one more stop. president obama talks jobs in japan and how the u.s. shapes up against the rest of the world. we have a report from japan today. the business back home. a tax fight looms when the president returns. is there any winning outcome for all parties? new tales from that crippled carnival cruise. this morning more passengers speak out. we'll hear from one woman and her young daughter. plus from a $3 toaster to

new offers of free shipping. good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt. welcome to msnbc saturday, where it's 10:00 a.m. right on the nose here on the east coast. president obama's ten-day swing through asia. he's meeting with leaders at a forum aimed at jump-starting economic cooperation. savannah guthrie is traveling with the president. good morning, savannah. >> reporter: alex, good morning. this is the longest the president's been away since taking office. and this trip comes right after the big losses in the midterms. but the president's been making the pitch that what he's doing here overseas is all about improving things at home. the president took his one-man sales expedition to his final stop in japan where he told a group of ceos america is open for business. >> in this region, the united states sees a huge opportunity to increase our exports in some of the fastest growing markets in the world. for america, this is a jobs

strategy. >> reporter: the president is in japan today for one last summit of asian economic powerhouses. wrapping up his four-country mission to try to pry open asian markets to more american exports. the president has promised to double exports in five years which he says will lead directly to more jobs at home. while the u.s. has been battered by unemployment and lackluster growth, emerging economies have been booming, largely fuelled by the powerful pocketbooks of the once voracious american consumer. but at the g-20 summit in seoul, the president said the days of massive trade imbalances, americans buying more goods from overseas than they sell must come to an end. >> countries with large surpluses must shift away from unhealthy dependence on exports and take steps to boost domestic demand. as i've said going forward, no nation should assume that their path to prosperity is payted

simply with exports to the united states. >> reporter: the president has one more day here in japan. the main event is a meeting with the russian president dmitry medvedev. that stalled arms control pact with russia just one of the agenda items waiting for the president when he returns to washington sunday. alex? >> savannah guthrie, thank you for that. back in washington, economic issues take center stage as congress returns to this lame duck session, which begins this week. earlier i spoke with msnbc political analyst richard wolffe about how it has followed president obama overseas. >> this is extremely tough. all of these challenges are hard whenever he gets knocked down and his party and his white house are still trying to figure out what the new politics means. and we've seen stumbles this week over tax cuts, where do they draw the line op compromise? can they even talk about compromise when they don't know what the other side is really going to do? they have a certain vagueness to

their position which is inevitable until those negotiations happen. we in the media are asking questions, are not going to put up with the vagueness. when they say they're ready to negotiate and we say what does that mean, they get all fuzzy about it. which is not surprising, but very unsatisfying for them, for us. and it puts the cards in the hands of the republicans who can drag this out until they get the deal they want. >> the so-called bush era tax cuts are set to expire at the end of december. we invite you to watch an encore presentation of "decision points," a conversation with president bush. president bush talks to matt lauer. it will air today at 12:00 noon and tomorrow before we go live, it will be on at 8:00 eastern before we started a 9:00 here on msnbc sunday. the taliban tried but failed to attack a major base in afghanistan this morning. six insurgents died in the attacks, two were wearing explosive vests. the attackers tried to strike a

combination air and base. this morning, myanmar's military government freed the country's pro-democracy leader after more than seven years of house arrest. aung san suu kyi, one of the world's most well known political prisoners, was met by thousands of supporters at the gate of her compound. ian williams is live for us in bangkok, thailand. good morning, early for you, ian. put this in perspective here. >> reporter: good morning, alex. >> all of these people greeting her -- i should tell people we have a satellite delay, but perspective on this. what does this mean? >> reporter: well, good morning, alex. it is a remarkable sight. and what it means will depend very much on the conditions that the generals try and impose on her. we had wondered today whether we'd ever see this at all. she has spent 15 of the last 21 years under house arrest in that home beside the lake in yangon

formerly known as rangoon. today, there was no announcement, the police removed barricades. riot police went away from the scene allowing hundreds of supporters to move up to her house. she then emerged looking absolutely delighted. the crowd was cheering, the crowd was singing. she told them with hope they could achieve their aims, but we have a lot to do. in the context of burma, that is perhaps an enormous understatement. the last time she was released briefly from house arrest was 2002. then she pushed the limit, she went out, she met people, she criticized the generals. then they promptly locked her up again. what happens next is the key question. yes, she's free and her supporters will be delighted by that. but how much room will she be given to go about organizing and to challenge the military junta who recently held an election, of course, but still remain

