a recreation of what they believe would have happened if shahzad had been successful. the results on the crowded streets of manhattan, of course, would have been devastating. nbc's ron allen is live outside the federal courthouse in lower manhattan today. and what are we expecting there today, ron? >> reporter: well, he faces many life sentences. there are ten counts, and most of them carry mandatory life sentences. and there seems to be little doubt that's what he's going to get. the interesting part of this story, as you said, is the chilling narrative of it. who this person is. what he was planning to do. 30-year-old man who by all appearances was a family man, lived in suburban connecticut with a wife and two kids, had a job as a financial analyst at a reputable firm in suburban connecticut. right after he becomes a u.s. citizen in 2009, he travels to pakistan, undergoes terrorism training, prosecutors say, learned how to make a bomb, comes back and tries to detonate a bomb in times square.

and it is also said that that was going to be his first attempt and that he was going to set off more bombs if he could in the weeks ahead. >> ron allen, thank you very much for that update. i want to bring in now our military analyst, retired army colonel jack jacobs, and nbc news terrorism analyst andy heyman. thanks to both of you for being with us. jack, i want to start with you because i was able to hand you these few pages of information that we just got on these french arrests. french police confirming three people arrested early this morning. two in marseilles, one in bordeaux. what else can you tell us? >> another nine arrested previously. but it's very interesting that it's naples on the one hand and the south of france on the other, these hotbeds, places are arms are traded and muslim revolutionaries are able to procure explosives and deal with the mob and get whatever they need. >> all right. let's go to the other big stories that we're looking at

here. of course, all of this, andy, comes as this morning's sentencing of faisal shahzad is getting under way. also, we have this state department warning for travel for all of europe, virtually, you know, unlike anything we've ever seen, not specific. we are being warned as americans to be on the lookout for possible terror attacks. now, shahzad, we should say, was trained by the taliban in pakistan. this terror warning is apparently linked to al qaeda. is there any link between the two, though? >> well, i think we have to be very, very careful here to come to a conclusion. it's still very early days. and these arrests are significant. they come off the events quite comprehensively described. i was always in two minds whether or not the authorities had enough information or intelligence to make arrests. and they were just being very precautionary. the arrests today start to give us an indication that probably they have a little bit more than what we originally thought was in the first place.

however, just because you arrest a group, you may have disrupted something, or you may be doing it on very much an intelligence-gathering basis. i think we have to really be patient and cautious before we come to any conclusion or any linkages. >> do you make any linkages here, jack? >> i do. i think a lot of the information we get is from better human intelligence and overhead intelligence in the hindu kush, in pakistan and inside afghanistan. the two are directly related. the information that a lot of the intelligence operations inside the friendly intelligence operations inside europe share the information that we get at the cutting edge of muslim revolutionism. that is places where these guys are trained and from which they exfill trait to go to places like the south of france to buy weapons and wreak havoc inside europe. >> i know this morning and yesterday, andy, involved all of europe. now i think a lot of people will be surprised to hear about these arrests being made in the south

of france. i think most americans, frankly, view of that is maybe of the cannes film festival and the beautiful beaches. we also have terror warnings issued after these in the uk and the u.s. in sweden and in japan. so i guess an obvious question then becomes how broad is the potential reach? >> well, the rhythm that we're seeing is not conventional. you know, if you've got intelligence and the linkages are sound beyond speculation or just loose human intelligence, what you've been looking to do surely is when you're putting the warnings out, you're following some simultaneously the arrests what you think are the perpetrators. otherwise what you're doing is putting an alert out not only to the general public but also to the potential perpetrators. so the one question, i think, that's left hanging in the air is to why is it we've had seven or so days between an alert and a warning and then people being

arrested? it may well be that perhaps the intelligence has become a lot firmer, or just new intelligence. but i guess that's the question we need to be posing. >> all right. go ahead. >> i'll tell you, that's absolutely correct. and i agree completely, never leave a gap between an alert and an arrest. and what may be the third possibility is that we're just not doing it right. i mean, the police are just not doing it right. and they just let a gap go, and then maybe other people who are involved who are not arrests because of an alert. to me they're screwing it up, too. >> can i add to that? i agree with my colleague there, but i think the other point is because it's so broad here, right across europe, you ask the question, to what extent do you think either countries or different agencies are working that closely together that their left hand knows what the right hand is doing? and that, i guess, is also a very big issue. >> maybe we can pick this up because there is a lot to talk about. but certainly so much going on today. jack jacobs, andy hayman, thank

