good friday. i'm contessa brewering covering the big news coast to coast. the tug of war over the tax bill is over. the president is due to sign it later today. the house passed the senate's version of the final legislation just before midnight. but the senate gave up on passing democrat spending bill and the republicans are celebrating that. >> for those who are not understanding what just happened, did we just win? >> the trillion dollar spending bill included $8 billion in earmarks. >> for the first time since i've been here, we stood up and said, enough. stop. >> reporter: republicans derailed the bill, even though many of them requested earmarks themselves. >> if you went to "h" in the diks dictionary and found hypocrite, under that would be people who ask for earmarks but vote against them. >> reporter: the majority leader now says other priorities can now take center stage, including

the dream act, granting citizenship to children of illegal immigrants and the stand alone repeal of don't ask don't tell. >> the ayes are 250. the nays are 175. >> the house passed the repeal earlier this week. >> what the house of representatives did today is what secretary gates and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, admiral mike mullen, asked us to do. >> reporter: also on the to do list, the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. republicans seemed reluctant to rad fi the treaty with russia because of the timing. >> it is completely and totally inappropriate to wrap all of this up into a 2000-page bill and try to pass it the week before christmas. >> the treaty is essential -- >> reporter: but democrats say this is no time to take a holiday from doing business for the american people. >> as one general said, you know, we've got 150,000 troops in harm's way over christmas. they are doing their job. the united states senate needs to be to do its job. we can get this done.

>> reporter: the republican senator from wyoming joins me now. senator, good to see you today. i saw you in that news conference standing behind mitch mcconnell. tell me what you want fixed in the s.t.a.r.t. treaty before the senate tackles it? >> thanks for having me. we're going to go to the floor today with senator mccain to offer the

senate tes its holiday vacation and that you don't get to the s.t.a.r.t. treaty until the beginning of the year? >> that would be fine with me. ic ti think the people have a right to hear it all and we can do that at any time. this has been around for a long period of time. senator reid could have brought this to the senate floor september, october. we came back for a lame-duck session and really the to cushion of a lame-duck session ought to be to keep taxes low and to make sure we fund government. we've now done those two things. and i would be fine with a full discussion and debate and a vote on the s.t.a.r.t. treaty right after the new year. >> let me ask you about the funding bill to keep the government up and running. you've got to work on a short-term funding bill because the big spending bill failed.

and it failed in part because of those $8 billion in earmarks. you had requested $4.8 million in earmarks. do you think it's time to overhaul the system that earmarks are a thing of the past? >> absolutely. and to bring that bill to the senate with just a few days left in the session is absolutely wrong. i am delighted that the republicans join together with a couple of fiscally conservative democrats to defeat this. >> okay, but if that's -- >> they're gone now. they're done. >> why did you request earmarks if you don't think they have a place in the spending bill? >> well, they don't have a place for anyone in the spending bill. none of them should be there. you should remove all of them. that is the way that business is done in washington. and i think there's a major mistake. and what we ought to do is look at each of those projects individually, see which ones are reasonable, which are not. there are a lot of bad projects in there. and real list tickically the best way to do it is for all of them to go away.

i voted 13 times to have a complete ban for the entire institution. >> if that's what you support, why don't you take a stand? most of the earmarks you requested is $4.3 million for wyoming army national guard, joint training and experimentation center. i'm not saying it's not a worthy cause but if you believe that earmarks have no place in these bills why did you add one? >> well, you just mentioned the national guard. that's a project that my predecessor who side in office started. they're not complete with their work. i don't want to pull the plug on something in the middle of its progress. but i think the best thing to do to fund this government is to do it in a very different way. and one of the most responsible things we should do is eliminate all earmarks. and that's the way i continue to vote in the united states senate. you know the election was just november 2nd, but it took until yesterday, the middle of december, for the senate to finally hear the voice of the american people. and that's why the senate and the republicans overwhelmingly