firmly in control, alex. >> ian, on that front, there are reports that she plans to go, in effect, back to work, go back to an office on monday morning or perhaps even tomorrow morning. i mean, could that jeopardize her freedom? >> reporter: well, that is the question everybody is asking. she is the leader of the national league for democracy, the main pro democracy group in myanmar, formerly burma. they won the last free election in that country in 1990 but were denied the right to rule. the military overruled that victory. now, she says she's going to go back there tomorrow, she's going to make a statement, and she will inevitably criticize the generals. now, the question is, how confrontational will she be? how pragmatic will she be? will she try and engage them? the generals have held this election. it's been criticized as a sham throughout the world. they've exchanged their

uniforms, if you like, for business suits, but there is nominally at least a civilian government now in burma. will they grasp this opportunity to reconcile with suu kyi? these are all questions that had be crucial to the future of myanmar and we should have an indication of where it's going tomorrow, alex. >> ian williams in bangkok, thank you so much. the military's ban on openly gay service members remains intact this morning following yesterday's order by the supreme court. the justices refused to stop enforcement of the policy while a lower court hears a challenge to the ban. that appeals court is not expected to set a hearing on the issue known as don't ask, don't ask, until march. passengers from the nightmare carnival cruise are telling their stories about how they got through the days of eating spam and pop tarts. the ship's engines blew. they spent days without a hot shower or hot meals. here's how ginger kaylin and her

daughter described the ordeal to me earlier this morning. >> it was kind of like being trapped at a bad camp. the good news was that we were all together as a family, and we had friends with us. so that was good. but yeah, all the stories are 100% true. we didn't have working toilets for the first day. that was pretty chaotic. the food lines were long. and when you got there, you know, you weren't sure whether you were going to get a bottle of water or a little cup of water, a salami sandwich or a couple of slices of hot dog. i mean, it really was, you know -- >> not exactly what you paid for. >> not the luxurious -- no, no. and i don't think that's what carnival wanted either. the people aboard actually were very civilized. we were surprised. there could have been some chaos and some rioting, but everybody was pretty, pretty friendly and adapted. >> that's good to hear.

>> to the situation. >> what was the worst part? >> the worst part, the worst part was not knowing, you know, what was going to happen or how long that we were going to be in this situation. >> okay. i think we ended right there. 9-year-old parker jude says that she definitely wants to go on another cruise after all that. all passengers on board were indeed reimbursed and they all get a free carnival cruise. a storm here on this saturday is dumping snow in the upper midwest. the first snow of the year for minneapolis. that city could see a foot by the time it passes through there, although it looks better than it used to. bill karins has the complete national forecast. let's take a look at this. that's a mess there, but looked worse an hour ago. >> they get these bands of snow. the visibility goes way down. they get a break and then another band comes through and dumps another inch or two. five to six inches already in southern minnesota.

minneapolis about two to three on the ground. they'll end up close to six to nine by the time it's all said and done. here's the radar. a lot of colors on this. the beginning of our winter season. the green is the rain. and the areas of pink, that's where we're going to get a mix of rain and snow. also the white, as you expected, that's where the all-snow is. from mankato up to minneapolis, you're in that white of all-snow. that's where the highest totals are going to be. sioux fall, just showers left for you. as far as wisconsin goes, chicago, milwaukee, green bay, just all rain for you with this storm. minneapolis up to duluth that we'll be talking about enough snow to shovel or maybe go sledding or skiing, if you wish. winter storm warnings are issued. by tomorrow the storm will be exiting. farce totals go, only a narrow band, that pink, of 6 to 12, but does go up the heart of minnesota. the eastern seaboard is enjoying