you, gentlemen. talk to you later. to politics here now, and they're bashing each other trying to get your attention along with your vote, of course. a tsunami of campaign ads are upon us with just 28 days to go until we head to the polls. the first tv ad from delaware's republican senate candidate, christine o'donnell, who admitted in high school that she dabbled in witchcraft. now she claims she's just like you. take a look. >> i'm not a witch. i'm nothing you've heard. i'm you. none of us are perfect. but none of us can be happy with what we see all around us. politicians who think spending, trading favors and backroom deals are the ways to stay in office. i'll go to washington and do what you'd do. i'm christine o'donnell, and i approve this message. i'm you. >> j.c. watts is a former republican congressman from oklahoma. karen finney, an msnbc

contributor and democratic strategist. alicia menendez, a senior adviser for the democratic network. j.c., i'll start with you. what do you think of your fellow republican? is she just like you? >> well, chris, you know, it's never a good thing in my opinion when you're having to go on and go on tv or in your commercial saying what you're not or you're denying something. but i thought she actually weaved that in pretty well. you know, the negative of what they're hitting her with about thewitchcraft, i think she weaved it in pretty well. of course, the voters, they've got about 32, 33 days or so to make a decision on what she is or what she isn't. >> j.c., you've been around the block a few times. you think this is an effective ad? >> well, i think, you know, based on what she's getting hit with, you know, the witchcraft,

you know, in politics, you're going to get hit with everything. you know, you get a pretty good background on your family tree and who you were related to or who you punched in the nose in the third grade. you know, that's what she felt like she had to do in terms of defending that. and the voters will decide on november 2nd. >> you know, i don't know, karen. you're gasping, but damned if you do, damned if you don't if she ignores it. she's addressing it head on. >> she is not a witch. that's not what this ad is about. what this ad is about and the videos that have been surfacing, it reinforces the narrative that she's a little wacky and not a serious person, it also takes her off her game in terms of wanting to talk about policy position. >> is that her game that she wants to talk about policy positions? >> in theory that's what you're supposed to talk in an election. i don't think that's what she wants to talk about because it's a lot of rhetoric. i think the ad is less about the

direct charge and her trying to, in the same way she took that karl rove comment and kind of flipped it back around to sort of say, you know, how silly is this? i'm a real person. and we're in the silly season of politics. >> you can call it the silly season, or maybe it's a brilliant strategy. maybe she's saying, look, i know you want to throw all the bums out. all those smart ivy league-educated lawyers in washington, look at the mess they've gotten us into. try somebody just like me, and maybe i'll do a better job. >> yeah, i don't think there's anything brilliant about christine o'donnell. and i think that the one thing this ad really highlights is that there's not much there. i mean, she has virtually no policy positions. the positions are are basically platitudes about the economy. she's positioned herself against some big monster that exists in washington that even those who are most disenchanted with washington really don't think is there. and she proves that you can take her seriously. the last person elected to this

seat, he was an expert on foreign relations, an expert on pakistan and afghanistan. even if you didn't like joe biden, you didn't always agree with him, he was respectable. you could feel good about being represented by him. and i think delaware voters don't feel that way about her. >> i'm going to move on because we have so much good stuff here. i've got to have you check out this ad that harry reid is playing. she's going after sharron angle in nevada. >> angle wants to wipe out social security. >> we need to phase medicare and social security out. >> she cut benefits for everyone coming into the system. that's sharron angle, first wanting to give massages to prisoners, now she wants to get rid of medicaid and social security. >> i don't know where to go with this, j.c. one, we're talking about i'm not a witch, and in the other we're talking about scientology. where are we with american politics and advertising these days? >> well, chris, in politics,

unfortunately, you know, your opponent tries to tell you the voter all the bad things about the person they're running against and the candidate tries to tell the voter all the positive things about themselves. and the voters decide. and as i said, with christine o'donnell, whether or not we like that ad or we think there's no nothing there, no there there, the fact is, the voters have to decide. and i think christine o'donnell and sharron -- the republican candidate there in nevada. >> sharron angle? >> that's right. the voters are going to decide, and she'll have to come out and defend whatever senator reid is saying about her and let the voters decide on november 2nd. i think people are going to be somewhat surprised. i can't say that they're going to win or they're going to lose. but i think the voters are going to be somewhat surprised at these candidates that we think don't have a lot of there there simply because there's a demeanor in the country that