defeated this huge omnibus spending bill right before the holidays with, what, 6,000 earmarks in? the republicans said no, this isn't what the under control. jobs, the economy, spending, that's what the american people are focused on most. >> let me ask you about don't ask don't tell and repeal. senator harry reid says this could be worked on. tomorrow in fact he's predicting the work of the senate could be wrapped up by tomorrow night. the pentagon survey came back and show the majority support the repeal and it would not have a long-term affect on unit cohesion or troop morale. the secretary of defense supports it. the chairman of the joint chiefs supports it. how will you vote? >> i will vote not to repeal. i've been in iraq twice this year. i've been in afghanistan to visit our troops. i want to tell you, i thank each and every man and woman serving our country, keeping us safe,

keeping us free. their familys will be home without those service members over the holidays. i want to thank all of them. i listen to them, the men and women in the field and i've listened to the commander of the marine corps as well as the director of the army as well as the air force and they say do not repeal it at this time when we're involved in two wars. and i'm going to vote the way that they recommend. >> senator barrasso, always good to have you on. thank you. lawmakers could leave for their holiday vacation sunday, so my big question today, is it time for new year's resolutions for the america's leaders? i'd like your thought. senator ron widen will miss those key votes this weekend. the democrat from oregon will undergo surgery for prostate cancer on monday. nor lieberman told me yesterday he had 61 votes to repeal the don't ask don't tell policy leaving him one vote to spare. ron wyden is expected back to

work. he should be recovered as early refuge at his friend's estate in london. he's planning his legal defense in sweden where he's accused of sex crimes. he addressed those allegations this morning on the "today" show. >> this has been a very successful smear campaign so far. but i think it's -- its days are numbered and people are starting to wonder is what is claimed really true and, if it is true, where is the evidence, why has no evidence been provided, even to me and my defense attorneys. >> u.s. investigators are also trying to determine whether assange or someone else at wikileaks provided army private bradley manning with the software he allegedly used to obtain classified data. nbc's jenny is joining me live now from london with more on that. where do we stand in the legal

proceedings against assange? >> well, at the moment we're waiting for the extradition hearing to begin. that's not set until at least february, i believe. and between now and then there's no reason to imagine he will be back in court unless, of course, he breaks his bail conditions. we are going to see him continuing to release more of those 250,000 cables that have so far been released by the whistle blowing website wikileaks. he made that pretty sure in the interviews he gave earlier today. in terms of bail conditions, he's got to stay inside the house where he's saying, three hours in london, between 10:00 and 2:00 at night and 10:00 and 2:00 and daytime and then report to a local police station each day and be monitored with an electronic tag. outside those hours though he's free to do as he pleases. it's pretty clear he's going to be spending quite a let of time working with wikileak, contessa. >> appreciate that. newly released cables from wikileaks show diplomats in

havana, cuba, do not expect the death of fidel castro to three the country into upheaval. canc intestine. we're keeping our eyes on pakistan right now. a tribal source tells nbc at least three dozen suspected militants were killed in three separate drone attacks in the khyber region. up to 52 people were killed. we'll bring you more details as we get them. forecasters are keeping their eyes on what could be a huge storm this weekend. starting in the south, then moving up the east coast. weather channel meteorologist alex wallace is tracking it for us. alex, what do we have? >> we're tracking it. weather h.

right now watching snow through the pan handles of texas and oklahoma. that will weaken towards the east. and in the great lakes region, still lake-effect snow to deal with here. not as heavy as we've seen in the past couple of days. still going on on the great lakes. as we work our way into the south, that's where we're going to be watching the next system develop on the tail end of a frontal boundary that's in place right now. low pressure begins to develop here for us as we head through our saturday and into sunday and . so we're keeping tabs on this and we will be doing so over the next 24 to 48 hours. europe is dealing with

frigid temperatures as well. severe weather warnings in place until monday. temperatures could hit four below zero which is just as cold as siberia, the arctic circle, and alaska. they're also dealing with snow which caused problems on the roads in germany where drivers were stranded overnight. flights were delayed or cancelled in many major cities. new york police are search for clues and possibly more bodies. what's up with this serial killer? and by the way, that's not the only one police are looking for. we'll get you caught up to date. if you thought things were bad between the politicians here in the united states,