a very nice weekend. enjoy it. temperatures already in the 70s in new orleans. from the 50s from atlanta all the way up to boston. temperatures will be about 10 degrees above average. 65 the high in new york. all the way down into florida. just gorgeous weather conditions. some of the rough waves we've had the last couple days will continue from the outer banks of north carolina to florida. the west coast, anyone waking up with us should enjoy a great day today from phoenix, to l.a., to san francisco. vegas has been chilly lately, but should be nice, too. a look at tomorrow, more of the same. the storm exits the minneapolis area. the eastern seaboard, we're not going to see too many weekends any more with highs in the 60s. this time of year the temperatures really start to crash in a hurry. >> bill, join me as we look at a picture. this is a homeless charity fund-raiser. people were out there camping out in tents to try to raise awareness and money to help the homeless. i don't think we're going to see a lot of that. >> in minneapolis. >> i don't think we'll see a lot of that coming up much more this

fall. >> whatever they raised, it should be double. >> double the donation on that one. good idea. bill karins, more next hour. it is called blackout in a can. now states are banning a controversial drink that's very popular on college campuses. what makes it so dangerous? cash in the attic. a vase in somebody's house ends up being worth ten of millions. it even surprised the members of of an auction house.

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from social security to defense, medicare, to mortgages, there are calls for drastic cuts across the board. virtually nothing escapes the chopping block. the chairman of a presidential deficit commission admit while many proposals don't stand a snowball's chance -- and you can complete the sentence there -- of passing, they say it is a conversation that needses to take place. pat buchanan is a republican strategist and msnbc political analyst, peter fenn is a democratic analyst. hello, boys. good saturday morning to you. these are some pretty significant cuts. put up a list of some of the proposals. pat, what's your take on this? >> i think they've done an excellent job. i was pleasantly surprised they're serious. the example of three-year freeze on federal salaries which have really gotten out of control. maybe roll back congressional salaries. are they going to eliminate the mortgage deduction, which i think is probably a bridge too far, but capping that would be a

good idea. one of the ideas that peter and i were talking about, they're going to cut hundreds of bases abroad and bring the troops home from the united states. when the europeans are freeloading on us, 65 years after the end of world war ii, i think that will have a lot of appeal. it will be controversial but you have a huge menu here. i think some of these items will be law. >> we'll get detailed to the proposal to gradually raise the social security age up to 68. okay, gradual yes, but we've seen how that went in france, as in not well. so is this realistic or not? >> well, i think in the long term it is realistic. the question of how it's done and the approach. the key thing here, alex, is that people are living longer. they require a lot more money in their older years than they used to. and i think folks are -- and they're working longer.

so i think this is logical. i know it upsets some people, but the fact of the matter is with this kind of thing, everything should be on the table. you know, we should be talking about all these issues. and as bruce reed, the head of the commission, the executive director of the commission and president clinton's former adviser said this morning, we don't have to do everything all at once. this is a long-term program. we can move forward in this. the important thing is don't reject stuff out of hand. let's wait a minute, let's look at it all, let's debate it, think about it. don't come in here and say that's dead on arrival. that phrase, i'm so sick of hearing it here in washington. there's a lot of stuff that shouldn't be dead on arrival, and this is one of them. >> picking up on what peter said, marco rubio, a young senator, real hope of the republican party, tremendous tea party support, he said, i think we may have to raise the retirement age on social security to 70 years old.

it was very courageous. now i've talked to dick durbin who i think was on that committee, a democratic senator, when he makes a point and we were talking, if you're a coal miner and you've worked hard all your life in those mines maybe you don't take those folks up to 70. they retire earlier where some of the white collar workers who haven't had it so rough retire later. >> that kind of thing's going to be on the table? pat? >> sure, it can be on the table. >> sure. sure. you let people start earlier, as they do now. and they take benefits beginning earlier. the other thing is that at some point you know you can means test some of this. you can have people who will pay social security taxes beyond $110,000 where it stops now. there are ways to handle this, i think -- >> i want to ask you guys how they're going to handle the possibility of cutting the tax deduction for mortgage interest? i mean, that's something that -- that's part of the whole kind of american dream concept.