people are disillusioned about american politics. >> that, alicia, and what we keep hearing about, which is this enthusiasm gap. you know, you can say what you want, but if the republicans or the tea party gets out there, voters and the democrats at home because frankly they're fed up with what they're saying, it doesn't bode well for people like harry reid. >> but you see that enthusiasm gap closing largely as the democrats progressive majority actually comes home. you're seeing latinos, african-americans, women, millennial generation members, members of my generation, the largest, youngest, most progressive generation in history saying i do care about this country. i do have a stake in this election, and i'm going to turn out in november and let you know how i feel about it. yes, they may have been late to tune in, but now that they are, the big reason you're seeing democrats have a seven-point bump in most of the latest polls. >> all right. we're going to talk more about all of this, and we're going to continue to talk with our members of our company, congressman, karen, alicia, thanks. we'll be back shortly.

we are on jury watch. a verdict could come in any time now in the trial of a man accused of broulgtsly raping and murdering a connecticut mother and her two daughters. by the end of this week, voters in ten states will start casting their ballots for the midterm elections. but who does the early voting benefit? we'll talk about that. levi johnston told his ex, bristol palin, apparently that she w he was going to a hunting show in california. honey, that's fine. but in reality, apparently he was shooting this steamy music video. more on what we're calling videogate. [ male announcer ] taste pops with pringles cracker stix.

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it's got to be a heart-wrenching wait for members of a connecticut family. by now you probably know the horrible story of how a mom and

her two young daughters were brutally raped and murdered in their home. right now jurors are poring over the grisly details, considering 17 charges and the possibility of a death sentence for the man accused. nbc's jeff rossen is live outside the courthouse in new haven. and jeff, i know they deliberated for two hours yesterday. what's the schedule today? >> reporter: yeah, they got the case late afternoon yesterday. the judge asked them at 4:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon, are you close to a verdict? they said no. so they were released, came back this morning and actually within the past 15 minutes or so, they have began deliberating again. the judge will call them back at 12:55 p.m. and say, are you close to a verdict now? if not, then they'll go to lunch and come back after lunch and continue. as you said, even at the face of it, when the defense says that the suspect committed many of the crimes, there are 17 counts they have to go through. some of them could end steven hayes' life. and so the jury could come back at any moment, and they could go for the death penalty, too.

the lone survivor, dr. william petit, back at the courthouse. what's going through your mind right now? >> just waiting to see what the jury decides. >> reporter: he's waited three years for this moment. it was 2007 when prosecutors say steven hayes and his cohort broke into the petit home, beat william and tied him up and tied the two girls to their bedposts upstairs and heard the moaning and thumps, he testified. the video saw jennifer petit's final moments at a bank withdrawing $15,000 to pay the ransom. and they heard the bank manager's chilli ining 911 call. >> we have a lady in our bank right now who says that her husband and children are being held at their house. if the police are told, they will kill the children and the husband. >> reporter: prosecutors say they sexually assaulted and strangled jennifer before burning the house down. this mother and her two girls were killed.

now steven hayes is charged with 17 crimes. 6 of them capital felonies. if convicted of just one, he could face execution. now william petit waits for the verdict. and so here's the time line now. if the jury comes back with a guilty verdict, especially at least one of those capital felonies, they'll take a day or two off. then that same jury comes back here to the courthouse in new haven and could spend the next four to six weeks on the sentencing phase, debating and deciding whether or not steven hayes should be executed, whether he should, in fact, get the death penalty. and then, chris, it starts all over again with another trial, a separate trial for the other suspect, the accomplice. >> jeff rossen, thank you. a former denver, colorado, district attorney who joins me now. norm, it's good to see you. and i was really interested, as i always am, on what the jury says in public. so we know two things from yesterday. the first one is, they wanted a

definition of start a fire. and they asked, is the pouring of gas starting a fire? and the judge said no. why is this so important? >> i think what you have here is a jury that's bogged down in minutia rather than looking at the evidence as a whole. generally, they're instructed that you look at all the evidence. and as that evidence is looked at by you collectively, does it ring true that this person committed this crime? i know that there has to be an aiding, abetting and advising instruction there where these individuals are instructed that if, in fact, one person helped the other to commit the crime, then they are as guilty as a person who actually struck the match. so to me, this is really disturbing as a prosecutor to see these individuals trying to figure out what the definition

