outside a bookstore received a bomb threat and closed the store. walden books has said it's not stocking the book to protect employees and customers, but barnes & noble will resume selling the book as soon as it is available from the publisher. >> so the bookstores had pulled the book. they said they were too afraid to sell it. then after protests, lots of protests from americans who said we will no be the censored this way, after people stood up and roared about the bookstores being so afraid, some of the stores realized they better carry it. you know what, when they carried it, it sold really, really, really well. it took protests and picket lines and susan talking smack about them on nightly news to shame the bookstores into reversing their decision and being willing to sell the book after all. that was true for the bookstore chains. but the publisher of the book

never waivered. viking penguin death with all the threats and blowback there. after all the fatwa was against them. and their own editor's, too, right? they had dealt with it in britain and stood by it there. the united states they didn't waiver. on february 22nd, 1989, as planned, they started selling that book in the united states. they had to push the bookstore chains into doing it, but they did it. no he did not surface publiclily for another three years and he still lives under the shadow of the threats from 25 years ago now. but in that whole satanic verses affair in the united states at least the first amendment won. there was a great vanity fair piece that ran about the controversy that described what the people who worked at viking penguin would do when they got there. daily bomb threats at their offices here in new york, most of the time when the bomb squads would tell everybody about viking penguin to get out, everybody would take their stuff from the desk and relocate their

office operation to the old town bar. which is is a really nice bar in manhattan. if you have never been, you should try it. everybody got to know and love the bomb-sniffing dogs there at their offices permanently. it all sounds romantic when you look back at it, particularly because he is alive 20 years later. but it was a very scary time. even though it was scary, they did the right thing regardless. sony pictures entertainment is facing a similar test right now. earlier this week after bookstore chains, i mean movie theater chains announced that they were too scared to show "the interview", sony announced they could cancel the movie's premiere and not distribute it at all anymore. today in his final press conference of the year, president obama said he had sympathy for sony because sony faced threats and faced this

serious hacking attack from hackers who the united states government believes to be the government of north korea. the president today says he has sympathy for sony and recognized they are going through a hard time, but he criticized very bluntly their decision to pull the movie. >> sony is a corporation. it suffered significant damage. there were threats against its employees. i am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. having said all that, yes, i think they made a mistake. we cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the united states. because if somebody is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they do when they see a documentary they don't like.

or a news report they don't like. or even worse, imagine if producers and distributors and others start engaging in self-censorship because they don't want to offend the sensibilities of somebody whose sensibilities need to be offended. >> president obama speaking today at his final press conference of the year. after that blunt criticism from president obama, sony pictures released a statement this afternoon basically distancing themselves from their own decision. saying they'd only decided to pull the movie as a matter of logistical necessity because movie theater chains made their own decisions they weren't going to show it. that is not exactly how sony portrayed the decision when they made it, but the fact they feel

the need to retell the story in a way that makes them look a letter little better. shows how much pressure they are feeling. sony said they are actively surveying alternatives that would allow the company to release the movie on some sort of different platform other than in movie theaters. sony is trying to portray this like it was their intention all along, but just two days ago they did say they had no release plans for the film whatsoever. so they are doing a little revision about what's happened here. big picture, they do seem to be changing course at least a little, even though they are trying to say they are not. but as sony executives and movie theater chains try to figure out what they are going to do and as the ghost of susan yells at them in their dreams, the other shoe that's about to drop has nothing to do with whether or not the american people will ever have the occasion to see the movie that nobody had heard of before this thing started. the other shoe is how the united states government is going to

respond to this matter now that the fbi has decided and announced that the government's official view is that this attack on sony and the threats surrounding the distribution of the film came not just from random hackers, random protesters somewhere, but rather from a country. they came from the nation of north korea. >> the fbi announced today and we can confirm that north korea engaged in this attack. i think it says something interesting about north korea that they decided to have this state mount an all out assault on a movie studio because of a satirical movie starring seth rogan. i love seth. and i love james. but the notion that that was a threat to them i think gives you some sense of the kind. of regime we're talking about here.