people aren't going to be happy about that one. >> it is. but let me say this, alex. that's going to be a very tough thing. what they're offering is lower overall tax rates. if you can't get rid of these deductions. but let's take mortgage interest. suppose they maintained it up to 12,000 or 15,000 a year so that the guys who get the mcmansions, they don't get this deduction for all of the mortgage interest, but the middle class still gets a deduction for most of it? that's a compromise you might be able to reach. but the fact they put it on the table in return for lower rates, since my mortgage is paid off, i'd take it in seconds. >> oh, yeah. that's appreciated. peter, what about the 15 cent a gallon gas tax. how does that play with you, reasonable by the year 2013? >> a lot of this is reasonable, alex. when you're talking about is doing exactly what we've been talking about for 40 plus years and that's getting rid of our

dependence upon foreign oil. what's the best way to do that? the best way to do that, we're almost getting to it when gas prices were high, then they drop back down. have more electric vehicles, more hybrid vehicles and you change the system. >> i have to do something here before we go. i have to play a clip for both of you. this one's particularly for pat so we know what this is about. ready? play it. >> the alaskan spirit is and we're proud of it. you have to respect the elements out here. mother nature always wins. >> do you think it will get rougher than this? >> we'ring snagged. i'm thinking we're going to be stuck there, an anchor is dropped and a bear's coming towards us. i'm looking around to todd going, are you feeling what i'm feeling, todd? wow. >> yep, we know where pat's going to be on sunday, watching sarah palin's alaska. >> the opening of that brings tears to my eyes, but go ahead. >> in all seriousness, is this going to help sarah palin if she

decides to make a presidential run? a presidential run. >> this will help her enormously. this is about outside and beyond politics. an outdoor woman with her husband and their kids. they're out camping in this beautiful country. sot it moves her beyond really the caustic battle or in the tea party warrior into a different dimension, which is enormously, i think, attractive. all plus. >> peter, democrats say hey, bring this on? >> i think so. you look at that and think why the heck does she want to come to washington? it looks pretty nice out there to me. this is a very interesting point. ultimately the question is is she qualified to be president of the united states? clearly that's the question that everybody would answer. but pat's right, this is a third dimension of this woman. it's very positive for her. i really think it makes a difference with people. they will be more likely to kind of bond with her after seeing

this. and i think it will help her if she decides to run. >> all so interesting, pat buchanan, peter fenn, talk to you next hour. so will they do it sooner, wait a bit longer? all the talk in britain about when we can see a royal engagement. we've got a live report from london on that. a real life lesson from the student who hacked into palin's e-mail. mom, have you seen my green shirt?

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more bad news for the postal service this weekend. it announced friday that it lost 8.5 billion in the fiscal year that ended in september. postal officials say without congressional action, it could be bankrupt by the end of next year. letter carriers delivered 6 billion fewer pieces of mail last year. losses also came from

obligations to prefund future retiree health benefits. a chinese vase found in the attic of a suburban london house just made some jaws drop at an auction in london. the 18th century porcelain vase was sold to an unnamed chinese buyer for, get this, $69.3 million. the items made the brother and sister who inherited that vase into instant multimillionaires although estate taxes will cost $32 million. it was expected to sell for a little less than 2 million. what's in that vase? ♪ if i had a little money

welcome back. 31 past the half hour. president obama talked jobs today at a summit in japan.

he says prosperity in the u.s. is tied inextricably to the success of its pacific trade partners. the president will have to hit the ground running when he's back in washington as there's a looming tax fight on capitol hill. chuck todd joins us with all those details. good saturday morning to you. >> the president gets home from asia, he immediately has to get to the tax of dealing with the so-called bush tax cuts. he's got a big meeting with the outcome and incoming congressional leadership on thursday of next week. that's where a deal could be cut. the sticking point is this -- republicans want to, if they can't permanently extend them all, then they want to temporarily extend them all including the so-called tax cuts for the middle class. the president's position is to make the middle class tax cuts permanent. that's for those folks earning $250,000 or less. and then maybe negotiate on temporarily extending those for the wealthy. the republicans don't want to, quote, decouple the two because they fear if they make one part permanent, and then a vote comes up a year, two, or three years

later just for keeping the tax rates for the wealthiest the same, they will lose that fight. so they want to either make them all permanent or temporarily extend them all. the wrench in all of this is that deficit commission. they came out last week and one of the center pieces of their reforms was tax reform. massive tax reform. getting rid of a bunch of tax breaks, lowering the rates for everybody. there's a lot of democrats in the u.s. senate who are very into this proposal. the argument they make is we need to temporarily extend everything, go ahead and do that for a year, shall we say, and then tackle tax reform immediately. that could be where all of this centers, the white house does want to get something out of this, if they agree to temporarily extend them all. that's where an extension of unemployment benefits for those 99ers, folks that are no longer eligible for unemployment benefits, the edges there could be where the white house