of "starting a fire" might be. >> secondly, i wanted to hear more of steven hayes' confession, but they were told it would take 45 minutes to read, that they didn't actually have it in written form, so then they backed off. what do you make of that, wanting to hear his confession? >> well, you know, you might have a lot of jurors who are sort of renegade and not in favor of a guilty verdict here, or it may just be one. but if it was just one and the judge said it's going to take 45 minutes, maybe the other 11 individuals said, look. this is going to take too long. the point that you want to hear about is minor. let's keep going and see if the other evidence leads us in a direction of guilty or not guilty without spending 45 minutes listening to that particular testimony. >> are you one of those folks who believes that a quick verdict usually favors the prosecution, even in a case like this where there's so many counts? >> that's -- the number of counts is the only thing that would make me say maybe in this

case. generally, a fast verdict is one which the prosecution is going to prevail. the other thing that disturbs me in this case is that people who were close to the deliberation room heard laughter and heard, you know, talking that didn't seem to be deliberation talking. when you're coming down to a situation where you're about ready to take somebody's life, that is not a laughing matter. and generally you don't hear that kind of emotion coming from the jury room if they are, in fact, going to find somebody guilty and later have to send them to their death. >> yeah. you know, i read that, too, norman. and i guess my take on it was, having been around courts, not as much as you, but quite a bit, is that sometimes it's almost a tension release. sort of like black humor. so who knows what was going on in there. we are going to continue to follow it, and we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us, norm early. >> thank you, chris. well, we all know this saying. vote early, vote often.

our own richard lui is checking out how early is early. hey, richard. >> early is getting earlier. as well as often is getting more often. we're going to break down the calendars for you when we come back. you'll be surprised by how many are deciding to vote early and avoid the election day and what candidates need to consider now. time for the "your business entrepreneur of the week." ron owns the 137-year-old stokes farm in new jersey. he's benefiting from the new customer emphasis on buying locally grown produce at farmers' markets. because of that demand, he now grows more than 74 items. for more, watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. if you're on medicare and thinking about

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but it won't stay open forever. so call today. don't miss this opportunity. call for free information or to enroll in an aarp medicarerx plan insured through unitedhealthcare. it really is a total and complete game changer for political campaigns. the number of people voting now, even though the polls don't open until november 2nd, because more states have it, and millions of americans are voting early. we're seeing tight races all across the country. colorado is a prime example of an incumbent taking on a candidate with tea party support. but how many voters have already made it official for ken buck or senator bennett? msnbc's richard lui has been looking into this. >> you might want to hold on to

your hat for this one, chris, because it is a dynamic situation for buck and bennett. we look at what's happening in that state. all you have to do is look at this. seven in ten are voting early. that's estimated by politico that people are going to be voting early in colorado. nationwide, chris, we believe as many as four in ten. that is even more. so we've got to consider that as a dynamic. also, according to this map, i want to take you over here. this is actually a trend of early voting over the course of time. now, '04 to '10, and look at '12. look at the difference of 20% to 40% in terms of those voting early. who knows where it's going in 2012. the dynamic there, of course, is what does it mean? i want to break this down across the country. i've got a map. we can go to that. this is from "the new york times." the darker colors show where you can vote early as well as amount of absentee voting over the course of 2008. you see it's very dark here in the west. that favors democrats a little bit more.

a little bit lighter here in the east. so that is a dynamic we're facing at the moment. we take a look at the trending so far. so what does that mean for strategy? i want to show you this over here. this is where we normally used to vote. every year, november 2nd. well, now we take a look at more than 20 states across the union. they have to start in september. september the 20th here is when vermont says it is a-okay for you to send in your early ballot. that means that we're looking at 44 days. that is a long span of campaigning, of course, and going across three calendar months. very frustrating for perhaps some candidates. that means engaging voters needs to start very, very early. and, of course, that means money. ad spending this year that you've been noting in many of the discussions with company this year by the dnc and rnc, that's almost double what it was at the same time in the last midterm. we take a look at that. it's no wonder campaigns are getting even more expensive. so, you know, for chris, when we talk to some of the candidates, we're doing some of the research

here, one study is saying that they're thinking it's almost like a voting fortnight now and feels like groundhog day because they're going to get up from underneath the ground on election day. that's the only time they'll know how they are doing. >> and a lot of people are saying that's why we're seeing more negative ads early because they don't know when people are voting. do we know who this early voting seems to be helping at this point? >> two sides of this coin here, chris. first of all, it's not going to help progressives according to a study by the early voting center at reed college in oregon. they're saying that early voters tend to be republican. we've heard that before. but a flip side of this, and you brought this up in an earlier segment. that was this enthusiasm gap. early voters tend to be those who are more partisan. so that would help theoretically the republicans right now who are unhappy with the democrats. other side of the coin, the democrats have put aside $50 million for early voting campaigns. that might help them. that's a possibility.