they caused a lot of damage. we will respond. we will respond proportionally and we'll respond in a place and time and manner that we choose. it's not something that i will announce here today in a press conference. >> we're waiting to hear now is what the united states is going to do to retaliate now that they have determined that the culprit in the attack against sony is the work of a specific foreign country. and that part of this whole amazing story, not that corporate coward december part of it, not the first amendment part of it, the part of it that is not about the movie, but it's now moved beyond the movie and it's become an issue of foreign relations and potentially military retaliation among countries. the part of this story that's

about to get really, really interesting now that this is a matter of international discourse, the part of it that's about to get really interesting is the part of whether or not it really was north korea who did this. what if it wasn't them? we'll be right back. the volkswan sign-then-drive event. for practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a german-engineered volkswagen. like the sporty, advanced new jetta... and the 2015 motor trend car of the year all-new golf. if you're wishing for a new volkswagen this season... just about all you need is a finely tuned... pen. get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first month's payment on select new volkswagen models.

i have to tell you more fan mail when she's on our show than we ever do for anyone else who is ever on the show. she joins us live. stay with us.

i have a cold with terrible chest congestion. i better take something. theraflu severe cold doesn't treat chest congestion. really? new alka-seltzer plus day powder rushes relief to your worst cold symptoms plus chest congestion. [breath of relief] oh, what a relief it is. north korea. we just confirmed that it was north korea.

we have been working out a range of options. they will be presented to e me. i will make a decision on those based on what i believe is proportional and appropriate to the nature of the situation. >> look at this. this is what popped up on the screen. they got locked out of their computer networks and this was the screen that appeared on the infected computers. this glowing red skeleton, this is just the beginning. we continue till our request be met. we have obtained all your internal data. below at bottom, they had links to the stolen sony data so people could see that the hackers really had stolen all their data. at the top, it's the republican party -- i'm kidding, not the republican party. it says hacked by #gop, but it does not mean the republican party. gop stands for guardians of

peace. which is what the hacker group has been calling themselves throughout the attacks. the fbi said today that the hack is the work of the north korean government. president obama in his final press conference announced he's working on an international response by the united states now that the u.s. thinks it knows that the north is responsible. not everybody is as sure as the fbi about this. first of all, there's the fact that the first public communication and demand from the hackers didn't mention north korea at all. nor did it mention this sony movie "the interview" that the north koreans hate so much. the first communication just demanded money. there's the matter of the attack itself and how it showed up at sony in the first place. i'll quote about why this doesn't look like the work of a country. first of all, nation state attacks aren't as noisy as to announce themselves with an

image of a blazing skeleton posted to infected commuters as occurred in the sony attack or use a catchy hack like guardians of peace to identify themselves. they don't generally chastise their victims for having poor security. nor do attacks involve data to pastebin, which kim describes as the unofficial cloud repository of hackers where files have been leaked. those are the hallmarks not of a nation state attack but of hackers that target large corporations for ideological reasons or just for fun. that's the skeptical view from wired magazine today. other experts have said this looks more to them like it's someone that could have been an insider at sony and had a big, bad grudge against the company. others have said that the fbi said it followed to determine that this was north korea, those paths seem way too easy to

follow and brightly lit. maybe this is someone just wanting to make it look like it's north korea in order to cover their own tracks. i don't know. and you don't know. but the fbi says it knows. today the president of the united states said on that basis he's preparing an international retaliation against north korea because of it. here's the thing though. what if it's not north korea? is there good reason to doubt that? do we have good reason not to doubt it? joining us now is technology and culture writer and editor at boingboing.net. >> it's a treat to be back, happy holidays. >> i appreciate it. you are smarter about these things than i am by a mile. how hard is it to figure out the source of a hack? and whether or not it's a country that's doing a hack? >> i think i don't know how much smarter i am than you, rachel, and i don't know how smart any of us can be about the source of

the attack. we haven't seen the fbi's evidence. there are a number of security professionals who have posted different theories about different actors that are linked to north korea. brian krebs was talking about a group of ethnic north koreaens who have linked to attacks on military targets in south korea. an organization called crowd strike was talking about an actor called the silent troll. it's like we're looking into the deepest, darkest areas of the underworld and trying to figure out if a murder left the tools of the murder at the scene of the crime, which is kind of like what malware that points right back to north korea would do. i kind of feel like any of these

scenarios, whether it's a hacking group, like anonymous, or whether it's north korea or as the conspiracy theory blogs suggest maybe the whole thing is an fbi flag operation meant to usher in a new era of internet regulation. any one of these is equally as whacky as the other. my only response to all this is basically a big shruggy, i don't know. >> i think the best case against the false flag theory is that they definitely would have picked a super unequivocally awesome movie. i have nothing against this movie, but it's not winning the prize. it's kind of a butt jokes movie so it's not necessarily the way they would go. >> they would pick an oscar-winning movie. >> so there is a question as to whether or not hacking attacks can ever be effectively fingerprinted. that said, some unnamed intelligence official told "the new york times" this week we almost never name a suspect country, so when we do it's got to be based on something fairly strong.

