Transcripts For FOXNEWS FOX And Friends 20101221

in the arabian peninsula hatched a plot to target salad bars and buffets at hotels and restaurants over a single weekend. the source said al-qaida didn't have a specific hotel in mind or specific time frame. that source also not sure. the group had the actual capability to carry out such an attack. >> some of president obama's family members are in hawaii for christmas. the president is stuck in snowy d.c. working the phones trying to rally enough votes to pass the start treaty. today, the senate is expected to host a test vote on the arms reduction treaty with russia. republicans including senator mitch mcconnell say they're being rushed. the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee says that's not true. >> a decision of this magnitude should not be decided under the pressure of a deadline. >> i would say to my friend from kentucky that just because you say something doesn't make it true. >> yep. >> kerry's fellow senator from massachusetts, scott brown a republican is joining the democrat to support the treaty. it needs about 10 more votes. bernie madoff's former secretary may be headed to the slammer today unless she can find enough co-signers to secure her $5 million bond. annette bongorno reportedly told prosecutors she will cut her spending from $45,000 a month to just $15,000 if they don't send her to jail. she's been under house arrest at her florida mansion. she's charged with helping madoff cover up his massive ponzi scheme and reaping about $14 million for herself. a las vegas dancer and former nfl cheerleader who has been missing for morn a week may have known her captor, the ex-boyfriend has been arrest in the past for abusing her. she may have been pregnant with his child. she has not been seen since leaving for work on december 13th. police say the ex-boyfriend, jason griffith is cooperating. we will talk to flores-navaras' sister coming up this hour. today was the darkest morning in 372 years. today is the winter solstice and happens to coincide with a lunar eclipse and a full moon. the lunar eclipse won't happen again until 2094. some other numbers are in. we're talking about the 2010 census, right? >> yeah, i've been adding them up all night. let's see what we can come up with. those numbers could be huge for republicans, their request to keep the upper hand in congress got a little boost. kelly wright is in washington with more. kelly? >> yeah, let you know what your counting was like there, brian. >> it's an abecus, i use all my fingers. the census that comes out later today will continue to show a shift from democratic leaning states to republican leaning sunbelt states. and the combination of all this, the population shifts as well as the recent november elections which gives, of course, control of the house to republicans. could create some new hurdles for president obama's re-election campaign, is the president worried about the new census? at the white house news briefing, press secretary robert gibbs when asked that question responded saying it's a little bit like worrying about the weather. >> i don't think shifting some seats from one area of the country to another necessarily marks a concern that you can't make a politically potent argument in those new places. >> republican party spokesman doug high says "the way the maps have shifted have made president obama's route to success much more difficult. he adds the republican takeover, several state governments on the eve of redistricting efforts was a dramatic shift and here's why i can say that republicans now control the governor's offices and both legislative chambers and competitive presidential states such as ohio, pennsylvania, florida, indiana, maine and wisconsin and they hold a governor's chairs in other crucial states including nevada, new mexico, virginia and iowa and when president obama carried those states in 2008, most had democratic governors happy to lend him a helping hand politically so the democrats are concerned about this and they're looking at the possibilities of how they can deal with this. his colleagues are aware of the challenges they now face. back to you. >> all right, kelly. good job. so we see what's going to be happening and it's never too early to talk about election day. if robert gibbs is looking to call in sick ever, can i recommend this to the press secretary. maybe do it the monday after the vice president appears on shows because it's tough walking back his myriad of statements. >> talking about what he said about the war in afghanistan? >> exactly. so if you did not see as i did not see the original version of the vice president, here's what he said on sunday. >> starting this process just like we did in iraq. we're starting it in july of 201 is 1. we're going to be totally out of there by 2014. >> that sounds emphatic. we'll be completely out of there come hell or high water by 2014. one problem, it's wrong. cue robert gibbs. >> i would point you to what was -- what was decided in lisbon just a few weeks ago that we will much like we have in iraq transfer primary security of afghanistan to the afghans as nato and our staff agreed by the end of 2014 which would -- which would end their combat -- our combat commitment. >> when they said in july of 2011 politics aside we were pulling out that was a disaster. it was a disaster for the leadership in pakistan who thought oh my goodness we have nine months to find a new ally. hamid karzai for him saying -- he said oh, my goodness. i have to find out what i'm going to be doing and can i maintain my sanity and health after we leave in july of 2011. little by little, they have walked that back and said look, we'll evaluate conditions on the ground in july and they begin to take out some troops. he goes out, does the vice president saying it's not going to be a token amount of troops in july of 2011, this is going to be more than that. by 2014, we're out. now, if you're living in that region, how do do you that? and also general petraeus has come out and said it's going to be very heavy at the support of pakistan's military and the taliban if we tell everyone we are leaving. >> but vice president biden's audience for that particular sound as well as what he said about the taxes in the next two years, they weren't for the afghan audience, brian, they were for the people in his party. who were upset about a lot of things that have been happening on capitol hill recently so he said that thing about taxes and he said this about getting rid of all the troops by 2014 because he was sent out on a mission, i believe, to rally his base. >> i don't think so. i thought so yesterday. not when i saw robert gibbs yesterday afterwards, he did damage. he did damage because as nato went out of their way to come to a conclusion to let everybody know that we're not leaving 2014, we're going to wait until we win -- >> is this a face-off? >> yeah, and this is why the administration itself said, why do we go and have the nato conference, why do we go ahead and do that? we also know as well, general king was here a couple of days ago. and general -- >> i can't compete with you on this topic. i just think -- >> he said 2014, brian. 2014, not 11. that goes a long way to me. >> had joe biden simply said we're going to -- we're not going to have any combat troops in there, he would have been right but ultimately, he was wrong. meanwhile, you got janet napolitano who heads up the department of homeland security, she sat down for an interview yesterday with diane sawyer for ""world news tonight"" and sawyer asked her about the threat of terrorism during the holidays and the christmas holidays and janet napolitano said this jaw dropper. what i say to the american people, we are and thousands of people are working 24/7, 364 days a year to keep the american people safe. >> whoopsy daisy. >> 364 days a year. >> even with the leap year, that increases the day, right? i'm trying to come up with how you get to 364. i mean, sometimes you might have 366, right, but not 364. >> so the key is what day, madam secretary, does the department of homeland security take off? >> spin the wheel. let's hope it's not today and tomorrow. don't tell anybody. we'll find out. >> maybe it could be christmas day because that's kind of what happened last year when that almost christmas bomber was able to pull off a major stunt on an airplane. speaking of christmas, did you happen to hear this. nina totenberg had this to say, almost a direct apology for almost calling the party she was going to what we all used to call these parties which are christmas parties. >> who is she? the legal affairs correspondent at npr? >> she is. >> listen to her. >> we have to plan and know what kind of tax cuts we have. these agencies including the defense department don't know how much money they've got and for what and forgive the expression, i was at a christmas party at the department of justice and people were actually really worried about this. >> forgive the expression? so this is what we've come to now in 2010 that we need to apologize for saying christmas. >> is she -- is she embarrassed to invoke any sort of religious terminology? i don't get it. i mean, saying christmas party is offensive as eggnog. that's kooky. >> when heard she would have an apology, i didn't know it was going to be for christmas. >> i figured out we all match. >> fantastic. >> we're very much in the christmas season. yes, we are. coming up on the show, remember good old bell, california, where city officials paid themselves millions of dollars. now they may have to fire the police force? this is not just a problem for the tiny town of bell. >> and the sweet sounds of god were supposed to fill the shopping mall but the singers got the boot. what's up with that? , dog: bacon? gotta get that bacon! dog: yummy. crunchy. bacon. bacon. bacon. there, in that bag! mom: who wants a beggin' strip? dog: me! i'd get it myself but i don't have thumbs! yum, yum, yum... it's beggin'! hm... i love you! beggin' strips! there's no time like beggin' time! >> the hammer is falling in bell, california wrt fallout continues. >> a city which has been running out of deficit the last three years while playing exorbitant officials to its officials secretly may lose its police department due to budget cuts. stuart varney has more. he came up, he's never looked better. picked out an outfit. you alerted us into -- about bell, california, but now they're paying the price. >> look, this is a town that is about to collapse. it may actually disappear. it's the poster child for mismanagement and alleged gross fraud in city government that got this audit, millions in deficits, they've had to pay back $5 million worth of taxes which they wrongfully collected. they're totally out of money and as you said, brian, they're about to totally abandon their entire police department, cut all other government services. in fact, cease to exist. this is the kind of thing that's happening for different reasons in many other small california communities. they're going up the bailout food chain. who is going to give money to bell, california? they're millions in deficit. who is going to lend them the money? they have to have some sort of bailout. same with other cities that puts bailout on to the back of the state government. going up that food chain. >> we know the state doesn't have any money. it will be a total collapse. let me ask you this, the other small communities that you're talking about, were they fraudulent -- >> no. >> so they're in trouble financially on their own because they overcharged or overpaid for stuff they didn't have. >> there was one other that we brought to everyone's attention, vernon california that had a chronic apparent, alleged fraud problem. tiny little town paying massive salaries to the people that ran it. that's one other example of alleged fraud but the other communities, they cannot meet their pension obligations. we keep coming back to this story but it is the enormous pensions paid to retired state workers that's breaking the back of so many communities in california and the state itself. >> for people out there not in bell, california or