also, some democratic candidates have said here, chris, that they have taken advantage in the last two election cycles of this dynamic. and when they've invested early, they've been able to reach voters they haven't been able to reach before. >> you heard alicia talking about young voters. we'll watch whether they come out this campaign season. i wonder if you're in college if early and mail-in voting helps. interesting stuff. >> we'll be talking about it, no doubt. >> thanks, richard. an emotional plea by the family of an american shot by mexican pirates on a border lake. what they're asking president obama to do. plus, not quite a wwe smackdown, but the connecticut race between richard blumenthal and linda mcmahon is heating up. the new ads and the debate have both sides fired up. and what about the naked president in 2012? the guitar-playing underwear-clad fixture formally announces his candidacy. talk about a different kind of candidate. everybody has somebody to go heart healthy for.

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well, we have a case -- a verdict in the case of the man who wanted to kill americans by detonating a bomb inside his suv in the middle of busy times square in manhattan. he has been sentenced, faisal shahzad, to life in prison. a mandatory life term by the federal judge just a short time ago. the bomb, of course, that he had packed in the back of that suv didn't work. it sputtered. it put out some smoke, alerted police to that. but he calls himself a muslim soldier. he was defiant. he pleaded guilty in june to ten terrorism and weapons counts. he's a former budget analyst from connecticut. and also a pakistani immigrant. he says the taliban financed his bomb-making activities. he has to come home. president obama, help us. president of mexico, help us, please. >> that's a family's desperate plea to help them find their son and husband. david hartley is still missing

nearly a week after his wife, tiffany, says the couple was attacked by mexican pirates on a lake that borders the u.s. and mexico. this morning his wife, sister and parents were on the "today" show talking about what happened. >> i quickly turned around and went to him and jumped off my jet ski. and i had to turn him over because he was face down in the water and turned him over, and he was shot in the head. and that's when a boat came up, one of the boats came up to me and had a gun pointed at me trying to decide what to do with me. and then they left. >> nbc's mark potter joins us from laredo, texas. and mark, this is an area where there have been known to be problems with pirates because of drug running. she has told this story. her husband does seem to be missing. but mexican authorities are now questioning this story.

where does all this stand, mark? >> reporter: well, it stands with the family right now, trying to pressure the mexican government to do something about this. as we heard, invoked the names of president obama and president felipe calderon of mexico. they're urging the mexicans to work harder, to try to find the body, to try to find the jet ski. you could argue maybe the body sank, but that jet ski is sitting on the water and now it's not there. somebody's got it. it's not on the american side. it's likely on the mexican side. and so they are urging the mexicans work harder. they're talking to consular officials. there's going to be a demonstration outside the consulate in colorado. and they're going public. they're answering questions, trying to just put pressure. one of the questions that tiffany is being asked -- and it's a tough one -- is after she found her husband had been shot and couldn't get him up on the jet ski, why did she leave him there and then race back to the united states? let's listen to what she had to say.

>> when you're looking at the end of a barrel of a gun and wondering if they're just going to shoot you, too, and wonder if your families are just going to never know where you are. >> reporter: obviously, a very, very difficult and tough decision. and as to that mexican official that you talked about who was quoted in the local paper, saying that maybe he doubted the story, saw no evidence of it, there could be questions raised on this side about how hard they're trying to answer those questions. u.s. officials down the road in zapata county are telling nbc news that they believe tiffany's story. they think that the incident did occur, and they are treating this as a homicide and are feeling frustrated that they can't go over to the mexican side of that reservoir to try to find the body and find out what happened, chris. >> yeah, that's unbelievable to me. you know, something's got to be done so they can find the missing husband. thank you so much, mark. appreciate that update. in one of the hottest races in the country, the first senate