extracts something for agreeing to temporarily extend them all. a deal will happen. is it one year or three years? lisa murkowski says she's feeling pretty good about getting re-elected to the senate. the officials are still counting the write-in ballots. joe miller has already filed a lawsuit. the counting is expected to go on all weekend and into next week. ballots for donald duck, elmo have been cast. but 90% of the write-in votes have gone for murkowski. sarah palin just tweeted her advice to incoming members of congress. she called for them to defund the new health care law and cut the deficit. her reality show debuts on sunday. she may be gearing up for a president ap run in 2012. on top of that, a college student accused of hacking into her e-mail was just sentenced to one year and one day in jail. david crennel apologized for

what he called a prank. he hacked into the former vice presidential candidate's e-mail in 2008 while she was out on the campaign trail. you can own your own piece of the infamous bernie madoff. you can check out what's on the auction block. everything from diamond watches and rings to the swindler's underwear. who would want bernie madoff's shorts? >> the u.s. marshal says it's really quite the collector's market. there's a morbid fascination with madoff and how he lived. if you are able to have his toasterer oven, i guess that's a good conversation piece. >> is this bragging rights or the kind of thing that you think might actually be an investment and down the road you can sell it for something? >> i think it's actually the latter. >> really? >> people ten year, 20 years down the road will still be obviously fascinated with this guy. there also probably will be some good deals on the jewels and things like that.

but more mundane stuff, talk about a collective sort of if you're in the finance world. >> yeah. well, the auction is online in new york city and expected to raise $1.5 million for madoff's victims. really? the underwear? like a buck. >> maybe. no thanks. >> let's get to what we're really talking about with vera, which is retailers hitting shoppers early and often in the battle for your shopping dollars. walmart is pulling out all the stops for the jugular by offering free shipping for many toys and electronics. then in another way to get your holiday shopping money. retailers are posting their black friday ads online. the biggest question will these latest ploys be enough to convince americans to spend this season when they're still worried about jobs and the economy. it's tainted all of the spending. >> but they're stl going to be spending. >> what do you think? you got free shipping by walmart. everybody else going to do that? >> i would think so.

walmart is the largest retailer. consumers want free shipping. if you don't offer the free shipping, then you got to have something else unique or one of a kind items to keep people coming to you. this is a very competitive landscape. very aggressive this year. >> this website, black friday, 2010,.com. has gotten their hands on early circulars there. sears has plans to offer a washer and dryer pair for $199. >> that's a great price. >> that's a great price. target offering a toaster and hand mixer for $3. >> even better. >> does this kind of thing have any chance of lasting? >> these door buster sales you offer a wave and then you offer a second wave on black friday. i don't think it will take away of the significance of black friday. this is a retailer's way of getting consumers in the shopping mood. there's a psychingical aspect of shopping. here is round one of the deals.

when you go in, some of the stuff is in such limited quantity, you can't actually get these items. a good way to get customers in. chances are they'll walk away with something else. >> the long-term outlook is what. >> anything if 0% sales growth to 2.3%. which is below the ten-year historical average of 2.45% but it is better than we've seen over the past couple of yearses with the average consumer spending about $700. they're in a position to spend because they've been chipping away at the credit card debt. they've reduced credit card debt. have a little bit more cash. people are using cash this holiday season. get them to spend it now while they have it. >> vera gibbons, thank you very much. the long awaited public announcement that prince william will wed kate middleton may be just days away. the couple already made a secret agreement to tie the knot.