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a soldier's behind bars after a shooting. pope air force base in north carolina was on lockdown. no one was hurt in the shooting. the soldier was visiting from nearby ft. bragg. no word on what led to the shooting. nevada police have few clues in the search for a missing las vegas show girl. no one has seen 31-year-old debbie florez since sunday. her family says her cell phone is turned off and her facebook account hasn't been active. she was a dancer for luxor's fantity show. police in new york are on long isld. the corpses of four women were found on a deserted beach highway last weekend. police say they don't have any suspects but they did confiscate an suv from a nearby home where a missing new jersey prostitute was last seen in may. so far, none of the bodies found has been identified. nbc analyst and former fbi

profiler joins me now. they're out there looking for more potential victims. what do you make of this case so far? >> well, there are some that are suggesting, like this other story you talked about, these bodies may represent women involved in prostitution. but, contessa, right now, we just don't know. the bottom line for investigators, it doesn't matter what activities they were involved in. what we're trying to find out is the cause of death and who they may have had in common. it appears that there's likely one or maybe two serial killers at most that are out there working together that dump these bodies over about a two-year period. but the bodies are so badly decomposed that the authorities are challenged even to identify them. >> let me ask you about los angeles where they, too, are searching for a person they deemed the grim sleeper. they release new photos here. they're looking for -- they found these photos of about 160

women whose i'm manages were found on the property of an accused serial killer, lonnie franklin jr. who do you know about this case, where the investigation stands? >> there's a number of interesting things in this case, contessa. number one, this individual is accuse of having killed at least ten women and one man over a period of multiple years. but, contessa, this guy, if he's the killer, he took 14 years off between -- he killed for a period of time, from '85 to '88. he took 14 years off. and then in 2002 he started killing again. and, contessa, the only way he was identified was that his son was arrested. the authorities took his son's dna, compared that to the dna that was found on some of the victims. it was close, it was close enough to find out who his father was. this guy's dna matched. so dna still is the magic bullet for cases like this. >> well, again, the lapd has publicized those photos.

they want to find out who these women are, whether they are indeed victims or just photos taken and happened to be stashed in this guy's house. so just to let folks know they might want to take a look at the photos. how about this? the philly area strangler, they're looking here at three women who have been murdered and looking to see whether there's a connection. what do you know? >> well, when you have women who are functioning in this area, once again, high-risk activities, high-risk area, perhaps by a high-risk victim, many times that spells murder. this is an area where prostitution, drugs are used all the time. they've got a dna match on at least two of the victims right now. so it appears that at least two -- if they connect the third, by some definitions, that suggests another serial killer. but, contessa, over the years the fbi has always believed there's at least 25 to 50 serial killers functioning in the united states at any one time. so this could just be one more

that's out there doing these terrible things. >> clint, thank you for time today. we appreciate it. >> thanks, contessa. the u.s. army's warning soldiers about a new potential security risk and it's one that they might do when they're taking photos. we'll explain. hot on the web today and we're looking at some of the most viewed stories on msnbc.com. investigators seized 700,000 ecstasy tabs. georgia prosecutors say the customs at and 13 others were involved in a massive drug trafficking scheme. the ecstasy they confiscated in northeast atlanta was worth almost $2.8 million. a florida woman has been arrested over a fire in her sleeping boyfriend's crotch. ready for this one? she 58 ledgedly awakened her boyfriend on the couch by lighting a fire in his crotch, in his clothes. he put out the flames with his hands, tried to leave. she reportedly wouldn't let him. a neighbor called police.

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time for your daily dose of government officials going at it. this time in the ukraine. it was all caught on camera. a fight broke out when a group who opposes the country's president halted parliamentary proceedings with the protests. supporters of the president tried to stop the protests. and the fists and chairs, tempers went flying. four people were taken away on stretchers. serious business there.

thousands lined up in south florida with their guitars but not to play them, no, no, nope, they set a world record at the hard rock cafe for the largest guitar smash. nearly 2,000 guitars broken. what uselessness. they're going to be donated to a local center so disabled artists can make guitar art. there is an upside. critics call it cruel and unbelievable. a local company uses a frightened animal as a part of elaborate stunt to promote business. the story you saw it this year, now featured on the premier of "caught on camera," bold, brazen and bizarre that premiers this weekend on msnbc. take a look. it's summer, 2010. as part of a bizarre publicity stunt a local tourist operator rentz a donkey and uses it to promote his parasailing business by flying the terrified animal