even in california, why should they care? >> because we are moving towards 2011, the year of the broken state where we're going to have to decide, will the obama administration bail out these insolvent states, yes or no? and if they don't do it, what happens to those states? everybody's involved in this. >> have you figured out who you're going to book for "varney & company" beginning at 9:20 eastern time on fox business? >> the rabbi because -- >> former confidant of michael jackson. >> he brings the biblical opposition to the estate tax to our program. >> that, too. >> varney & company goes into the spiritual and moral aspects of money. >> right. i hope you'll pronounce his name. i'm going to join you as well on your show today and i'm looking forward to that. >> yes, you are. the entire show has some real class to the program. gretchen carlson. >> anti-schmuly. >> i don't believe it. >> sitting in for charles payne. thanks, stuart. see you later on. bombshell report suggesting some school board members have secret ties to teachers unions. should organized labor be allowed to set the agenda for your kids? the reporter that broke the story next. >> why do i do that? spiderman falls 30 feet in front of a live audience again. this is the fourth act of a new broadway show. what happened? will all broadway stop because of this? i made that last part up. >> our report on the release of convicted lockerbie bomber al-megrahi to be released today. democratic senator bob menendez investigating whether it was tied to an oil deal between the libyan government and b.p. toyota slapped one of the largest fines handed out to a lawmaker. the total $48.8 million for not recalling millions of cars fast enough. toyota has remembered more than 11 million vehicles since 2009. steve? >> thank, gretch. a bombshell report suggesting some school board members have secret ties to teachers unions letting organized labor set the agenda for your kids and your property tax rates. a daily record reporter wanted to find out how widespread the problem is in new jersey and what she discovered is shocking. she joins us right now. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> all right. so you looked at morris county which is to the west of new york city and what did you find about conflicts of interest? >> well, we called and checked out 39 of the school districts in the county to see how many members have conflicts of interest and the way the state defines conflicts of interest is a member himself or herself and a member of their immediate family is a part of the njea or has an immediate family member who is part of it. that's called a conflict of sfw. so the 39 municipalities and school districts we found that more than half of them have members who have conflicts of interest. >> holy cow, that's a lot. >> so whether it's that person themselves is a teacher out of the district or has a wife or a child who is and then in four towns, there was more members with conflict of interest than without conflicts of interest. >> of course, the fear is that if somebody has a conflict of interest when you're negotiatinging, for instance, a teachers contracts and stuff like that, they may help out the teachers. or they may help out friends or something like that. >> well, what some of the residents said who i interviewed and who live in some of the towns was two of them in particular said it was unfair. one man called it voter disenfranchisement. that was his perspective. >> right. now, and the reason it's so important about discovering whether or not -- and you know it's happening -- if it's happening in morris county, it's probably happening across the country as well. is that when these teachers' negotiations are negotiated, you know, the teachers contracts are negotiated by the local boards, that takes so much money out of our property taxes. in your county and my county as well, that's the number one thing. >> well, it is the bulk of the school budget. so there was one town, rockaway burrough, they had an interesting situation where they have the school board of five members, three of them were conflicted. and last spring when they needed to vote on teacher contracts, they couldn't. they didn't have enough members. that was 85%. teacher salaries made up 85% of their $7.8 million budget. so they had to invoke this thing called doctrine of necessity which is essentially where the board members vote and they pass a resolution allowing themselves to vote. >> now, i know that one of the editorial guys at your newspaper suggested that two ways to fix this would be to pass a law so that candidates have to limit any conflicts that they might have with the school system. and also, move the school election out of april which is lightly attended and into november. >> right. that was what bob ingall who is one of the -- an asberry park columnist and one of our newspaper columnists suggested. >> do you think there's any chance that's going to happen? >> i have no idea. >> man, there's so many -- it's just overwhelming. isn't it? here's what the new jersey department of education responded to our request for a comment. we're not going to respond. it's interesting that they would not come up with any sort of comment because when you look at your numbers, it's pretty damning. this is a big problem. >> well, the state department of education said that for my report, what i had reported on, was that a conflict of interest and what that means is what people can vote is going to be determined by the school board attorney ultimately. >> interesting stuff, an eye opener as well. all right. we thank you very much for joining us today from "the daily record." all right. what do you think? e-mail us right now, friends at foxnews.com. we now know why the democrats fought so hard to raise the estate tax. listen to barney frank. >> heirs who now inherit, they haven't done this on their own, they haven't worked hard. that's a pure gift to someone who is lucky enough -- >> really? i guess the government worked hard for our money, right? hear how americans are reacting to that in our radio rumble coming up. then incredible video and an incredible story. how everyone escaped from this greyhound bus as it erupted into flames. holy cow! plus, the largest flash mob ever ready to sing their praises to the lord. but they weren't allowed to start their song. why not? that story is coming up next. to stay fit, you might also want to try lifting one of these. a unique sea salt added to over 40 campbell's condensed soups. helps us reduce sodium, but not flavor. so do a few lifts. campbell's.® it's amazing what soup can do.™ [ male announcer ] you know her. we know diamonds. with 25% off our best selling jewelry, together we'll find the perfect gift, right down to the wire. that's why only zales is the diamond store. come celebrate exciting cars that are stunning to look at, exhilarating to drive and worry free to own. celebrate this holiday season with the gift of platinum. jaguar platinum coverage: five years or 50,000 miles of complimentary scheduled maintenance, and no cost replacement of wear and tear items visit your jaguar dealer during the platinum celebration foa $599 lease offer on the 2011 x >> ♪ forever and forever >> it's time for your shot of the morning or music of the morning. 1230 people gathered to sing the halleleujah chorus. performance was a joint effort of the united arts of florida who enlisted the cooperation of the transportation security administration. well in advance. that went without a hitch. there was another situation in california where 5,000 people showed up at a mall in rhodesville there, the galleria and then something happened. it became an emergency situation. >> sacramento choral society and orchestra sent out information. meet us at the mall monday night at 7:30 and 5,000 people did and the problem was because there are all those christmas shoppers at the mall, you add another 5,000, next thing you know, people say it felt like the floor was shaking and the fire department came out and said, uh-oh, everybody out of here. >> everybody out of the galleria so it's a violation, well intended but a big problem. when the guys come in with the chin straps, you have to call an audible. >> i think that's what ended up happening is they ended up singing outside. i see this as a victory for christmas. >> why? >> i do. because 5,000 people showed up to hear an impromptu -- the halleleujah crist maximum choir. that's a victory for me that they wanted to come out. >> i think it's good news for handl, every time somebody played "the tonight show" paul ankel gets a gratuity. >> no kidding on that one. >> i'm telling you, you have a flash mob, great news for handl and the whole family. >> you have 5,000 people at a mall on monday night. that's good for them because you got to figure somebody went shopping. >> hats off to you for knowing the messiah was written by handl. >> steve read it. it sounds like something only handl would read. >> it's e-l so you know. new and disturbing details emerging in that british terror plot. yesterday, we were telling you about that 12 men arrested planning to launch a mumbai style mass kacre of shoppers. they planned to place bombs at train stations, shopping centers. they say they were no threat to the united states. >> yet. murder of an american tourist in israel may have been an act of terrorism. they tell fox news the stabbing of christine luken could have been initiation into a terrorist organization. they were possibly young amateurs and trying to join a terror group. she was attacked while hiking with a friend outside of jerusalem. her friend survived by pretending to be dead. >> meanwhile, six people were arrested at a bank of america outside of st. louis in missouri. they tried to chain themselves to the doors of the bank. about 80 people were there protesting the bank's rejection of a couple's loan modification application. bank of america says they are reviewing that application. obviously a bunch of people didn't like it. >> terrifying scene on interstate 70. greyhound bus explodes into flames. all passengers got out safely. many had to climb through the window. >> the transmission that popped, next thing i know the whole bus -- the back of it was smoking. we got that open side window, jumped out and got that front open and got everybody off the bus. >> no one was hurt. and even all of the luggage was saved. wow! >> that's a bonus. >> mr. kilmeade, tell us about da bears. >> the bears and vikings playing outdoors in minnesota. wow, this is unbelievable. first time in 29 years. it may be remembered as the last time bret favre would be put on a football uniform. let's go out to the university of minnesota are the band was playing. favre looked good early in a surprising start. short pass who went in for the touchdown. 