we're joined from london with more. a good saturday morning to you. what do we know about this? >> good morning, alex. pretty much make your mind up time for prince william. it's been nine years since he and kate middleton started dating. are those wedding bells finally set to chime? are they or aren't they? on again, off again. the lives and loves of william and harry have entertained us for the best part of a decade, but for one of the royal boys, it's crunch time. will he or won't he marry waity katie is what everyone wants to know. his public duties continue but when will the secret engagement pact be fulfilled? on a trip to the seychelles, the prince made a promise. >> katie asked if it was going to happen and william said she was indeed the one but he wasn't quite ready to marry her yet. so she agreed that she would wait for him. >> rumors now doing the rounds suggest an announcement in the new year fueled by a very public

outing at a friend's wedding. talk of police protection for kate and the recent invitation to go shooting at balmoral. it may just be a matter of time. harry's not off the hook either, longtime love chelsea is though longer his girlfriend but the two are still close. >> harry's romance with chelsea has long been rocky. they split for a third time just this last june, but now a source tells us that they have indeed reconnected. >> she's in south africa, he's coulding his military training in the uk. she dumped him on facebook and doesn't care that he's a prince. for harry, that's part of her charm. the royal boys have other big plan. they want to modernize the monarchy. william and kate would like a regular low key wedding. >> and they love to watch dvds. they like comedy shows. they even cook together making british foods like shepherd's pie. they just really like to be together in a relaxed way. >> but if the queen and the public have anything to do with it, they won't get off that easy.

you know, a quiet ceremony se looking very unlikely. the talk is what about she'll wear as a media frenzy builds around a summer wedding. >> gee, you think? how do they ever think they'll do something low key? not going to happen. >> no. >> thank you very much. well, in ohio, a sweet story of an animal foster family. a cat named rabbit is nursing an orphan puppy named bambi. the kitty was nursing her own litter when that puppy arrived. she welcomed it as if it was her own. all the animals at the cleveland animal protective league are looking for homes. you could switch for great gas mileage or seats that flip and fold with one hand. you could switch for up to 600 highway miles on a single tank of gas. or the hundred-thousand mile powertrain warranty.

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new details are emerging in that failed mail bomb plot that

sent shock waves through airports last month. it was primed to detonate over the eastern seaboard about 5:30 a.m. eastern october 29th. that plane was headed to philadelphia but the bomb was set to blow up long before it arrived there. i'm joined by michael shehan. why might that be primed to explode in midair and say not on the ground in pennsylvania? >> that's a good question. because terrorists would like to get video of that. if it's over ocean, they won't get that. if you blow a hole in the airplane, the higher up you are, the better chance you have of having catastrophic failure of that aircraft. if it blows up on the ground or close to the ground, the pilot may be able to get it down and then you won't be successful. they're balancing those things. it fortunately never went off, so we don't know. >> that means you'll have debris raining down, right? and potentially if you're over land, i mean, the chaos that

causes is immeasurable. >> remember the lockerbie case of 1988. the pan am 103 aircraft did explode over land, over lockerbie scotland and landed there with a big explosion on the ground. terrible graphics for the terrorists. that was libyan terrorists at the time. they'd like to have it over ground to keep the video loop to keep terrorizing the audience, which is us. >> i want to take a look at what happened in this particular bomb plot. the crucial tip came from a saudi informant who helped alert authorities about it. they enacted new cargo restrictions to make us less reliant on these kinds of tips. however, shouldn't we have seen this coming after the apparent test run in september, the random household items sent out there on cargo flights? >> quite frankly, it surprised me to a degree that we had shipping coming out of yemen through hubs either in germany or the uae to the united states, that's been shut down.

we'll see mary of that in the future. for those countries that can't have good security in their airports and good security with terrorist groups operating in their country, we're going to see more and more shut down. so it will be a balance between physical security and inspecting cargo coming in to the united states as well as intelligence operations and putting the pressure on countries that do more to improve the security of their airlines or else we're going to have to cripple the international commerce by having very burdensome inspection regimes to make our aircraft safe. so it's a balance back and forth between intelligence, pressure on countries and, of course, increased screening procedures at our airports. >> okay. well, michael sheehan, as always, many thanks. 200 students involved in a cheating scandal at the university of central florida have come forward and confessed. a professor got an anonymous tip that students had got advanced copies of his midterm exam. any student who turned themselves in could stay in that class after taking an ethics course. students who kept quiet would be

expelled. nearly 600 students had to retake that exam this week and 15 students believed to have cheated did not confess. some big surprises at the box office this weekend. "unstoppable" is proving to be very popular with moviegoers. the total adrenaline rush stars densele washington in a race to stop an unmanned train. check it out. >> you're going to get us killed. >> hey! [ train horn blows ] >> yeah. okay. joining me now in studio, dawn yan yanek. did you see this one coming, this runaway train? >> "mega mind" was supposed to dominate the box office for the second weekend in a row.