150 feet in the air. >> poor donkey. i feel the pain for her. >> reporter: anna is a correspondent for the news agency east to west and a frequent contributor to the british newspaper "the sun." >> the people they made pictures of her and like video of her. i think the people couldn't believe it could happen. >> reporter: the video shows the donkey strapped into a harness and then taking off in the air. she flies for 30 awful minutes. witnesses say from the ground they could hear the animal braying. >> i think it's never happened in russia before. >> reporter: the donkey finally lands in the water and is pulled ashore where she's checked by a veterinarian. >> and you don't want to miss the premiere of "caught on camera, bold, brazen and bizarre," sunday at 6:00 p.m. eastern. 3:00 p.m. pacific time right here on msnbc. there was a big bidding war over lee harvey oswald's coffin.

you won't believe how much it brought in. plus, rahm emanuel is leading the race for chicago mayor right now but it's not really going to matter if his name is not on the ballot. this is my band from the 80's, looker. hair and mascara, a lethal combo. i'm jon haber of alto music. my business is all about getting music into people's hands. and the plum card from american express open helps me do that. you name it, i can buy it. and the savings that we get from the early pay discount has given us money to reinvest back into our business and help quadruple our floor space. how can the plum card's trade terms

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if anything, i thought i'd get hit by a bus, but not a heart. all of a sudden, it's like an earthquake going off in your body. my doctor put me on an aspirin regimen

to help protect my life. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone. so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. to my friends, i say, you know, check with your doctor, 'cause it can happen to anybody. [ male announcer ] be ready if a heart attack strikes. donate $5 to womenheart at iamproheart.com, and we'll send you this bayer aspirin pill tote. i'm contessa brewer. president obama is expected to sign the tax cut extension into law this afternoon. that bill also cut social security payroll taxes for one year and extends jobless benefits. north korea is warning south korea to stop planned live fire drills on the island the north bomb last month. the drills are routine and justified. the cia top spy in pakistan is leaving the country for safety reasons. two officials say his life was threatened. new atm in upscale mall in

boca raton, florida, that doesn't dispense cash. you can withdraw, are you ready for this? 24 karat gold bars and coins. you know, just in case cash becomes useless in the years to come. the repeal of don't ask don't tell is gaining more steam as the senate plans to debate and possibly vote on it this weekend. it's getting support from three additional senator today. they are joining olympia snowe and other democrats supporting the repeal. tim kaine of virginia is joining me live now. it was good news when senator lieberman came on with me yesterday, governor, and said, look, i think i've got the support to pass it. meanwhile you have a new democrat, joe manchin of west virginia, the only democrat holding out the first vote he cast and goes up against the party. what do you make of it? >> well, you know, you're going to have to wait and see what the vote is.

because i've heard conflicting things about what senator manchin will do. the important thing on this which is such good news is that 15 years ago or so don't ask don't tell was an advance progress from what the status quo had been. and yet today the strong majority of american public and the strong majority of the acting military as well as secretary gates and the head of the joint chiefs of staff say it's time to get over there. people should be able to serve based on their qualifications not their sexual orientation. it's a great day for this country. i fully expect that don't ask, don't tell will be repealed. and it will be a great step forward for the military and for our nation. >> when we look past the end of the lame-duck session and, again, there are big issues still on the table here. they've got to come up with a temporary funding bill for the government. they have to address don't ask, don't tell and the s.t.a.r.t. treaty which may not happen until the new years, the dream act, that's expected to fail. are you expecting to see a new era of bipartisanship because of

the way the majority is now in the houses of congress are split? >> well, in some way, yes, contessa. i think one lesson from the election that we take was the american public was saying maybe simply this, democrats, you can no longer do anything just with democratic votes and republicans, you can no longer just stand on the sidelines, throw rocks and say no. we expect you to work together. the president has been reaching out to do that since the day he came into office. i think the tax compromise was a huge win for the american public and a huge win for this president. and it could open a new round of finding common cause to do important things like immigration reform, deal with the size of the federal based budget. >> do you think those lawmakers who reach across the aisle and try to get work done on a bipartisanship basis, will they face consequences when they go to their home districts from the angry base who want them to take a stand and let the chips fall where they may? >> well, you know, i travel all

