i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning, martha.blame lies with the other side. >> now republicans in congress face a simple choice. are they willing to compromise to protect vital investments in national security and all the jobs that depend on them. >> alan simpson, erskin bowles, the co-chairman of the president's fiscal commission today once again obliterated the argument put forward by republicans that we should pursue further deficit reduction in an unbalanced way. martha: republican congressman randy fors joins me now. congressman, welcome. good to have you here. >> thank you, martha. good to be with you. martha: let's kind of break this down a little bit. the president is basically saying that he believes republicans should pass a stopgap measure and go for a bigger deal what he says would be a balanced combination of increases in revenue come from tax loopholes, eliminating those, and spending cuts ostensibly. although we haven't really seen them. >> well, the that's the key, martha. you know the president wanted sequestrat

i'm martha maccallum. the president is putting increasing pressure on congress addressing a meeting of the national governors association. bill: despite dire warnings about economic disaster from the white house, not everyone is convincesed these cuts are a bad thing. >> the after ran family is hook for unfunded liabilities in excess of a 3/4 of a million dollars per family. see questions operation is a -- sequestration is terrible way to cut spending i don't disagree. not to cut money out of the budget when it is twice as big as it was ten years ago. give me a break. bill: doug, what is the likelihood this sequester kicks in friday? >> reporter: bill, it seems a growing consensus the sequester will indeed happen and $5 billion in spending cuts will take effect friday. the bigger question is how much the cuts will cost? listen to this brief exchange on "fox news sunday". >> it will kick in at pro rata rate. you will not see $85 billion all of sudden slipping from the federal government. >> we'll get to tha

i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer.d morning. 80,000 in the heartland waking up without power. it is bitter cold out there. parts of texas actually have hurricane force wind gusts, whipping that snow around and stranding people like this guy. hundreds of drivers in their cars for hours. that is amarillo, texas, there, reporting a report snowfall for that town. martha: some scene, huh? maria molina is on this she is following it from the fox extreme weather center. hi, maria. >> good morning everyone. that's right. the storm is dumping over a foot of snow across portions texas, oklahoma and kansas. same areas got hit with a foot of snow or more last week on thursday with the other blizzard. looking at more snow across from the same area. this storm system is very large. we're seeing areas of range associated with the area of low pressure across portions of the ohio valley, across portions of the mid-atlantic and portions florida where we have reports of severe weather occurring since early this morning. first the snow. t

i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning, martha. morning at home. been everything but. adrift in the gulf of mexico when there was a fire in the engine room it left the ship with very little water or power and passengers say it's down right disgusting on board. set to arrive in mobile, alabama in a couple of hours from now. martha: they cannot wait. jonathan serrie joins us live from the port terminal in mobile. what do we know about the conditions? we have been learning how gross it's been on the ship for the past several days. jonathan, what do we know now? >> reporter: we are getting an ear full from family members, a handful of them gathered outside the cruise terminal in mobile, alabama. some of them communicating by text message, others getting cellphone calls. one woman said she heard from her daughter on board the ship this morning saying that they had water, but it was discolored, it was brownish in color, that the food was cold and they had no access to toilets. another family member just received a text message from a passenger saying it

. >> i'm alisyn camerota in for martha maccallum. thousands of officers span out across three states and mexico they're patrolling off schools and ceiling off neighborhoods. let's listen. >> when i went to get the kids out of the school, there were fbi agents under cover. after i knew who they were i felt better. it was too close to home. it is kind of scary. rick: dominic, i understand officials closed schools because of the search? what is the latest? >> reporter: rick, absolutely. schools were expected to open today with pampbts deciding whether toe want to send kits back or not. authorities decided it is much safer if the schools stray closed for a second day. the search has continued overnight. sniffer dogs have been out and door-to-door searches looking for chris dorner but no sign of him yet. we're expecting aerial search to start at first light. the snow has not hampered the aerial effort. the san bernardino county sheriff describeses the operation underway. take a listen. >> the aerial, ground and search with k-9's is contin

i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning as well.foot of snow is expected in parts of kansas and nebraska. dangerous conditions on the roads already. have a listen here. >> travel is important but your life is more important. you can arrive a day later and deal with it because, just puts, you know, yourself at risk if you're out there driving. it puts responders at risk. our times to respond to you are probably increased fourfold. martha: we've got team fox coverage on this. janice dean is in our weather center following the latest, claudia cowan is in the thick of the white stuff in kansas city and we standard with you this morning, claudia. >> good morning, martha. we expected seminole to begin overnight. it really just started a few hours ago. as you can tell it is coming down hard, already five inches in some places. this is how it will look all day long with forecasters calling up for 14 inches of snow snow we have this storm moves out of here tomorrow morning. residents in kansas city are bracing for the blizzard like condition