face-off finally happened in connecticut. it was a high-stakes one with democrat, richard blumenthal, painting himself as a fighter against former world wrestling entertainment ceo linda mcmahon who's pushing her image as the ultimate businesswoman, washington outsider. she's using a lot of her self-made fortune on tv spots and a particularly searing one was released just hours before the debate. >> would you lie about serving in the war? >> we have learned something very important since the days that i served in vietnam. >> dick blumenthal did again and again. he lied about vietnam, what else is he lying about? >> that forced blumenthal to, again, address the military misstatement that dogged him during the primary. >> i'm proud of my military service. on a few occasions out of hundreds when i commented on it, i described it inaccurately. and i regret it. >> but blumenthal didn't stay on

the defense, echoing an ad he released over the weekend, he blasted mcmahon for wanting to lower the minimum wage. >> the first thing, let me say categorically that is wrong and absolutely false and is incorrect in this ad is that i would consider reducing the minimum wage. that's a lie. you know that's a lie. i never said it. and it's in your ad. and boy, that's just wrong. >> democrats once thought was a shoo-in, the latest quinnipiac poll shows just a three-point margin. the company is back with me now. j.c. watts, karen finney, alicia menendez. you've got to give her this. she certainly timed that ad so that he would have to talk about it during the debate. >> yeah. that's a pretty common tactic, frankly, is that you release an ad. again, we're in the silly season. so all kinds of mud is going to get slung. it just happens to come out the day that there's a debate where you know you're going to have to discuss it during the debate because you're trying to make that news. what was interesting about this ad, though, is this is a charge

blumenthal had already responded to. you heard him repeat the exact same response. so it's unclear to me whether or not that's going to have the impact. she clearly wanted to bring it back up. >> well, the argument could be made, j.c. -- and tell me what you think -- a lot of people haven't been really engaged up until this point unless you're us and you're fascinated by politics 24/7. you know, folks are just getting their kids back to school. they're back from their summer vacations. now they're plugging in. and she's saying just in case you missed it, this time, get it now, right? >> well, it's unfortunate that you have, you know, the craziness, the silliness of the cycle, of the season, but it's going to happen. we were talking about christine o'donnell and sharron angle earlier, scientology, witchcraft, not telling the truth. you're going to see it on both sides. and, again, i think the voters are going to decide. i do think that, you know, i'm

not so sure in the connecticut race because that's not a democrat -- i mean that's not a republican seat. but i think based on what we see around the country with the energy of the electorate, i think it favors republicans. but that poll that you showed where things are getting tighter, you had a democrat with a large lead. now it's tightening up. i think you're going to see many races around the country where republicans had leads, and it's going to tighten up. the next four weeks are going to be very, very interesting due to all the craziness that we're going to see. >> alicia, do you agree with that, or is that a little bit of managing expectations? >> you know, i do agree that you're going to see a lot of volatility. what i think is interesting, you showed us the "q" poll. there were also three other polls that came out this week that showed blumenthal with a two-digit lead. so i think he's definitely gaining momentum. i also want to point out, in that "q" poll you showed which is not the most favorable poll

to him, only 60% of voters say that this vietnam thing is not an issue for them at all. so i do think it's interesting that she chooses to bring it up again when there's polling data saying this isn't really the most powerful argument against him. >> all right. >> but i -- >> go ahead, j.c., real quick. >> well, chris, but again, that's the point i made with christine o'donnell and sharron angle, that the voters are the ones who are going to decide. and however crazy you think those ads are, how uncredible you think they might be, the voters will decide. that's what i said earlier about christine and sharron. >> j.c., you know one of the things that is really defining this midterm election is the amount of money that's being spent, both in the primaries and the general election to define your opponent as well as get your positive message out. john mccain spent $20 million in his primary because he realized that he needed to get that message out there and spend whatever it took to spend so that he could then redefine

himself. >> all right. >> but that's the mission you always try to define your opponent. and i'm not so sure in some of these races that it's going to work as well as it has in the past because of how disillusioned the american people are with our political process. >> j.c. watts, karen finney, alicia menendez, thank you. well, those 33 miners trapped underground for 60 days could be one step closer to freedom. how they're getting ready for the big day. and with the country still struggling through the recession in 2009, a new report shows nearly 200 los angeles county employees were raking in more than $250,000 last year. "the l.a. times" looked at the records, four physicians topped the list with one senior physician at ucla medical center, being paid by the taxpayers more than $400,000. a d.a. and sheriff both had salaries more than $300,000. multiple firefighters earned more overtime than in base salary.