across the country. i'm usually on the road every wednesday to saturday. and what i find is there are people out there who are angry but most people want to see compromise and most people want to see results. you know, we can all stand and shake our fists and say, i'm right and i'm never going to agree with anyone else. but what does that accomplish? people want to see things happen. we turned a shrinking economy behind a growing economy behind this president but we have to accelerate the rate of growth. the compromise on taxes should have a stimulative affect on the economy. but there's so much more to do and the american public expects they're paying legislators to do the job and the job isn't just to say no to everything, it's to find solutions to problems. >> democratic governor tim kaine, thank you so much for your time today. appreciate that. >> already. contessa, you bet. the army is warning soldiers about the new potential security risk. taking pictures on cell phones and up loading them online. geo tags or gps stamp are automatically embedded in the pictures taken with smart phones. and that can reveal the location

of troops. it is possible to disable those phone settings from sending photos with the geo tags and the military is warning soldiers not to tag their up loaded photos with a location that it could give away classified information to the enemy. a madoff investor is agreeing to pay back $7 billion. the estate of the dead billionaire jeffrey picower will give it back. federal prosecutors say picower improperly took out more than 7 billion bucks in profits during the years madoff ran his mass mast i ponzi scheme. he drowned in the swimming pool of his palm beach, florida, mansion october 25th, 2009. a new poll this week shows he's the leading candidate for mayor of chicago. but the question remains whether president obama's former white house chief of staff rahm emanuel is a legal resident of chicago, whether he's qualified to run for mayor. emanuel tried to convince the

city's board of elections at a three-day hearing just wrapped up yesterday, that the board's decision that he is, in fact, a resident and a decision could come next week. joining me now is chicago columnist for the ""new york times"" and jim warren, nmsnbc contributor. it comes down to a house that he owns in chicago. because he owns it, makes him eligible to run for mayor. >> the answer is yes. i think there was good reason for him to be smiling in that video you just saw after they a. three-day three-day exercise and supposed municipal democracy, contessa, emanuel putting on a pretty impressive performance, keeping his cool, not being the washington character a chthe gof ball citizen objectors got up and asked him a thousand, mostly conspi

conspirator argument. >> the illinois law says that candidates can maintain their residency in the city that they want to represent if they show an intent to return. so he moved to washington, d.c. to work for president obama. he kept his house there. his critics say he didn't show an intent to return because he rented it out. why is that a goof ball argument? >> well, there is under the election law, contessa, also -- state election law, broad exception for government service. which this clearly was. and there's also the corroborating evidence, i would argue, that he maintained it as his legal residence. he voted here, also. it's the residence on his driver's license. and he was simply renting it out. and i think everything sort of came to a bizarre head yesterday when lawyers actually, on the third day of the hearing, went to his house and went to the crawl space in the basement, opened the crawl space to see

whether or not it was true, as he had testified, and others had doubted, whether there, in fact, was boxes and boxes and boxes of memorabilia and momentos and dishes and clothes which he had left behind, evidence that they -- that family planned to come back. and indeed, they opened up the crawl space and, yes, all that stuff was there. >> all right. as i said, decision is expected tomorrow. the other thing is here, that it looks like the family who rented this house, the guy himself entered the mayor's race for a while, just dropped out last week. and a friend testified that that family wanted $100,000 to move out of the house. so there is some sketchy back story. >> tenants from hell. emanuel offered them between something like $30,000 or $40,000 to get out of the last few months of the lease. and they said absolutely no. so they didn't -- they didn't win many points. i bet your next week's salary that he wins this case, conte a