7-0 vikings. they seemed pumped up. second quarter now, you'll see favre doing something he always looks to do when he's begin scrimmage. looking to throw. back to pass. he gets sacked. watch his head bounce right off the turf. concussion time. he would not return. bears take over. devon hester really got to return the punt. if you don't believe me, just watch. chicago clinches the afc north. the fridge is out at the university of maryland. he won acc coach of the year honors this season fired after 10 years at his alma mater. he'll stay on to coach the team in the upcoming bowl. maryland officials look to be making room for former texas tech coach, high flying mike leach. and a new year's show in san diego was to feature levi lavelli's world record jump in the snowmobile. the jump canceled. he injured himself. not before he blew away the current record with 361 foot practice jump. it's pretty amazing. it breaks the old record by a whopping 68. >> how so? >> that snowmobile. where's the snow? >> that's what they forgot. coming up on radio between 9:00 and noon, general keane will join us in studio and then gretchen carlson for the entire 11:00 hour but now let's go to the weather, steve, where you'll tell me what's happening outside. >> glad you asked. let's do a little repoirtage here. in colorado, they're gearing up for what some forecasters are calling an epic snow storm. up to eight feet of snow, eight feet could fall in the mountains by the middle of this week. christmas week. so it's already falling across the centennial state causing a huge mess on interstate 70 west of denver. it is a big hassle but if you love to ski this is fantastic for you. meanwhile, let's go ahead and take a look at the maps and find out where the -- it is raining and snowing. we got a little bit of rain moving through portions of dixie land right now. also a dusting and some flurries around portions of the great lake states but that big pacific storm continues to rage all the way from san diego right up through washington state. middle part of the country for the most part is nice and dry. and temperatures, go outside and figure it out. it's chilly. everywhere. all right, brian? >> all right, steve, as you know, congress refuses to stop spending unless you sit up and major voices are heard. democrats tried and failed to attach a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill that included $8 to $9 billion in earmarks to the tax cut deal. the latest gallup poll gives congress a dismal 13% approval rating, the worst polling in history, our history. so what will it take for lawmakers to get the message as we get set for a brand new congress? we're joined by our radio rumble, we take calls about this all day long to find out what americans are thinking and saying from san diego, mason weaver is here. brian sussman is not there. he's in san francisco. look for him there and radio talk show host and fox news contributor ellen ratner. first thing is first. the $1.1 trillion, nixing of that, was that a victory, mason for the people of america? >> well, it was a victory but also a warning. these people did this bill in private. it took $78,000 just to print this bill. the people that said no all over again and we have to debate. time to fire these clowns and get back to the people running this government. >> we're not saying all the earmarks were bad, but aren't we tired of the lack of transparency? >> well, first of all, the rules should -- the rule making committee should be open and they are going to be under this new congress, that's something the republicans have done. but on the other hand, everybody is so upset about these earmarks. they're a very, very small part of the budget and secondly, you cannot automatically change what's going to happen overnight. it's like a family budget. you take out a big mortgage, you can't just leave your house. i guess you can. but most people don't choose to do that. it's going to take time to cut down and define ways to find ways to strategically cut down so it doesn't hurt people. >> brian, the fact that things didn't change overnight but the american voter made them change overnight. isn't that a victory? >> yeah, that's a victory but the problem is that washington, d.c., they don't get it. for the last two years, the democrats were in charge. what happened during the last two years? unemployment goes up. that means we have fewer taxpayers paying into the system and what have they been doing all this time? growing the government. these people are beyond tone deaf, we're going off a cliff. we're about to auger in. they need to buckle down and cut, cut, cut! >> all right. >> the democrats inherited something from george bush and he grew the government. >> give me a break! george bush line is so stupid. >> grow up! >> stop booking the children, attention staff. you got to hear this. barney frank weighed in on his view of the estate tax and for those who want to pass on their earnings to their loved ones. listen. >> heirs who now inherit, they haven't done this on their own, they haven't worked hard. that's a pure gift to someone who was lucky enough to be related to someone or very friendly with someone who is earning money. that would not apply to the estate tax. >> attention, trump's children. you're out on your own. mason, does this make sense to you? if you are very wealthy and want to pass something on like the land and your riches to your loved ones, you can't. you should pass it to the government where it belongs? >> it makes sense if you understand barney frank. barney frank believes that the worth of your labor belongs to government. he is the party of slavery. party of dominance. he believes he's superior. he really believes that he's helping you spend your money. >> this is laughable! >> you got to understand. you can laugh if you want to but laugh all the way to the broke house because he intends to keep you serving to under him. >> right. you don't think it's right for people to pass on what they've earned to their loved ones. >> you now have a $5 million exemption. you can pass on $5 million to your relatives. >> should be no exemption. it's my money! it's my money! there should be no exemption. i give it as a gift to my children. >> we have a goal in our society. if you're in a society that you have that many people with that much money. >> barney frank -- >> is it wasn't like this after world war ii. not at all! >> and those were the good, old days. ok, bri, you are still -- >> very successful government. >> before we move on? >> yes, yes, these are like callers. caller, let me talk. it's my show. here's the deal. karl marx said the goal of communism was the abolition of private property. the estate tax is a tax of private property. your money, material goods, real estate and businesses. where does it end? does it end when that roll of silver dollars you might receive from your grandmother upon her death, give me a break! that is your money, it's already been taxed. >> it's ending at $5 million. >> let's get the last topic in and i want to find out what your listeners are saying about the -- about the remission and no longer exists don't ask don't tell as military policy, what are they saying to you? >> we deal with conservative stations and very liberal stations and frankly, most people don't care. they care much more about the issue of taxes and money and don't ask, don't tell. they think it's past its time. >> this is one of the myriad of issues that had to be done during the lame duck session. >> every social change in our government's history, the people putting pressure on government to change. where as a society, please change, don't ask, don't tell. it's a game. >> the marine commandment said please don't do this in the middle of two wars. brian? >> hello, i live in san francisco. there are six genders, male, female, lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender. what are you going to do in terms of house sng what are you go to go do for the bisexual guy? he likes guys and gals. are you going to put him in solitary confinement. it may have worked on "m-a-s-h" but doesn't work in real life. this is going to cause guys in the military to take an early exit. >> i -->> i hate to leave it with a transsexual locked in solitary confinement comment but i have to do that. mason weaver, brian sussman and ellen ratner, fine debate. i'll take that as a thank you, you're welcome. let's go to steve and gretchen. >> i'm not so sure. anyway, good job, brian. >> jamie farr had no problems. >> seemingly. it was a tv show. >> oh. >> the transition from military life to civilian life, not an easy one. next on the rundown, we're making it easier. the 10 best places for military retirement. stand by for that. >> and then yet another accident on the broadway set of "spiderman". this time an actor fell 20 feet into the orchestra pit. >> wow. >> president obama signed the $858 billion tax cut package. this also benefits millionaires as well as those out of a job. millionaires and those out of a job. it's like tailor made for redskins quarterback donovan mcnabb. it's perfect. he's a millionaire out of a job. am i wrong? 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[ courier ] we can help. wh you ship with fedex, you can work rht up until the lastinute. it gives you re time to get stuff done. that's a great idea. ♪ i need tspeak with you privately ♪ ♪ i found your resume on the printer ♪ everyone! ♪ i found your resume on the printer ♪ [ male announcer ] we understand.® you need a partner who gives you more time. fedex. >> welcome back on this tuesday morning. debbie flores has been missing since december 12th. two weeks before her disappearance, she sent this text message to her mother. it read -- in case there is ever an emergency with me, contact blue griffith in vegas. my ex-boyfriend. not my best friend. police records should now show debbie accused griffith of attacking her back in october. he'll be arraigned in court today on domestic violence charges. >> debbie's family says he's refusing to cooperate with them. joining us is debbie's sister, good morning to you, celeste. >> good morning. >> we're so sorry for the struggle that your family has right now in not knowing where your sister is. what is the latest update that police have told you? i understand they'll have a press conference later today. >> yeah, i did talk to the police yesterday. basically, the press conference will be in regards to what we have talked to. just following up on leads right now. they're taking things slowly to make sure they don't miss anything talking to a lot of people that may have information in regards to her so they're doing a wonderful job right now trying to make sure that she gets recovered. >> celeste, could you tell me about what you might have known or heard about the domestic violence, the so-called boyfriend, what happened? i understand she was thrown to the ground, hair was pulled and kicked by this guy? >> yeah. i wasn't aware of them charges until i got here. i do plan on going to court this morning to be there because i really want to know exactly what happened. i just -- i was kind of shocked when i found out about it. i don't know what to say in regards to that. >> sure. i'm kind of speechless. >> what do you make of that message that your sister sent to your mother about if there's ever an emergency, find blue griffith. what do you think that meant? >> i actually have the message, i've had it for a while. i'm just disregarding it because it's -- that's not exactly what it said. there was a little bit more content to it. it doesn't really make sense because it could mean that that's -- in case something does happen to her, that's who we should contact. it could mean -- it could mean a couple of things and to me, it's just irrelevant. i have given that -- the authorities that information. i'm just allowing them to investigate and do what they do and not cross their paths or anything like that. that's for them to handle and make sure that they handle that properly. >> so the last time that you spoke to her was on december 12th? right? now police have found her car abandoned. her purse was inside. >> no, the last time i spoke to her was actually on the 10th which was friday. she had called me wanting to speak to my son in regards to christmas and presents and things of that nature. they did recover her car. it was a small make-up bag that was found, not her purse. >> can you tell me what your sister's like? >> she's wonderful. she's beautiful. very loving, very funny. she would give you her coat off her back if she was starving and she had one last bite to eat, she would give it to you before she would give it to herself. she was a professional. she was -- she was a perfectionist, very well organized, very accomplished. everything she ever wanted to do, she made sure she achieved. she was goofy. she was funny. and very loving. >> yeah. >> a great friend. >> and a great sister. celeste. >> of course! >> we know this is tough for you. and we're hoping and praying we find your sister alive real soon. >> thank you. >> you bet. >> thank you so much. >> thank you very much for joining us this morning from las vegas. hang in there. >> thank you. >> how horrible, especially during the christmas season and not knowing where your loved one is. so we hope that they get some answers, that family. coming up on the show, the transition from military life to civilian life not an easy one. coming up, the 10 best places to retire if you're in the military. >> then has the war on christmas already been lost? one reverend says he's got the evidence to prove it. seriously? >> some quick tuesday headlines for you. it's happened again. a fourth accident on the set of the new broadway show "spiderman." a stunt double fell from about 20 feet above the stage into the orchestra pit during a preview performan performance. don't worry, he's expected to be ok. the $65 million show is the most expensive broadway production ever. dwi suspect jeffrey rooks trying to escape police drives right into a house. cops think they have their man. but he throws the car into reverse and nearly runs over an officer. police were eventually able to chase him down and arrest him and now he is really in trouble. gretch, over to you. >> after a lifetime of sacrifice, many of our military members find themselves facing another daunting task when they retire, deciding where they'll start the next chapter of their lives. a new survey commissioned by united service automobile association along with military.com hopes to make that choice a little easier by ranking the best cities for former military personnel. lieutenant colonel wahlberg is a certified financial planner, practitioner with usaa and joins us live from san antonio, texas this morning. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> what i loved about this study was that you forget if you're not in the military yourself that many of these people are coming out into retirement at a very early age. we're talking about in their 40's. so that was one of the fact orders th ashes that you looked at, right? >> that's exactly right. average age is 40 something. they're not truly retiring yet. they're launching into the second act of their life after a couple of decades of service to their nation. so we looked at several metrics that helps these retirees go on to that second career which is very, very important and something that we have to remember because of their young age, they may still be raising children. so we looked at local schools as well. >> well, there were 20 metrics that you looked at and here is the list starting at number 10, syracuse, new york. and we have new orleans, pittsburgh, madison, wisconsin, texas and then my list is -- well, madison again. that's an error. college station. austin, texas, oklahoma city, and waco, texas, so in the top 10, four towns in texas. what is it about texas? >> well, the thing about this list is it's not an anecdotal study. it is actually a scientific survey so we weight the these 20 metrics and we were a little surprised that four of the top 10 towns were texas cities. here's the thing. there's about three dominating factors. one is the military pension is not taxed in the state of texas. therefore, it goes farther and they get more bang for their buck. plus there's a lot of military installations in the state of texas and we have super economic stability. and so those were three things that were really working in texas' favor. >> so two cities that are not on the list at least in the top 10 that were surprising to me are san diego and washington, d.c. why do you think they didn't make the list? >> well, we wanted to keep in mind affordability, as well as housing costs and things like that. and so that may have knocked those two cities off the list but i'll tell you what, there's no bad place for anyone to retire. we kept an eye on how these military retirees can maximize their benefits and get the most bang for their buck while keeping a keen eye on starting their second career. this is how it shook out. it omitted san diego, washington, d.c., norfolk, several cities, but they're wonderful towns, too. >> people can go to our web site to get rankings of those cities. thanks for being our guest today. >> thank you. >> well, it's no laughing matter. comedian tracy morgan goes in for a kidney transplant. the story at the top of the hour. and the signature health care bill under attack. her party suffered a major loss but nancy pelosi has no regrets. more "fox & friends" two minutes away. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] here's hoping you find something special in your driveway this holiday. ♪ [ santa ] ho ho ho! 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( announcer ) don't take boniva if you have problems with your esophagus, low blood calcium, severe kidney disease, or can't sit or stand for at least one hour. follow dosing instructions carefully. stop taking boniva and tell your doctor if you have difficult or painful swallowing, chest pain or severe or continuing heartburn, as these may be signs of serious upper digestive problems. if jaw problems or severe bone, joint, and/or muscle pain develop, tell your doctor. ask your doctor if boniva can help you stop losing and start reversing. and join the myboniva program. join today and get a free month of boniva at myboniva.com, or call 1-877-287-9140. john: yea, well, there you go. beth: yea, so what else is new? john: well, i just changed my medicare plan. beth: open enrollment? john: yup. i compared plans and found better coverage for me. beth: of course you noticed the new benefits we get under the new healthcare law. john: what? beth: well, like 50 percent off brand name prescription drugs for people who are in the donut hole. john: really? i didn't know that. beth: you have to keep up. john: come on. i'll keep up. anncr: it's open enrollment. time to compare and review plans at medicare.gov or call 1-800-medicare. > >> top of the morning to you. it's tuesday, december 21, 2010. thanks for sharing your time. the next elections could look a lot different after today. the new census numbers about to be released will change the landscape of how america votes. what this means for your party. >> meanwhile, a presidential vacation in trouble. the first family arriving in hawaii to warnings of snow flurries in hawaii. and flash floods. but president obama still in washington, d.c. stranded but not because of the snow. details in moments. >> he has to be relatively happy. hey, is the war on christmas over? one reverend says yes, and he claims he can prove that christians have lost that fight. is he right? we're going to report, you're going to decide. by the way, "fox & friends" starts now. >> welcome aboard, folks. we've had so much wintry weather. >> yes. >> over the last couple of weeks, today it officially starts. winter. >> really? >> today is winter. >> earlier it was just wintry. >> how do we know about this? now the days -- this is the shortest day we'll have of light. and then from here on in, the sun works harder and harder. >> are you talking solstice? >> yes. >> yes. >> i always pay attention to that. i'm born on the summer solstice. the longest day of the year in six months from today. but today is the shortest. but isn't it -- it's kind of optimistic to know that our days will keep getting longer now. let's look at it that way. >> thank you. in the meantime, let's look at the headlines. homeland security down playing now a possible terror attack on the nation's food supply. sources tell fox news al-qaida in the arabian peninsula hatched a plot to target salad bars and buffets at hotels and restaurants over a single weekend. the source said al-qaida did not have a specific hotel in mind or specific time frame. not sure the group had the actual capability to carry out such an attack. bernie madoff's former secretary may be headed to jail today unless she can find enough co-signers to secure her $5 million bond. she reportedly told prosecutors she will cut her spending from $45,000 a month to just $15,000 if they don't send her to jail. she's been under house arrest at her florida mansion and is charged with helping madoff cover up his massive ponzi scheme and reaping about $14 million for herself. the sec is ready to pass net neutrality regulations. they would prevent six broadband providers from blocking access to web sites and applications. the rules would allow wireless companies more freedom including limits on services and applications on cell phones. we're learning this morning that actor and comedian tracy morgan underwent a kidney transplant earlier this month. he's said to be recovering well. the "30 rock" star could miss three episodes of taping and it's expected to return to the show in march. morgan who is 42 years old also suffers from diabetes. those are the headlines. >> didn't take diabetes seriously when he first got diagnosed. i know he's a comedian. do you know anyone who gets diagnosed with diabetes who says it will pass. >> now he takes his insulin every day and he's better about it. >> denial or something like that. >> might be a condition? >> i don't know. >> remember earlier you got that thing from the government and it said tell us how many people live in your house and all that biographic cal data information. the new census data will be released later on today. there's good news and bad news. good news is if you're a republican, it could actually help a number of republican states. bad news for democrats, not so much because people are moving from the democrat russ belt towards the g.o.p. sunbelt. >> or people in the sunbelt are having more kids and, you know, replicating a lot more than people up in the northeast russ belt. this may have more implications for presidential elections down the road because when you think about president obama and the states that he won, it was heavy in the northeast so, for example, ohio is going to lose at least one seat. we're talking about members of congress and the house of representatives because as we know, that's based on population and some of the states that are controlled by republicans will have the ability to redraw the districts to their favor. also, like texas is going to gain three or four seats. florida or arizona, one or two. georgia, south carolina, nevada, utah may gain at least one seat. >> and the key is for every house seat, every one of those house seats is an elector for the electoral votes when it's time. that's ultimately what elects the president of the united states and they say that the states that barack obama won in 2008, he's projected to lose six of those once things are redistricted. once everything gets done because of all these statehouses and also governorships that are controlled by republicans. >> well, you know, the president has the census to deal with and has a track record and report card to deal with as he tries to get four more years from the american people and i think he might look back and say this is a pretty good week for me during the lame duck session. why? because the president got don't ask don't tell repealed as he had promised and also had a tax compromise and we saw a conciliatory speech on friday which many independents said this is good. and now it looks as though, according to some reports and some of our insiders, that president obama is delaying his trip, his family is in hawaii already and delaying his vacation in order to make sure the start treaty doesn't stop and in fact, gets passed. i'm talking about the agreement between us and russia on our latest arms agreement. the big sticking point was are we giving up a missile defense in order to sign off with the russians on this? that is some of the worry -- some of the verbiage in the preamble. the president is working hard to soothe people saying that's not going to be the case. we are not going to give up defensive weapons. >> as soon as he got the compromise with republicans on the tax bill, could he now work again with some republicans? could he get them on board for the start treaty? let's take a look at our big board over here. here are some of the republicans who are going to be on board with him. and we have, i can't see through there. richard lugar from indiana, susan collins from maine. olympia snow also from maine. scott brown from massachusetts. george voyanvich from ohio. lisa murkowski from alaska and bob bennett, of course, outgoing senator from utah. >> i'm not convinced he's not going to get john mccain or lindsay graham even though they spoke out against it. there's some thoughts after their meetings they might come along. >> right. if you were counting along on your