family fare does really well at the box office. people had been comparing its trajectory to "how to train your dragon" but it's neck and neck with "unstoppable." people seem to want that big adrenaline rush this weekend. denzel washington is always great. rosario dawson. >> hello. >> he was captain kirk for those who don't know in the "star trek" redo. this is not denzel's first train movie and not with tony scott. they did "the taking of pelham one, two, three" last year. this is back to back action. >> i want to talk about another film in theaters this weekend. it comes from real life. the movie "fair game" all about the cia agent valerie plame and her outing there. let's watch some of this together. >> hello? >> valerie, turn on msnbc.

>> mom -- >> hold on one second. >> they've launched an investigation. ashcroft just announced it. they say he's going to convene a criminal investigation. >> what is your take on that, other than cool that sean penn goes, msnbc, turn it on. >> the most fascinating thing is its unflinching condemnation of the bush administration and allegations that they flagrantly discarded evidence about iraq in order to go to war. top notch acting. critics are really liking this movie. unfortunately, it's not playing very well at the box office. it's getting early oscar buzz for naomi watts. you never can count out sean penn, that's for sure. >> "morning glory" we love this one because it's awe about a young producer who is trying to make her way in the business of early morning broadcast.

is this one any good? >> look, if you love morning news or you work in news, you're going to love this. you have to see it. you have to see it, alex. rachel mcadams is very lovable as this quirky producer. but the movie falls a little bit flat. a little bit superficial considering that it has major star talent including harrison ford and diane keaton. some genuinely funny moments but not as good as it could be. it will get beaten out by the new horror alien movie called "sky line" and "due date" which is in its second week. >> rachel mcadams is so great. >> and so great in this movie. >> maybe it will do better than what the critics say. states are banning it, but some college students can't get enough of it, why is this drink considered dangerous? also, he hired anna chapman, then he ratted her out. is a russian double agent going to pay the ultimate price? got a. ♪

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two states have now banned an energy drink nicknamed blackout in a can. washington joined michigan this week in prohibiting for loco. it has been blamed for the hospitalization of numerous students around the country, including nine from central washington university, rather, last month. they released a statement saying when consumed responsibly it is just as safe as any other alcoholic beverage. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> the company says it's just as safe as other alcoholic drinks. first of all, do you agree, and if not, why might it be more dangerous? >> it's more dangerous because it has a combination of a high dose of caffeine and alcohol. so you have a stimulant and a depressant trying to act upon each other. and it's just dangerous. >> what about this natural supplement that's in there as well? what's that all about? >> that's varna, that's a

plant-based product that's from brazil and it's a natural caffeine. you are not only getting the caffeine that they're putting in the drink, they're also adding this guarna product that's adding caffeine. >> all this masks the effect of alcohol. >> somewhat. >> your body is still physically getting drunk but you're still stimulated to keep going. >> exactly. so you don't feel the depressive effects of the alcohol. because if you keep drinking enough, you feel sleepy and tired. you never get to that point. you keep consuming more alcohol. >> i wonder how this -- do they reach a point where they just literally drop or are they able to sustain this kind of being drunk behavior for quite a while? >> because essentially they're children, in one sense that their neurons haven't really developed as adults. so they don't process the alcohol or the caffeine properly or maturely, i guess. so they're just keep drinking

and drinking till they just can't drink any more. >> and what's very concerning is that a lot of e.r. physicians are seeing these kids as patients in the hospital far more than the average just kids get drunk, they pass out on the couch or whatever inane behavior they're going to do. but they're going to the hospital because are they consuming considerably more alcohol by and large? >> i think they're drinking their energy drink with the alcohol, then they're consuming straight alcohol as well. and it's just an overabundance of alcohol and their bodies just can't process it. >> i'm wondering if we'll see more states beyond washington and michigan. >> i'll be surprised if we don't. >> thank you very much. appreciate that. pandas invading the ad industry? here you go. >> fox's, they guys know a thing or two about biscuits. >> there it is. you got to admit. most people love them. why do you see so many pandas in so many ads these days? i do a lot of different kinds of exercise,

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