is there something that the fbi or the government could release publically that would give people more confidence in their conclusion? >> conceivably. will they? i don't know. this is the least transparent administration to date in many republic respects. let's say it is north korea. one of the more interesting questions is in what way is an attack on a seth rogan movie a matter of national security. president obama was saying a few days ago that americans should be encouraged to go to the movie theaters. the department of homeland security was saying that the 9/11 threat of violence that the hackers or somebody purporting to be the hackers posted saying if you go to the movie theater and see this movie, we're going to rain down violence, the department of of homeland security said this is not a credible threat. sony isn't even an american company. they are a japanese company. since when do the profit and the product of movie production companies become a matter of national security.

and really, who is to blame for this? it's sony. sony's own sloppy network security practices are what led to sony being hacked. if what we're reading is true. they are being sued by their own employees over sloppy network security. one former employee called their network security a joke. and because of this, nobody died because of this attack. we have politicians like john mccain calling this an act of war. really? >> technology and culture editor to whom we turn for perspective on matters such as these, thank you so much. lots more ahead tonight including the friday night news dump from a very far place tonight. stay with us. new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community,

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i was looking around the office for stuff. i have never seen any of this stuff. i found this random oven mitt. i thought that might be kind of fun. >> america's future is in his mitts. >> this is one of the fake feet we used when we did the story about the feet washing. >> yeah, never mind. >> and then this -- >> did it start out as a larger item.

>> and then this we had had these made when we did junction on the road. so this is a prop made out of the false signs. this is an extra. >> i don't remember this at all. >> remember they had the sign. behold the white house press k

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behold the white house press corps as of 1914. here's the white house press corps ten years later, 1924. the white house correspondence association says this is the white house press corps in the 1950s. did you notice something different here? look, a lady. we found one. the white house press corps, which is the american people's line to the white house, has long been mostly dudes. in the 1940s the first female was the photographer who broke part of the glass ceiling when she followed harry truman around the world. in 1960 helen thomas was the

first female reporter to cover the white house. and over the years, more and more pioneering women have ascended to that journalistic height. but president obama, from time to time, has put his own presidential spotlight in women in the white house press corps. the first time was the past september when he did a press conference in wales. he made a statement and then he ended up taking four questions from the traveling american press. >> i'll start with julie from the associated press. >> angela king. >> julie davis. >> is the goal to -- >> one last question, colleen "wall street journal." >> back in september president obama took four questions from the traveling white house press

corps. he called on four reporters, they were all women reporters. and while that was neat on that international trip, it also was apparently just kind of a coincidence. today it was on purpose. >> josh has given me the who has been naughty and who has been nice list. and i'm going to use it to take some questions. we're going to start with carry brown from politico. >> april, go ahead. >> president obama's year ending press conference lasted about 50 minutes. he took eight questions, all of them were from female reporters. and it was on purpose. the press secretary released this statement, the fact is there are many women from a variety of news organization who is day in and day out do the hard work of covering the president of the united states. we realized we had a unique opportunity to highlight that fact.

at the president's closely watched end of the year news conference. joining us is april ryan, white house correspondent for american urban radio network. she was the eighth of eight female correspondents called on by president obama at today's presser. it's great to see you, thanks for your time. >> thanks for having me. >> i have to ask the politic question first. are the guys mad? >> oh, yes, they are hot. they are steaming. earlier today i was walking around the white house after the press conference and i walked up into the press secretary's office area and he couldn't see me because one of the gentleman was very upset, one of the gentleman from the front row. and when i walked into the press secretary's office and talked to those around the office, they said they have gotten many calls and many appearances from those

in the front row who were upset. but you have to remember that they are the norm. they always get questions. they were told prior to the press conference that they were not going to get questions. they had been asking questions leading up to the midterm elections. they have been getting a lot of questions. they felt putting the list together that, hey, let's go on with this list of women. >> when these lists come together, when you're just sort of watching these things happen, it can be unsettling to know the president has a list of who he's going to call on in advance. sometimes you see him struggling with last names and it feels unexpected. do you as a correspondent, does everybody else in that room have any role in lobbying to get on the list before these things happen? how do the lists come together? >> let me say this. you watching feel uneasy about it, many of us in the room feel uneasy about it.