fingers as gretchen was naming the names, that's seven. but they need nine or 10. will they have it? well, one of them won't be mitch mcconnell. here he is on the senate floor yesterday. >> no senator should be forced to make decisions like this so we can kick off another item on someone's political checklist before the end of the year. yet, looking back over the past two years, it becomes apparent why the administration would attempt to rush this treaty. and it's in this context that we discover another important reason to oppose it. i'm referring, of course, to administration's pattern of rushing to a policy judgment and then subsequently studying the problem that the policy decision was intended to address. >> i would say to my friend from kentucky that just because you say something doesn't make it true. the facts are that this treaty is not being rushed. >> going to vote around 11:00. judd gregg might be the other vote. they might have bob corker be the other vote. but the admiral's letter saying don't worry about missile defense. i sign off on it. i support it. he's chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, that could solidify support. >> don't forget the russians. russians weighed in on it yesterday and said there will be no compromise. you can't touch it. it's a take it or leave it deal. >> that doesn't sound like the russians. they're always so amenable in the past. >> always came to the deal making table. somebody who won't be making as many deals as she did in the past, did she ever, though, nancy pelosi. she will not be the speaker of house come january anymore and given a very big interview to politico. >> i town the whole interview hysterical. >> she, of course, suffered many losses as her party did back in november and her signature health care legislation which if you're a liberal was a very huge accomplishment and many people applauded nancy pelosi for getting that through. but it's under attack now, of course, and she says in this article that she has no regrets for any of the decisions that she made or any of the bills that she pushed so hard to get past. >> some of the standout soundbites, quotations from pelosi "i'm obviously devastated bit loss we had." then she goes on to say, i'm thoroughly agnostic. if republicans have a good idea, let's go with it. >> oh, really? >> no kidding. >> when does that start? >> i don't remember too much of that. >> make sure we have the right nancy pelosi during this interview. she says she's feeling very serene and feeding off the energy of the new democrats. sees a lot of leaders down there. her goal 30 votes. >> 38 in two years. she can get back power. you know it has to be really tough and this is one of the reasons that denny hastert left when he lost. his office of the speaker is huge and basically got to pack up and instead of her just leaving, she has to go to the smaller office. >> election type consequences, brian. >> actually holding the hammer and the gavel. that to me would be more significant. >> i like the office, we have a lounge couch. >> the office is everything to you. >> more than the gavel. >> by the way, she blames unemployment for the loss. she said we were told a year ago if you're anywhere near 10% unemployment, there's no chance you can hold the majority. she's no longer speaker. we'll tell you more about that. we told you about the first family arriving in hawaii to warnings of snow flurries and flash floods in hawaii. check out this video of their vacation spot. but there are all sorts of wild weather problems all over the country and just a week after that huge blizzard that collapsed metrodome in minneapolis, twin cities is getting hit again. mary costello at our affiliate kasp is there live and cold this morning. good morning, mary. >> hey, good morning, guys. yeah, another day of snow emergencies in the twin cities. which essentially means no parking on the roads because they are snow covered. they are slippery. and they're hard to pass. so we've got the plows coming through, making things relatively better. i mean, for minnesota anyway. the problem this morning both here in minnesota as well as in some of the other states is freezing drizzle. and we're starting to see it come down right now. we're getting some reports of some crashes on the interstates and i want to show you what that looks like. we had some fluffy snow yesterday but with the freezing drizzle, you're seeing this layer of ice and that's on all of the streets. on the highways and on these side streets here and so what most people think is passable is actually, take a look right here, very icy. very icy. and this all started yesterday, the bulk of the snow really came down during rush hour and people maybe usually have a 20 minute commute, we're talking two, three hours which is maybe not in l.a. but in minneapolis, that's a long time! 450 some accidents in about a three hour period. 17 injuries. no major -- no major injuries and no fatalities. right now, 200 plus plows are going on the interstates. they're really trying their best using chemical to try to keep the roads from being so slippery. but something to keep in mind, these guys have been working every day, 12 hours on, 12 hours off for almost three weeks. so fingers crossed for them. they really want a break for the holidays. we're expected to have more snow? the coming days so we're not sure if that's going to happen, guys. >> you're going to have a really white christmas. >> no kidding. >> mary costello, merry christmas. thank you very much. >> oh, yeah. >> hey, you, too. you, too. coming up, mary, upbeat! >> absolutely. >> got to be. >> out in the ice. people in minnesota are nice. coming up, did you know that 80% of the jobs out there are actually unlisted? so how are you supposed to apply for a job you don't know about? guess what, we have the answer for you. >> seriously? then the war on christmas is a losing battle. our next guest, a reverend says yes, but is he right? we're going to report, you decide. >> last week, president obama read his new children's book to a classroom of second graders in virginia, it did not go well. 59 of the kids disapproved and 83% of the children felt the story was headed in the wrong direction. [ female announcer ] there's complete. and then there's most complete. like what you get from centrum silver ultra women's, the most complete multivitamin for women over 50. it has vitamin d, which emerging science suggests supports breast health, centrum silver ultra women's. >> has the war on christmas been lost already to consumer ifrm. with us is the author of the jesuit guide to almost anything. so we're only a few days away from christmas. i was hoping for a more optimistic outlook. >> sorry. christmas is still going to happen but people really feel overwhelmed by the consumerism. i think they have a hard time carving out a space for a spiritual part of christmas. >> you say the war on christmas has been lost by christians. >> yeah, i don't know that christians lost it but the problem is that the marketing has started earlier and earlier. it starts around halloween now. then people feel completely over wl overwhelmed by this pressure to buy, buy, buy. >> if it's going to start at halloween, you'd be fine if it said merry christmas but it doesn't. it says happy holidays or things are simply red or green. >> it's not so much that bothers me, it's more the consumerism and the pressure to just shop, shop, shop and in a sense compete with who gets the biggest gift, i think it makes people so stressed out, you know, that they find it hard to even, you know, by the time they go to mass or christmas services, they're ready to collapse so it's more the consumerism, i think, that's a problem for me. >> so let's take a look at some of the stores that have taken christmas out of their mottos. j. crew, very, merry gift guide. ann taylor loft, create your own holiday. macy's, a million reasons to believe. believe in what? >> macy's is the one that annoys me a little bit. huge thing on the store that says "believe" and unless it's believe in shopping, i don't know what they're talking about. >> you know what's ironic about that, father, is the fact that the famous movie "miracle on 34th street" took place at macy's. >> right. i think that certainly has been lost. i guess it bothers me that they're using sort of overtly christian scenes like believe and mary and things like that that are associated with christmas but using it to market this. not intentional but willing to appeal to as many people as possible. >> so let's get your thoughts on your new survey that came out. "usa today" likely research survey, christmas is a time to blank. 45% said be with family and friends. only 37% said honor the birth of jesus. >> i'm surprised by that. i think once again, you have this sort of cultural feeling that people say that it's all about giving and family. which, you know, jerry seinfeld used to say nothing wrong with, that you know. really about jesus and god. that's getting lost. >> how do we fix it? how do we win the war? >> i think the war is lost as i was saying but i think you can do -- >> there's always next year, father. >> next year but i don't know, it's hard to beat madison avenue. i think it's really sort of engaging in passive resistance, the new regime in power and i would say it's carving out time for yourself, you know, really cutting back on shopping and going crazy. and sort of reclaiming christmas for yourself in your own life. rather than kind of fighting it, saying i'm reclaim it for myself. >> if you believe in christmas, make sure your children understand. >> absolutely. that's part of the -- to tell them the kri mass story, not just the santa story. >> that's good. >> father james martin, very interesting thoughts. >> my pleasure. >> merry christmas, father. >> and to you. >> take a pay cut or go? what evening news person is making that decision. >> potential dates can lie about their age or weight but lie about their criminal past. our next guest with the way to background check your next date. >> plus, wait until you see how these troops catch their thrills. behind a fighter jet? nobody in my family ever had a heart attack. 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 atamproheart.com, and we'll send you this bayer aspirin pill tote. i'd get this tightness in my chest. so i went back to my doctor again. we chose symbicort to help control my asthma symptoms all day and night. [ man ] symbicort improves my lung function, starting within 15 minutes. symbicort will not replace a rescue inhaler startifor sudden symptoms.. it is a combination of two medicines and should not be taken more often than prescribed. symbicort contains formoterol. medicines like formoterol increase the risk of death from asthma problems, and children and adolescents may have an increased risk of being hospitalized for asthma problems. symbicort not for people whosasthma is well controlled wi a long-term asthma control medicine like haled corticosteroids. once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop symbicort without loss of control, andrescribe a long-term asthma control medicine. be sure to see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. symbicort is a good choice to help control my asthma all day and night. [ inhales ] [ exhales ] ask your doctor if symbicort is a good choice for you. [ male announcer ] if you can't afford yr medication, astzeneca may be able to help. >> all right. time for the news by the numbers on this tuesday morning. first, 48.8 million dollars. that's the fine toyota was slapped with for failing to swiftly recall millions of defective toyotas. the company has recalled more than 11 million vehicles worldwide since 2009. second, less than $16 million. less than. that's how much katie couric could be making if she stays as anchor of the cbs evening news. according to "the new york post," couric could be taking a pay cut or she can leave and have her own talk show. and last, 17. that's how many puppies are rhodesian had in germany. the mother gave birth naturally to all 17 puppies and could not feed all the puppies and the owners had to help out by using bottles to keep