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although sodas and sports drinks are high in sugar and calories, teens seem to believe sports drinks are healthier. the study found add less epts who drank these beverages were more likely to exercise, eat fruits and vegetables than those who drank soda. remember when they said at first it might be christmas before those trapped chilean miners would be rescued? well, now there's some real excitement growing that it could be by the end of this week. nbc's kerry sanders joins us from chile. and kerry, is that true? >> reporter: well, it is just stunning, the sense of anticipation here. and that's all because of what's happening down with the drilling of the hole. they're getting much closer. and they're talking about the possibility of punching through as early as thursday or friday with a 20-inch-wide hole which means that then the rescues, they believe, might be able to begin. just moments ago, adding to the anticipation of perhaps a rescue as early as this weekend were

the arrival of some of the triage units. some of the family standing out here waving flags, chanting as the triage units made their way here. there's a team of 14 medical experts, 2 paramedics from the military as well as 12 others who arrived here. and they're now staging their equipment. all the sort of things that they're putting in place for the final stages of the rescue. as we take a look live here, what you're looking at there, that really tall oil-drilling equipment there, that is what they call plan "c." and it is making progress but not as much progress as plan "b." it's a little smaller to the left. that one is being done in a combination of chilean and american teams. and that's the one that's making the most progress. they've already punched through with a five-inch-wide hole. they punched through with a 12-inch-wide hole. now it's almost widened to 28 inches. so one of the big questions that they have to face now, chris, is they have an escape capsule. and whether that pod can make it up and down without getting

caught because it's not a direct drill down. it has to make some turns. and they have to do some tests to make sure the wheels work as that capsule goes down and then one by one, they hope to bring up all 33 miners. again, the families are hoping that could be as early as sunday. >> wow! wouldn't that be fantastic? kerry, thank you so much. well, forget the suit. you know the power tie. this presidential candidate prances around in his underwear. the naked cowboy says vote for me in 2012. and levi johnston, or is it ricky hollywood? bristol palin's ex makes his debut in this steamy music video. my mother froze everything. i was 18 years old before i had my first fresh bun. the invention that i came up with is the hot dog ez bun steamer. steam is the key to a great hot dog. i knew it was going to be a success. the invention was so simple that i knew i needed to protect it. my name is chris schutte and i got my patent, trademark and llc on legalzoom.

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♪ into this ♪ what i deserve is more than what you can give ♪ ♪ it's the same thing over and

over and over ♪ ♪ over again that was a the music video after levi johnston's second break-up with bristol palin. it's called "after love." karen finney and alicia menendez join me. alicia, i'm shocked and dismayed because you call him a fame monger. >> a fame monger. i also, though, chris think that he is, like, the best form of birth control for young women in that if i have a teenage daughter, i would say to her, you have unprotected sex with some idiot, he is going to leave you. you're going to get pregnant. and then he's going to roll around with some other girl in a music video and make a fool of you. so i think in some way levi johnston is doing a service. >> alicia, i think bristol kind of got the last word because she

heard about, you know, he went hunting. he sure went hunting for something. she kicked him out, so good for her. clearly he's just jealous because she's getting all this attention because she's on "dancing with the stars." >> you think that's it? you think he's jealous? >> i do. i think he loves himself so much that it's, like, you know, what was it? it was a week we weren't talking about him, so he had to do something. >> j.c., would you let your daughter date levi johnston? >> chris, that video reminds me of something that my grandmother would say. she's say, boy, everyone is seeing you, and get somewhere, sit down. that would be pretty good advice for l.j. to get somewhere and sit down. >> oh, my gosh. can we just say on an only slightly serious note, i didn't know about this singer before. she's brilliant. and whoever cut her video is brilliant because you cannot show a clip of him for more than, like, three seconds.

did you notice that, alicia? you have to keep seeing her and hearing her music. you can't just show levi. you know, somebody was smart here. >> actually getting a lot of air time. >> and he's getting paid. you know, i guess it's not, you know, too funny. i guess we shouldn't laugh real loud because he's getting paid for it. >> and as an aside, now bristol is doing, you know, talks for $10,000 each. there she is "dancing with the stars." she's also giving little speeches, you know, promoting abstinence, saying, do as i say, not as a do. exactly. thank you, karen. j.c., karen, alicia. thank you so much. ahead -- i'll tell you, donald trump now. he's talking to msnbc. is there a presidential run in his future? plus, we talked about outrageous on one hand, this is serious outrageous on a very serious topic. why would firefighters watch a

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