contessa? >> no no, i need that for christmas. a new discovery offers a possible clue to the 73-year-old mystery of what happened to amel amelia earhart. she disappeared in 1937, attempting to circle the globe. the theory was her plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. but researchers found bones and artifacts that could prove earhart landed the plane and survived as a cast away on an uninhabited island in the south pacific. >> if we're right about this, then amelia earhart did not crash and die at sea, as the government decided she probably had. my confidence level that the artifacts we're finding were left there by amelia earhart is about as high as they can be. if they are human bones, that's a question for the scientists. >> the discovery channel is having a story on this. larry king hung up his

suspenders after a 25-year run. the final episode aired last night. p and before saying "so long" he took a trip down memory lane. >> may be silly but i guess we have to ask it. are you gay? >> well, here's that answer. i'm not going to answer that. >> how are you? >> i'm okay. thank you, larry. how are you? >> i'm okay. >> larry, it's completely confidential. you're being inappropriate. >> okay. >> okay? you're being inappropriate. >> inappropriate "king live" continues. >> yes. >> i'm a gay man and i love pageants. i'm sure that you have got great friends that have helped you possibly win. what would you give them in this life? >> low to the floor, too. see? i told you it was low to the floor. >> low to the floor. whoa. bye. ♪ i can't reach the gas.

>> and another great moment, larry interviewing himself about those famous suspenders. he's still going to do specials for cnn. kate middleton's very important lunch date. we have the details ahead about the ladies lunch. jim morrison, the former lead singer of the doors was just pardoned. billy the kid could be next. bill richardson is considering giving a pardon to the 19th century wild outlaw. lou wallace promised to pardon him in exchange for his testimony in a murder trial but then reneged. hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices? sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what?

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a rare cold snap in china tops today's world view. snow and ice hit a subtropical area in the country not used to

it. highways are shut down. power is cut to cities. this cold weather has also damaged several crops. a new ruling from a european court may lead to the end of foreigners buying marijuana in the netherlands. it sided with a local down. the dutch government said last month it plans to introduce a similar ban nationwide. a new program in norway hopes to prevent reindeer from being hit by cars. government workers visit reindeer farms and outfit the animals with reflective collars making them easier to spot. there are thousands of reindeer in norway and hundreds die each year in accidents with cars. meeting your future inlaws can be a daunting experience. imagine what it's like for kate middle on the. she reportedly met prince william's entire extended family, auntsz, u, uncles, cous. it all happened at a christmas lunch hosted by the big boss

herself, the queen of england. nbc's stephanie gosk is live in london with those details. that would be intimidating. >> it certainly would. the queen of england is part of the in-law group. you definitely have to be careful as you behave at dinner, for sure. but you know, she went to that event yesterday and met all of the in-laws. it was a difficult day for her. there were a couple of pictures of her coming out afterwards with a big smile on her face. so at the very least, it went well or she was particularly relieved when it was over. you know, it's interesting. kate had met the queen before a couple of years ago at a royal wedding for one of the queen's grandchildren, peter philips. she doesn't have that much contact with the queen. isn't this a familial relationship. we spoke to a royal expert about the subject and this is what she had to say. >> the whole notion that kate

and the queen had had intimate lunches together or cups of tea by themselves is not true. really, kate has had very little interaction with the queen because the queen is so busy. >> one possible interaction would have been this christmas. the queen always celebrates christmas in her norfolk estate and in an invitation would have been extended to william and kate. but william conveniently enough has to work that day. you know he's a rescue pilot for the royal air force. that will give kate an opportunity to spend christmas day with her family. you know, after she becomes princess, it's really going to be all about the royals every year after that for christmas. she may never be able to go back to her family home for the day. contessa? >> stephanie, thank you for the update. a unique piece of history that coffin that held lee harvey oswald sold for more than $87,000 to a mystery bidder. it was to be oswald's final resting place but a texas

funeral home put it up for auction after swapping it for a new one when the body was briefly exhumed in 1981. they did so with the oswald family's permission. oswald was arrested in president john f. kennedy's assassination but was killed two days later by nightclub owner jack ruby. all right. here's a look at what's happening on a busy friday afternoon. first lady michelle obama will visit the marine's toys for tots distribution center in an hour and bring gifts from the white house. president obama signs the tax cut deal into law at 3:50 eastern time today. you can stay with msnbc for a live coverage for that. the alaska supreme court will hear joe miller's arguments today about lisa mvotes. he claims the election was tainted. ♪ [ male announcer ] you know her. we know diamonds. together we'll make her holiday.