the pups fed. but they're all happy and they're getting fed. >> so are you, steve. happy and big. on-line dating web sites are a billion dollar industry with over 20 million users logging on to search for the perfect match. it's no surprise that our next guest have created a new on-line service called my match checker.com. this site won't find your soul mate but help you stay safe while searching for mr. or mrs. right much joining us right now, you have to meet the two guys that came up with this idea. andrew scott, former police chief in boca raton and the retired new york police captain and co-founder of my match checker.com. first off to you, andrew, why do you think you need this? >> it's pretty simple. in this time and age that we have so many people saying so many things and they say they work here or they've never done this type of behavior and we've provided that a little bit of a snap shot on an individual's background particularly the criminal background that would be helpful for not only on-line dateers but also dateers in general. >> and as skilled as you are, andrew and robert, it is about accessing public records because it's your business, you know how, right, robert? >> that's correct. and that's our business and that's what we do. obviously, it's public records, people can actually go there and do that themselves if they knew how to do it. and if they wanted to spend the time to do it and if they were able to interpret the information that they find. that's something that we do and we offer a personal service. people can call us on the phone. they can blog us. they can e-mail us. they are going to get a response. >> it costs, what about $9.95 to run through and find out what's in that person's background before you go out on a dinner date? >> it's the easy way to do it and that's the basic check $9.95, yes, sir. >> here's the tips you broke down. first off, safe dating tips you've come together with. have lunch as a first date. why is that important? >> clearly, it gives you a venue to be able to set a parameter of time in which you can say that you can leave. lunch time obviously people are working, they have a limited amount of time. particularly if the individual is not the person you think he or she is going to be, you have that perfect ability to leave. >> of course, daylight, too, probably helps. tell someone where you will be, that's obvious and the other one, third one is don't get picked up at home. so don't say come to my house and come get me. meet my parents. >> it's good to not get picked up at home. you don't want to on the first date or second date, perhaps, reveal where you live to this new person. so as you get used to know that particular person, obviously, you can relate more personal information. but initially, we think you should drive yourself to that particular location for that date. it gives you not only some independence, if things aren't working out, you're not stuck for a ride. you just get back in your car and go home. >> exactly. and have a separate e-mail account. why is that necessary? >> well, we find out that through mymatchchecker.com we have found individuals that have a particular e-mail address, primary e-mail address, that can be discovered on line as well. we do that, that's one of the services and there's some other services that provide that. you want to create a pseudo so to speak or a second e-mail address just to protect yourself and your name. >> what do you say to the guy or girl that gets offended when he said you have to do a criminal background check on me? what do you say? >> people get offended by that. >> well, you know, what we want to too is make people safer and two people that like each other that want to begin a relationship certainly want to create an empathy for each other and getting to know each other. if i was interested in a young lady or a lady, i would want to make sure that she felt safe with me. and that's an important thing. safety is a key factor here. >> well, it's interesting thing you do with your post career. my match checker.com. thanks a lot, guys. >> thank you. >> appreciate it. >> appreciate it. >> no problem have a great christmas. straight ahead, disturbing new details about joran van der sloot. did he sit in a hotel room with a corpse? and google his attempted escape from peru? then a popular cure for the common cold. doesn't work at all. we'll tell you which one we're talking about and big news about shania twain's personal life. it involves a bizarre happy ending to the breakup of her marriage. sing us out. ♪ yes! yes, yes, yes! [ laughs ] ♪ [ male announcer ] you know her. wknow diamonds. and with 25% off our best selling jewelry, together we'll find the perfect gift, right down to the wire. that's why only zales is the diamond store. ♪ [ male announcer ] open up a cadillac during our season's best sales event and receive the gift of asphalt. experience the exhilarating cadillac cts with a direct injection v6. it's the one gift you can open up all year long. see your cadillac dealer for this attractive offer. backed by the peace of mind that only comes from cadillac premium care maintenance. the season's best sales event. from cadillac. >> guys, christmas is less than a week away. >> exciting. everyone is in the giving spirit. just yesterday, i saw the giants hand the football game to the eagles. oh, my gosh. i couldn't believe it. >> wasn't quite a handoff. it was more of a kickoff. >> that was a nice way of putting it, actually. some people called it a nightmare, ok? >> it was 31-14 with seven minutes left. and in the end -- >> michael vick changed the game. >> in the end, the game was tied and then matt dodge goes back to punt because the giants are three and out. less than a minute left on the clock. >> excuse me. >> less than 30 seconds left. >> going to kick it out. >> because they have this desean johnson who is back there, almost unstoppable and he's very quick. and it turns out they punted right to him, did matt dodge and at which time, as you go out to see the video, you see coach tom coughlin take a look at him and basically said i told you to kick it out of bounds. >> there he is. chewing him out right there. anyway, the guy who was supposed to kick it out of bounds but did not is matt dodge, the punter for the giants. as it turns out, there's another matt dodge on twitter. this is just a normal guy with 200 twitter followers and he has no connection to the giants. but he got unloaded upon by giant fans all across the twitter verse. he had 200 followers. >> well, here's what some of them said. here's what he said in response to all those angry, angry and angry tweets that he got. whoa! just got twitter spamed thanks to that blankity blank punter also named matt dodge. do you think he'll buy my account? >> by the way, desean jackson. might think to yourself, i don't have somebody famous with my name. i should be fine. punter on the giants from east carolina. >> a little remote. >> how can my life be destroyed? >> surprise. >> bet he'll never do that again. let's do some headlines for your news. iraq finally electing a new government today. voting on a new coalition government to be led by the prime minister. it includes representatives from all of the country's political and sectarian factions. the vote has been delayed, as you know, since last march. >> is there a democracy in place? >> yes, indeed. new and disturbing details emerging from the british terror plot. the 12 men arrested were allegedly plotting to launch a mumbai style massacre of christmas shoppers. it's believed the suspects who were born in britain to a bangladeshi parents planned to place bombs at crowded train stations, shopping centers, and hotel chains overseas. the white house says that the men were no threat to the united states. >> got a case of the sniffles so to speak. the government study of echinecia say it won't help you get better any sooner. they say it can shorten a week long cold by only 12 hours. >> still 12 hours. >> obviously it didn't help me. forget tying your sled to mom's buick. these guys had a jet powered party in the snow. members from the swedish air force tied their sleds to a fighter jet and then took a ride. obviously, don't try this at home if you know, because you don't have a fighter jet at home anyway. look at that. >> looks like fun. >> time for sports. >> right, steve. if you don't mind, i'll go ahead and do it. last night, as you know, monday night football, vikings hosted their first outdoor game in 29 years. this is what happened. bret favre shocked everyone. he got the start. here it is. he looked pretty good early. put the vikings up 7-0. that little toss makes the pass look like a real good -- >> right, 7-0. they were pumped up and it was retro, thought you were going to see fran tarkinton run out there. second quarter, favre gets hit to the ground and his head bounced off a few times. concussion. another injury after the sprained shoulder, done and in the end, the bears would have too much. hester will not be stopped in the frozen tundra. kickoff return, chicago clinches the nfc north 40-14. listen to this story and i saw "the fighter" over the weekend. mark wahlberg and will smith are being offered $1 million to fight one another. mark in "the fighter" that i saw over the weekend and will as ali and damon feldman of hollywood boxing federation is hoping they'll each fight each other for charity because both don't need the money in february. no word yet from either side. the fight could consist of three one minute rounds. while they're at it, why not go to some other great matchups. this is my idea. how about robert de niro, the raging bull against sly stallone. no doubt about it, sly stallone had more fights. and it was in black and white. this is in color. rocky 5 with the russian. and how about russell crowe? the cinderella man taking on hillary swank. >> who would win? >> hillary swank except for the fact that hillary had some problems. i don't want to give away million dollar baby. is it ok? >> no. no. no. >> been out for 10 years. >> it's out on vhs for goodness sakes. she dies, that's sad. is it wrong to tell them she dies? spoiler alert! >> great movie. >> same thing happened to ricky schroeder in "the champ." >> oh! >> oh! >> all right. >> didn't even die from boxing. >> what she have? >> she did? >> oh, all right. ok, fine. >> small print. >> all right. meanwhile, let's take a look at where the big weather is today and according to the doppler and the radar, take a look at this. we have precipitation moving through portions of dixieland and we have some widely scattered snow flurries mainly through portions of the great lake states but some that looks like they're falling in portions of the central plain states and out in southern california, they're getting hammered again today, a lot of rain out in los angeles area. current temperatures, as you can see, 20's to 30's throughout the northeast. only 13 in rapid city, memphis, pretty nice right now. almost 60 but memphis is actually warmer than tampa right now. what's up with that? later today, the daytime highs will go something like this. temperatures in the 80's for much of texas. 