i'm martha maccallum. the details on this are still fluid.re getting reports that the blast went off inside the security check point at the entrance to the embassy. bill: amy kellogg watching it all from london now. has there been a claim of responsibility, amy? >> reporter: not yet, bill. the turkish prime minister erdouan has said it is a suicide bombing there may have been a lot of groups behind this attack or at the u.s. embassy in ankara. it could have been islamist type group operating in turkey. in 2003 there were dramatic attacks on synagogues at the british consulate in istanbul and hsbc bankhead quarters there. separatists typically set off bombs in the southern part of the turkey. they're quite active. there is resistance to the deployment of u.s. patriot anti-missile batteries that have just been put in place to protect turkish population centers from possible attacks from syria. i just got a note from the deputy foreign minister of turkey saying that their hearts and minds are with the embassy staff right now in ankara and the fo

good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. house says the first move the sequester is to allow thousands of illegal immigrants jailed in america to go free, claiming the cuts would mean fewer border security agents and less money to house detained illegal immigrants. the feds have already released a couple of hundred in the state of arizona. martha: they said they had to do that as a maneuver before everything kicked in. is this practical or politics? william la jeunesse is live in possible average. what is ohio sayin i.c.e. saying about this. >> reporter: they say this is the best use of resources. there might be another explanation. latino groups have been pressuring the agency to provide alternatives to jail already, hapb and the sequester may provide a cover for them to do that. speaker boehner says it's a square tactic. the obama administration is releasing untold numbers of illegal immigrants from jails around the country. ice holds 32 shou immigrants. the agenc agent agency refuses to say how many will be released. but

i'm martha maccallum. good morning, everybody. the lawyers for oscar pistorius reading his affidavit this morning. he shot his girlfriend by mistake he claims, pumping four bullets into the bathroom door thinking she climbed in through the window in the bathroom and was a robber. bill: starting to set up his defense as you can tell. amy kellogg live in london. what else did we learn in court today, amy. >> reporter: bill, the magistrate in the pretoria court decided this thud be dealt as a schedule 6 case. that means premeditated murder. that means oscar pistorius will unlikely be able to get bail. premeditated, the prosecution said he had to get out of bed, attach his prosthetic legs and walk seven yards to the bathroom where steenkamp, reva steenkamp, was locked in cowering in fear after an argument. pistorius in an affidavit red out today disputes that. he said he went out on the balcony without his prosthetics he claims he has some mobility without them. he wanted to bring in a fan through sliding glass doors. when he came in

i'm martha maccallum. we're told he was hiding out in the big bear resort through this entire duration. he was literally right across from the police command center set up to search for him. bill: unbelievable. william la jeunesse live at police headquarters in l.a. terrifying moments for the police but it appears, we stress, that they have their man. william, good morning. >> reporter: you're right, bill. l.a.p.d. does not want to break protocol because it is not their crime scene. the san bernardino county sheriff's office doesn't want to jump the gun until the coroner has a chance to see the body still inside the cabin. the actions of law enforcement tell a different story. that their nightmare, basically one of their own, turning against them appears to be over. the end came for christopher dorner as many predicted it would with a shootout and likely self-inflicted gunshot. this is the scene yesterday in the san bernardino mountains as dorner sought refuge from a swarm of law enforcement who had descen

. >> at want to turn to fox for a minute, host brian kilmeade and martha maccallum and bill hammeredling the difficulties of desiline victor, 102 years old, who endured hours to be able to vote in november. >> voting reform? >> politics is manpower critic rex they could change that the municipal level. it the town council on that one. >> low hanging fruit. >> listen, the 102-year-old woman should not be online. >> i agree with the. >> why not? what is the big deal? she was happy could she waited in line and voted. >> they held her up as a victim. what was she a victim of? >> did she have rashes on the bottom of her feet? >> it should not be a heroic act to cast a ballot. that is the problem. they are right. the town councils, the state government, the federal government's should be fixing this. >> what is president of women doing? the press release released single, with best practices for it is governor scott want to respect best practices? these are recommendations, not mandatory. >> our federal government has given far too little power to actually maintain our democracy in a way th

i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning again. in a moment we'll take you back inside that courtroom but we want you to hear what the man straight had ruled. with regard it bail, this came down about 40 minutes ago. there is no video camera inside the courtroom today. the judge ruled that is out as of today. but the audio and the microphone is clear. listen. >> there are probabilities which need to be explored and possibly will only be ventilated if the accused gave evidence under oath. and for that reason i'm saying that the defense has failed to show this court that there's a weakness in the strength of the state case to the point that it can constitute a circumstance to their benefit. but equally, against the backdrop of the cirucumstanceal evidence of the state case to some extent the evidence of the, the weak evidence on some areas of his testimony by warrant officer hilton botha, and having regard to the above, i find that while it would have been necessary for the applicant and weakness of state state case, likewise the sta

i'm martha maccallum, welcome. bill: i'm bill hemmer. ning martha, the vatican saying pope benedict will be hands-off in the selection of the next holy father, they made that clear earlier today. lead leaving it up to the college of card nams to make that decision as it always is. shepard smith streams live out of rome italy. they are revealing a little bit more about pope benedict's health. they will us about that. >> reporter: we now know bill that the pope has apace maker and has had one for many years. in fact had one installed before he became pope, and then just about three months ago, bill, in the greatest of secrecy the pope left the vatican, went to a hospital, had the batteries inside that pacemaker replaced. nobody ever new anything of it outside his closes advisers inside vatican city. he never missed an appearance. again it was just a sort of routine battery change but it goes a long way to tell you how secret things are here and how much secrecy popes are given. bill: it certainly does. you have about two and a half weeks no