this really started back during the george w. bush time. i remember being at the white house when president clinton was there. we screamed. i was under the toolage of those who had had the loudest voices, got called on. i'm one of those women who have the loudest voices in the room. and because that works to your benefit. if you're seen or heard, if you wear strategic colors, you can get called on. there are certain things you used to be able to do to help you have an advantage of getting called o on. during the time, president bush did not want to go through the hollering and screaming. he started picking people. and it persisted into the obama administration. and sometimes now the president will go off of his script and sometimes reporters will ask or e-mail or call or what have you. please, i have a question, i don't know if people would actually tell the questions, but

sometimes people ask, i would like to ask the president a question. so it's a back and forth. it's really tough, it's really a tough situation. >> april, the question that you asked today, i might be wrong but i feel like you have asked him the same question phrased similarly years ago. you asked about the state of black america and what was the state of race relations in the country. am i right that you have asked him this before? >> not in a press conference, but i had an oval office interview in 2009. it was a one-on-one in the oval office. and i was talking to the president about various issues and it was just a couple of weeks away from his state of the union address to the nation. and i asked him as he was getting ready to give the state of the union, what was the state of black america because this president was someone that everybody was wondering what did he feel about race. many in the white house said they don't want to talk about race because it would amplify it

more. they kept saying he was the president of the united states who happened to be black and he also felt that race and politics would always followed him and wanted to make sure he wouldn't get bogged down with that because that sometimes tends to take the conversation in another direction. so this president answered the question in 2009, in december of 2009, six years ago this month, and he harkened to a statement saying it was the best of times, the worst of times. when he said the best of times he said for african-americans, he said for those who have good education, it's a great time for opportunity. for those who don't, unemployment is a bad time because there's unemployment problems and the lack of opportunity. >> april ryan, white house correspondent for american urban radio network making a strong case for why it's important for people to be there long enough to ask those questions as benchmarks years apart and

making the case today that it's worth everything you can do to get your hand up there. april ryan, well done, nice to see you, congratulations today. >> thank you, take care. straight ahead, we have friday night news dump with potentially a time sensitive oven mitt at stake. stay with us. good morning everybody. we are about to make more deliveries to more places than anybody on earth. we have the speed. we have the technology. and we have the team. we made over 15 billion successful deliveries last year. 15 billion! football has a season. baseball has a season. this is our season.

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february 2012 the republican

party was inching along towards choosing its presidential nominee for the 2012 election. in february of that year newt gingrich was the man of the hour. newt gingrich won the south carolina primary. newt gingrich was looking like the truly credible alternative to mitt romney for the republican presidential nomination. but to crystallize what he had to offer to the american people, at the february 22nd presidential debate which was on cnn, newt gingrich rolled out to the nation what he wanted to be known for. the single basic memorable achievement that he, newt gingrich, could promise that he could deliver if the american people were smart enough to elect him president. >> i have developed a program for american energy so no future president will ever bow to a saudi king again so every american can look forward to $2.50 a gallon gasoline. >> $2.50 a gallon gasoline. so low no future president will have to bow to a leader shorter than him.

this became the basic idea of the newt gingrich for president campaign. he lugged around some kind of gas tank prop with him everywhere during his 2012 campaign from that point forward. he carried around a gas can. he kept banging that drum. the newt gingrich presidency would move the price down to $2.50 a gallon for the people. well this week national gas prices have officially dropped from $2.51 a gallon to $2.45 a gallon. nationally average. so thank you president newt gingrich, congratulations on your successful newt gingrich presidency, sir. happy low gas prices, america. but don't forget to marvel at the christmas miracle of a republican presidency nailing its loftiest goal and doing it while barack obama is in the white house. that's how good newt gingrich is. thank god we elected that guy.