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aren't absorbed properly unless taken with food. he recommended citracal. it's different -- it's calcium citrate, so it can be absorbed with or without food. also available in small, easy-to-swallow petites. citracal.

the u.s. navy possesses what has become the world's biggest internal computer network, or intranet. it's used by more than 700,000 sailors, marines and civilians for everything from e-mail to online training. the navy also says it's one of the most secure computer networks. it costs billions of dollars. so, of course, now the navy wants to get rid of it. cnbc's jane wells joins us from los angeles. why? >> well, a lot of sailors an marines would like it gotten rid of. it's the second biggest computer network in the world next to the internet itself. ten years ago the navy outsourced it, tried to consolidate it to eds now owned by hp. $10 billion later, it's criticized by many people inside and outside the military as being slow, outdated, for example, you can only get 50 megabytes of e-mail storage whereas you can get 7500 on gmail. now the navy, which doesn't even own the system, as one person

says they're being hostage by hp, wants to overhaul it, bring in a new system, bid it outcome p competitively, but still have to pay hp over the next four years for the transition and to buy back the network. and as you pointed out, the current network is secure, may be slow but it's secure, that's one reason one analyst says we should keep it. the new network don't be as secure. you're damned if you do,damned if you don't. >> so you're saying that it could be more vulnerable to hackers or terrorists. you're saying that it's going to cost billions of dollars just to end the contract with hp. is the navy giving any specifics about what they're getting in return for those risks? >> well, they don't believe -- i mean, the bidding hasn't even started on this new process. this is an assumption by an analyst that by breaking it into five parts it opens up the

seams. the first part the navy is going to bid out when there's a budget is going to be for security. not to provide security but to pay a company to try and infiltrate the navy system to see where the vulnerabilities are. >> jane wells, i assume you're going to stay on top of this and watch the progress about whether there are changes. >> of course. we've been talking online today. a lot of responses from you viewers about my interview with republican senator barrasso at the top of the show and his straddled stance on earmarks. you have requested $4.8 million in earmarks. do you think it's time to overall the system that earmarks are a thing of the past? >> absolutely. >> why did you request earmarks if you don't think they have a place in the spending bill? >> well, they don't have a place for anyone in the spending bill. >> if you believe earmarks have no place in the bills, then why did you add one? >> you just mentioned the national guard, that's a project

my predecessor who died in office started. they're not completed with their work. don't want to pug the plug on something in the middle of the progress. >> wow, sandra gallagher wrote in, it seems to me especially after the barrasso interview i just saw that republicans talk out both sides of their mouths. that's funky. hazel e-mailed me, i cheered when you asked him twice about the earmarks he placed in the bill. he looked like the proverbial deer in the headlighting. keefee said, you interview a hypocrite and you let him off the hook by not making him own up to his hypocrisy. i did e-mail him back and ask her if she expected me to tar and feather him. come on. i do read my e-mails. you can always get me on facebook and twitter, too. thanks, you guys, for watching. that wraps up the hour for me. wraps up the week. i'm back here early on monday.

noon eastern, if you live on the east coast. and 9:00 a.m. on the west when much of the country will get to see a total lunar eclipse. don't forget, "caught on camera" on sunday. up next, andrea mitchell reports, kathleen se weighs in on the president. have a great weekend. [piano keys banging] [scraping] [horns honking] with deposits in your engine, it can feel like something's holding your car back. let me guess, 16. [laughing] yeeah. that's why there's castrol gtx... with our most powerful deposit fighting ingredient ever. castrol gtx exceeds the toughest new industry standard. don't let deposits hold your car back. get castrol gtx. it's more than just oil. it's liquid engineering.

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right now on "andrea mitchell reports". the house and senate are acting like college kids cram for finals. so far tax cuts done, the government spending bill derailed. >> it is completely and totally inappropriate to wrap all of this up into a 2000-page bill and try to pass it the week before christmas. >> republicans objected to