i'm martha maccallum. >> i'm rick folbaum. rick: the testimony from secretary leon panetta has been highly anticipated on the hill. it's likely to sparks will fly. national security correspondent jennifer griffin joining us from washington. jennifer, what do you think the questions are that st*eb secretary panetta will be asked? >> reporter: one of the top questions starting from the beginning is why were he and chairman dempsey not told for 50 minutes after the attack began and after the personal locater button of ambassador christopher stevens had already been pressed, that is according to the dod's only timeline that they released. when did they tell president obama? did they wait until their meeting at the white house that occurred at 5:00pm herein on the dave the attack, did they wait to tell the president and john bren on, or were they alerted right away. if they waited why did they wait. why was the marine fast team told to off-load the plane which delayed them by 90 minutes and change out of their marine uniforms into

i'm martha maccallum. bill: good morning to you at home. i'm bill hemmer.he 85-year-old pontiff says his poor health is the reason for his resignation. that could leave rome without a pope for nearly a month. martha: lauren green outside st. patrick's cathedral with how catholics are reacting today. what is the clergy in the united states is reacting to this? >> reporter: the realization they could have a new pope by easter which is march 31st. global population of 1.2 billion catholics is trying to absorb the news that pope benedict will step down in a little more than two weeks. the a vatican spokesman says this was the pope's personal decision without any pressure and he made the decision in the last few months. it came so suddenly including from church insiders, including cardinal timothy dolan who is the highest ranking bish sop in the united states and by all personal accounts has a relationship with the pope and president of u.s. council of catholic bishops. >> i was very startled. i don't know what to say. i myself am waiting for information, for in

i'm martha maccallum. >> i'm jared lee loughner.g jarrett. >> it's a fraud to call it universal. it will never be universal. the criminals are not going to comply witness. they could careless. you've already seen you're not going to computer rice the mental health records. here is what is going to happen. we ought to quit calling it right now the universal check. the real title should be the check on law abiding people all over this country. martha: of course the other side, as you might imagine disagrees. kelly wright is here live at the white house with us this morning. what are the supporters of the president's plan saying about that kelly. >> reporter: it's intensifying, the debate on both sides of the aisle as well as on both side of this issue of gun control. supporters to your point, martha, are basically saying that they need to get behind the president and that congress also needs to do the same thing going so far as to say that they have to do something that they believe will cut down on gun violence as we know it in ameri

i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. a couple of deadlines coming up today, huh?ve the pope later this hour. last night the president said the cuts should not send americans into crisis mode. >> now i should point out, and i'm sure you have heard from a number of experts and economists that this is not a cliff but it is a downward. bill: over the last few weeks though mr. obama has been traveling to numerous states, painting a completely different image on the potential impact as is the case here. >> the sequester will weaken america's economic recovery. it will weaken our military readiness. air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks. and that could cause delays at airports across the country. tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care for their kids. emergency responders like the ones who are here today, their ability to help communities respond to it and recover from disasters will be degraded. federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go. thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. m

. >> i'm heather nauert in for martha maccallum heather: it create a shock wave. it bloke glass for hundreds of miles. lots of people were hospitalized. bill: it is so pure because it is day time. there are so many shots of this too. you can see the traffic moving through the street. they say sometimes when this happens, it will happen over the ocean or over the sea. and you don't get the same images. heather: you never know about it. bill: but this is a big city now. happened in a big russian city in the ural mountains, hours before a asteroid buzzes either to the closest on record but we're told there is no connection. greg palkot has more in london. what do we know about this event, greg. >> reporter: amazing amateur video we've been watching as you folks at that i can take it in as well. it happened in a russian city 130 miles east of moscow. it happened 9:20 local time. that is why a lot of people saw it, a lot of people reported it, out on the street, inside buildings you name it. the russian scientists now say it entered the earth's atmosphere at get this,

martha maccallum. >> listen, that 102-year-old woman should not be on line. stephanie: why not?py she wayed on line, she was happy that she was there to vote. i mean, this is -- >> what is she a victim of? ashes on the bottom of her feet. stephanie: she has what? >> lashes. stephanie: oh, wow. >> a slavery joke. >> she was happy to way in line for seven hours. stephanie: yes. >> what's the big deal? >> some personalities wait in line six hours before they are allowed to host their shows. >> i don't see fox personalities taking off because they have long lines at their polling places. stephanie: unbelievable. >> in their white neighborhoods they don't have long lines. >> at the same time, make it difficult to vote early or by mail. stephanie: rush limbaugh. >> through you history dictators, for example have never really been blamed for the bad things that happened in their countries hitler, stalin, mao, castro, none blamed by the rank and file citizenry. they were instead the leaders of the revolution. they were the great figures trying to change all the evil that was happening t