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>> happy friday. this was supposed to be a slow news week. ha! friday night news dump. our producer is here tonight to tell us who our contestant is and what they will be winning. hello, julia. who is our contest assistant? >> it's christa hurley. she's from okinawa, japan. she does community theatre. >> it's very nice to meet you. thanks for being here. >> it is so nice to meet you, rachel. >> you're in the defense department school system. i am not sure i knew there was a defense department school system. what does that mean? >> what that means is for our military members who are stationed overseas, we provide schools for their children that

they bring with them. >> and what do you teach? >> i'm not in the classroom anymore, i'm a program coordinator. i coordinate what used to be the vocational ed program. >> very cool. very cool. i always wanted to go to okinawa. i'll look you up if i do. if you get two or more questions right, you win a fairly useless tiny cocktail shaker. can you show that off? it's pitiful, really. if you get all of the questions right and you need extra credit, or if you only get one question right and you need a consolation prize, we've also decided we can send you something random we found in our offices. what is the random office swag tonight? >> it that's red oven mitt with mitt romney on it. >> it feels like it's out of date now, but it might not be in the future. sorry, we also need to say hello to the disembodied voice of steve bennan.

he is very important here. he determines whether or not you get your answers right. hello, steve. >> hello, krista. >> hi, steve. >> yay. all right, first question comes from monday's show. on monday's show, we reported that senator tom coburn, blocking the veteran suicide bill this week was not the first time he stood in the way of veterans health care. in june, in fact, he had objected to a new v.a. facility planned for tulsa, oklahoma, because he said that facility was too nice. when tom coburn was making that complaint to the local press in oklahoma, what did he compare this planned facility to? did he compare it to versaille, is a ritz carlton hotel, the taj mahal, or the bathroom at the c-street house? >> i want to say it was the ritz carlton. b. >> steve? >> you know, i really wish it was the c-street house.

but that's a whole other story. let's check monday's show. >> they're building a taj mahal. >> the correct answer was c, taj mahal. i'm afraid krista did not get this one correct. >> don't worry, you have two more chances. don't worry. i won't exactly help you cheat, but you never know, i could give you some sort of wink-wink. question two. this is from wednesday's show. on wednesday, president obama announced that the u.s. was normalizing relations with cuba. and that an american named alan gross was being sent back to the united states after five years in a cuban prison. which of these members of congress was not on the plane home with alan gross. was it senator pat leahy of vermont, b, senator jeff flake of arizona, c, bob mendez, or d

chris van hollan of maryland. >> was not on the plane? >> three of those members were with alan gross, but one of them wasn't. and i should tell you, the one who wasn't really doesn't like what president obama just did about cuba. >> that's what i was thinking. i think leahy was. >> i'm going to go with bob mendez of new jersey or jeff flake of arizona. >> you were leaning towards menendez. >> i'm going to stick with bob mendez of new jersey. >> steve what's the right answer. >> let's check wednesday's show. >> a bipartisan group of lawmakers who flew to cuba today to bring allen gross home, you see at the end of the table, you see there chris van hollan, joined by pat leahy, deeply involved in trying to get alan gross freed. but they were also joined by republican senator jeff flake of arizona.

>> that leaves bob menendez and krista is 1 for 2. >> i will take the top part of the cocktail shaker if you win with that one. one more question, one more chance. one of the spy stories that ended up in this week's news because of the cuba bombshell on wednesday, one of those spy stories that was fascinating was the story of anna montez. we talked about her on wednesday and thursday's show. she had a high-ranking job with the pentagon but was secretly a cuban spy. which is not known to be one of the spy techniques that she used to evade detection. a, passing information between shopping carts at the grocery store. b, receiving num logical codes over short wave radio. c, writing messages on dissolving paper, or d, training to defeat a lie detector test. >> she trained to defeat the lie detector test.

i remember the dissolving paper. i remember the shopping cart. then there were the codes she wrote down. i'm going with go with -- i think the husband and wife team did the shopping cart deal. so i'm going to go that's the one that was not. >> steve, do you have the answer for us here? >> that was a tough one, but she's right. it's a. >> yay. and you had exactly the right reasoning there. that's what made that one hard. the other spies who the same dude exposed did do the shopping cart thing. all right, julia, do the math, did krista win the prize? >> yes, she wins. >> well done. i won't take the top of the shaker. it's useless enough already. that would make it completely impervious. yes, you and johnny manziel, well done. krista, it's been such a pleasure to meet you. thanks for watching us. that was so cool. if you think you have what it

takes to win some stuff on the "friday night news dump" you can learn how to apply to maddowblog.com. i think the american people would like to see us get things done. >> the year ahead. president obama vows to get things done despite a gop-controlled congress, and reaction to what he hopes to accomplish before he leaves office. the sony hack attack. the north korean government is out with a whole statement on the matter, and you might be surprised with one of the proposals to the u.s. just in time for the holiday rush. we will look at the forecast as we head into the next week. the postal service, even on days you might not expect them to be delivering.