70's across the great gulf area. 69 later on today in tampa. and as you can imagine with the storms in the midwest, travel is absolutely a nightmare. andy of our affiliate wfld is near chicago's o'hare airport with the details. good morning to you, andy. >> good morning. last night, it was the snow that moved in. right now, it's the freezing drizzle out there but the real problem as you look here near the airport is what you can't see and that is the slickness of the roads. now, this is what kicked it off last night, a lot of snow in chicago. especially on the south side, up to three, four, five inches of snow, in fact, the state of illinois has its full fleet of 350 snow fighting trucks out there right now. city of chicago has its full fleet of nearly 200 snow fighting trucks on the roads right now. we had about two dozen crashes and slideoffs around chicago last night. tapered off a little bit. only a handful to report right now. but at least the good news in all of this is it's starting to get a little bit warmer. right now, it's about at freezing and that's what's causing the problems. as it gets warmer, the drizzle that's coming down that you really can't see, unfortunately, that will be less of an issue so it will mainly be wet. but in the meantime, the o'hare, midway airports not reporting a lot of problems there. it could get worse as we mentioned earlier with all this rain and snow moving in from california on eastward. but for the moment, we're keeping our fingers crossed so it warms up enough to get rid of the ice on the roadways. back to you in new york. >> all right, andy, thank you very much for that live report. wintry weather on this, the first day of winter out in chicagoland. thank you, sir. >> they can handle it. meanwhile, the f.b.i. is compiling a massive data base of your private information. >> can they really do that and more importantly, are you willing to hand over your information in the name of national security? >> and a disturbing development in the case of joran van der sloot. after he allegedly killed stephanie flores in peru, he may have googled his escape route. update on the case next. dex offi our presentation, they could have shipped it too. saved ourselves the hassle. i'm not too sure about this. look at this. 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[ snores ] i see your pnt. yeah. snores ] [ malannouncer ] we understand.® you need a partner who delivers convenience. next time use fedex office. come celebrate exciting cars that are stunning to look at, exhilarating to drive and worry free to own. celebrate this holiday season with the gift of platinum. jaguar platinum coverage: five years or 50,000 miles of complimentary scheduled maintenance, and no cost replacement of wear and tear items visit your jaguar dealer during the platinum celebration foa $599 lease offer on the 2011 x >> some quick headlines for you. peru reports now, they say joran van der sloot googled ways to escape the country. that after he allegedly killed stephanie flores in a motel room. he's currently sitting in a lima jail and also the prime suspect in the death of american teenager natalee holloway, as you know. country superstar shania twain is engaged and it's a complicated love story. you ready for this? get a pen. the guy she's marrying, frederick tebow, he's an executive with nestle and get this, his ex-wife is the woman, is the woman who stole shania's first husband, they haven't set a wedding date yet but touche, merry christmas to all! gretch? >> you are in rare form today. all right. according to "the washington post," u.s. intelligence agencies are working with local law enforcement to compile a data base with all sorts of personal information about americans that will help the f.b.i. fight terrorism. meantime, the government is also increasing its see something, say something campaign. so is this a good way to keep america safe or is it a case of big brother going too far? fox legal analyst, peter johnson jr. is here with his analysis. which one is it? >> it's a little of each and a balancing test. how do we store information safely? how do we balance privacy and safety? how do we keep america safe? we're talking about 4,000 state, local, federal, tribal agencies pooling information on something called the guardian data base. under the suspicious activity reporting initiative. the sari initiative, it sounds super secret. what it is is if someone is appearing to be suspicious, then you as a citizen or i as a citizen or a local police officer or sheriff will notify the f.b.i. there appears to be suspicious activity relating to the criminal act or to terrorist activity. now, it could be as innocent as someone taking a picture of a plane, video of a ferry, buying a product that may be used as a component part of a bomb and those people as innocent as those acts may be are then put into this guardian data base in washington where little bits of information are collected about them over time, perhaps. >> wouldn't people be in favor of this? so much have been made after a terrorist act almost happens and say if only we would have connected the dots. >> we need to be vigilant and need to be secure and the f.b.i. is the unsung heroes in our country. but we also know that there is a potential for abuse and potential for people coming under the microscope of suspicion who should not be and we also know that the confidential information that we rely upon in this country is not as confidential as we had hoped as we see with mr. assange and what he has done to people around the world with his insidious wikileaks. >> it's sort of a no win situation because after 9/11, i mean, this country is under immense pressure to keep this country safe whether that's the president's job, the f.b.i.'s job or both and local agencies as well. so what is the solution? >> the solution is to continue to do as much as we can do to a, preserve our ability to be safe and at the same time, preserve our constitutional rights. it is a balancing test. it is a balancing act of our will and our good will as american people. the truth is and people get upset about it and you see it with the tsa, we do have to give up a little bit of our privacy rights in order to be safe. and i know the strict constitutionalists and i'm one say you can't do that. we can't give up any rights at all but at the same time, we have to be realists and know that people are in fact trying to kill americans in every city in this nation. potentially. we need to stop it. and the f.b.i. has come up with a plan. let's hope and let's see that there are regulations and that there's oversight and that the information is controlled and kept only for the purposes it is intended. i rely and we'll all rely on the f.b.i. to do the right thing. they have this the past and i hope they will in the future. >> let's hope that they do. good to see you. merry christmas. >> you've tried web sites, headhunters and classifieds and can't find a job. guess what? 80% of the openings are not even listed. how can you fund them? we'll help you next. first on this date in 1937, snow white and the search dwarfs, first animated feature film premiered in los angeles. in 1970, elvis presley meets president nixon in the white house. number one song here comes the hot stepper. to stay fit, you might also want to try lifting one of these. a unique sea salt added to over 40 campbell's condensed soups. helps us reduce sodium, but not flavor. so do a few lifts. campbell's.® it's amazing what soup can do.™ >> well, it's national unemployment rate at about 9.8%. those without jobs are turning over any stone to try to find work. our next guest says about 8 out of every 10 jobs available are actually unlisted. so how are you going to find them? well, right now, let's talk to steve rothberg, the founder of college recruiter.com and joins us from the twin cities. good morning to you. >> good morning. thank you. >> now, i had not seen that statistic before. 80% of jobs are unlisted. where are they? >> yeah, it's probably even more. that's a conservative number. you know, the vast majority of job openings out there are unadvertised because employers just don't need to advertise them. they get way too many qualified applications already. >> so does that mean they got a stack of resumes in the back room and as soon as company -- the acme company has an opening, let's wheel out the resumes and take a look. >> you know, a lot of times, the ones that are in the back room, they just ignore. they're looking for that huge stack that's on their desk or more likely for a larger employer in their computer. they get dozens, hundreds of qualified resumes for many of the job openings that they've got. so if you've applied three months ago, probably going to look for the person who applied three hours ago. >> man, you're telling me there's a lot of luck involved. you got to be the guy that was there a second ago. >> there is a lot of being in the right place at the right time. it's not always the most qualifi qualified applicant who gets the job. a lot of times, it's a well qualified applicant who happens apply at the right time. >> you got some tips that i would love to have you explain. first of all, look for signs, that's one of the ways to land a new job. what do you mean by that? >> it's definitely very advantageous to a job seeker to apply to an organization whether it's a government position, nonprofit, for profit, small business, large business, but you want to apply to an organization that is actually hiring. you know, an organization that's failing, that's laying a ton of people off. generally those organizations are not going to be the ones that you want to apply to. you want to go after the organizations who are -- who are doing well. so you can, you know, you can look at the stock market. you can look in the news. a mistake that some people make, though, is they say oh, such and such an organization is laying off 5,000 people in indiana, well that may be true but they may be hiring 3,000 people in california. >> sure. >> so don't assume just because they're laying off people in total that they're laying off people like you. they may be laying off in one area, hiring in another. >> that's a good point. meanwhile, it's people, not paper. what does that mean? >> the best way to find a job and this has always been the case since the dawn of employment is -- it's who you know and who they know. so, you know, if you're a college student or recent grad or if you're 50 and you've been out of school for 25, 30 years, the best chance for you to find a job is through a friend, it's through a family member. it's through somebody who you used to work for. there are people who get fired from their jobs because they just are not a good fit for that employer. maybe the employer is laying people off, maybe you did a great job for five years, the employer's business has changed and your skill set no longer matches up. go back to your old boss, she liked you and you liked her. there's good respect there. she probably won't know people who are looking for people with your skill set. >> exactly right. also, you say make it easy to find you. it's one thing if you're qualified but if an employer can't find you, you're out of luck. >> yeah, so not only do you want to apply to the advertised jobs, lots of people get jobs that way. but you also want to network and networking is not so much about asking other people to find you a job. but it's about getting them to know that you're available and finding ways that you can help them so a great way of doing that, volunteer for your local nonprofit. the people who were on the boards and the committees of those, they tend to be movers and shakers in the community. those tend to be the people who are doing a lot of hiring. get yourself on to networking sites like lindyn. >> this is great advice. if you're looking for work, make sure the people who are looking for people know that you're looking. great stuff. steve rothberg from collegerecruiter.com, thanks very much for joining us today from the twin cities. thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> about 4 minutes before the top of the hour. we know why the democrats fought so hard to raise the estate tax. listen to our old buddy barney frank. >> who now inherit haven't done this on their own, they haven't worked hard. that's a pure gift. >> wait a minute. did the government work hard for our money? the debate, top of the hour. and is al-qaida trying a new terror tactic? there's a new report that al-qaida is taking aim at us at the salad bar! ring ring ring ring prsso. hi. we love your weight watchers endorsed soups but my husband looks the way he did 20 years ago. well that's great. you haven't seen him... my other can is nging. progresso. hey can you tell my wife to relax and enjoy the vi? (announcer) resso. you gotta taste this soup. and the life you want to live. with rheumatoid arthritis, there's the life you live... fortunately there's enbrel, the #1 most doctor-prescribed biologic medicine for ra. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, fatigue, and stop joint damage. because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal, events including infections, tuberculosis,@ lymphoma, and other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis. ask your doctor if you live or have lived in an area where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. and help bridge the gap between the life you live... and the life you want to live. >> gretchen: good morning, everyone. today is tuesday, december 21, 2010. thank you for sharing your time with us. the next elections could make congress and the white house look a whole lot different. how, you ask? because we have new census numbers for you this morning. they're going to be released later today that could change the landscape for your political party. >> steve: it's a federal holiday. but the aclu hounding public officials to take christmas out of the classroom. does winter solstice, which we're having today, does that have the same ring? a ding, ding? mr. kilmeade? >> brian: the homeland security department doing everything they can to keep you safe almost all the time. >> we are and thousands of people are working 24/7, 364 days a year, to keep the american people safe. >> brian: 364? what about the other day? what day is it that we're not paying attention? "fox & friends" starts right now. >> steve: yep, it's the first day of winter and it's the tuesday before christmas and that's why we got all dressed up. we're ready for santa. >> gretchen: yep. very festive around here. we have to deliver the news and we start with a fox news alert. a u.s. national guard helicopter crashed. six people on board now feared dead. it happened near puerto rico. the chopper enroute to the neighboring island. the u.s. coast guard says two of the passengers were prosecutors with the local justice department and the other four were officials with the national guard. the helicopter was headed toward a drug raid there when it disappeared and apparently changed its route because of bad weather. new details on former nfl cheerleader turned vegas dancer missing for a week. the ex-boyfriend of the woman was arrested on charges that he abused her one year ago. police believe she was pregnant at the time of the alleged abuse. earlier on "fox & friends," we spoke to her sister who had trouble holding back tears. >> everything she ever wanted to do, she made sure she achieved. she was goofy, she was funny, and very loving. a great friend. >> gretchen: her car was found abandoned, her make-up bag on the seat. homeland security down playing a possible terrorist attack on the nation's food supply. sources tell fox news al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula hatched a plot to attack salad bars. they did not have a specific hotel in mind or time frame. they're not sure the group had the capability to carry out such an attack. take a look at what happened while you were sleeping. you missed what was the darkest morning in 362 -- 372 years. today is the winter solstice and it happened to coincide with a lunar eclipse. it won't happen again until 2094. that's when that will happen again. those are your headlines. the moon was gorgeous last night. just beautiful full moon and then completely dark. >> brian: it made me want to have another moon. like jupiter has a bunch. >> steve: meanwhile, the 2010 census numbers come out later today and those numbers could be a game changer for both parties in 2012. mike emmanuel is live at the white house already. good morning to you. what's the white house saying about this, because we know it could change a whole bunch of stuff. >> we expect -- good morning -- that the census will show a lot of the population is moving from the north and east to the south and west. so for example, states like florida, georgia, south carolina, texas, arizona may gain congressional seats. states like new york, new jersey, massachusetts, pennsylvania, michigan, ohio may lose congressional seats. here is robert gibbs on what it all means. >> the census determines where people live, determines the number of seats that represent them. that's the way the law is written and i would say i don't think shifting some seats from one area of the country to another necessarily marks a concern that you can't make a politically potent argument in those new places. >> robert gibbs down playing a significance. but the bottom line, republicans traditionally play well in the south and west. democrats tend to play well in major cities like new york, boston, washington. so interesting dynamics and be interesting to see how the play book changes in 2012, guys. >> steve: it will. are the experts already drawing conclusions? >> i spoke with several experts yesterday, kind of trying to get a jump on story. one expert said, look at senator harry reid's play book from this year where he essentially went hard after the latino vote in nevada when it looked like he was doomed. he hit the dream act hard, which was designed to give a path to citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants. really play to go that base. also working the african-american community hard. so some suggestion that when president obama runs for reelection, he may want to look at harry reid's play book for guidance. >> brian: the big news with the census was ten years ago when they recorded mike emmanuel left new jersey. your state has not recovered yet. >> ten years ago i left the great state of texas and i'm the one who moved the other way. >> steve: mike, have a great day, we'll see you later. >> thanks, guys. >> gretchen: let's talk about robert gibbs. yesterday he had a very busy job, he probably had to take a couple aspirin after this press conference because he was doing backtracking and back pedaling for the vice president of the united states. on the sunday talk shows, the vice president was talking about the war in afghanistan and when he said this, was it on purpose or was it wrong? >> we're starting this process just like we did in iraq. we're starting it in july of 2011 and we're going to be totally out of there come hell or high water by 2014. >> brian: the problem is, nato had a big conference at which time they acknowledged this subtly that it was not in the best interest of the operations in afghanistan to return that to a sense of autonomy. to say we're leaving by july 2011 is hard -- they've intercepted cables that said the same exact thing. so they said, 2014, 2011, there will be an adjustment. but by 2014. that was the big news. then joe biden kind of blew that. robert gibbs tried to further clarify the vp's comments. >> i would point you to what was decided in lisbon just a few weeks ago, that we will, much like we have in iraq, transfer primary security of afghanistan to the afghans as nato and staff agreed by the end of 2014, which would end our combat commitment in that country. >> steve: see how joe biden just said, combat operations because it's going to switch from combat operations over to more kind of instructional thing when they do make the switch. so hence, the problem. >> brian: hell and high water, a little bit different. >> steve: it sounds like everybody would be gone. >> gretchen: was he speaking to his frustrated base or was it just a genuine mistake? >> steve: would joe biden make a mistake? >> gretchen: okay. let's talk about janet napolitano because many claim that she made a mistake last year up to the alleged christmas day bomber attack where she said that everything was all a go and systems are running as they were supposed to. so now she was interviewed recently about the terror threat we've been hearing about for this christmas and here is what she said. >> i say to the american people is that we are and thousands of people are working 24/7, 364 days a year to keep the american people safe. >> brian: they seem to be readying us for an attack. we can't stop every attack. a successful attack is inevitable. excuse me. don't tell me you're giving in already. i don't want to hear that we have to accept the fact we're going to be attacked. >> steve: i think the headline to that sound bite she gave is the fact that they're working hard, 364 days a year. that means they've either got one day off a year or if it's a leap year, they got two days off. big question is, what day do they take off? >> gretchen: hopefully it's not christmas day this year. some people might argue that was last christmas day. but the bigger thing was did diane sawyer hear the 364? was there a follow-up question after that? i don't know. let's talk about barney frank from massachusetts. he had strong feelings when it comes to the estate tax. of course, he would like to increase the fee that you have to pay when you die to over 55%, even though you've already been taxed on the money and he says the heirs who would receive that money that the family worked hard to get, they don't really deserve it, do they? >> heirs who now inherit, they haven't done this on their own or worked hard, that's a pure gift to someone who is lucky enough to be related to somebody. so that would not apply to the estate tax. >> brian: so the government deserves your money if your father made a lot of money, you have no right to that money, barney franks' theory is. the government has the right to the money. you got lucky. you end up being his kid. >> steve: and he was making the point where with this tax rate compromise, remember, right now the estate tax, the death tax is at zero. the democrats wanted it past 50%. the compromise is for at least two years it's going to be 35%. it's interesting. also in that interview, at one point he said, tacks, that's not a punishment. wait a minute. if you're taxed on your income once and then you are taxed again on what you have acquired through your life a second time upon your death. it's certainly punitive. >> brian: steve forbes, he got lucky. he had nothing to do with keeping that magazine flourish. how dare he try to hold on to his money? >> gretchen: because it belongs to the government. they would spend it better, right? they've got a very good track record. >> brian: the post office had the stamp. >> gretchen: now they're billions in debt. let's talk a little about christmas since we're only a few days away from the christmas holiday. and we have another piece of sound this time of somebody from npr, a reporter who appears to be apologizing when she says that she went to a christmas party. >> we talk a lot about -- we passed this huge tax cut in part because business said we have to plan, we have to know the tax cuts. these agencies, including the defense department, don't know how much money they've got and for what. forgive the expression, i was at a christmas party at the department of justice and people were really worried about this. >> brian: anyone forgive her for saying i was at a christmas party? i don't think it's possible. >> steve: i don't get what the problem is. >> gretchen: this is where we've come in society, that the people feel like they have to apologize when they actually use the real word that describes the holiday on december 25. >> steve: if she was at a holiday party, then call it that. but clearly she was at a christmas party. she's the same person who, during the -- when we were talking about juan williams and the brouhaha at npr, at one point, she had wished that jesse helms would get aids and die. i don't get what the problem is. do you understand why she would apologize for going to a christmas party? >> gretchen: no, but i think it speaks again to where we are in society where the whole pc thing has taken over so dramatically that -- ronan is agreeing with me over there. he's going to be singing later on. i saw him nodding his head. what do you think about that? is it because we are so entrenched in this pc society that if we dare to say christmas, we have to apologize for it? crazy. >> brian: forgive me. 12 minutes after the top of the hour. the underwear bomber launches attack on christmas day. are we any safer today than we were at this time last year? or will terrorists try to attack again? we have an expert next. >> steve: a claim irish tenor ronan tynan performing live this hour on "fox & friends." ♪ i'll be home for christmas ♪ ♪ you can count on me ♪ please have snow and mistletoe and presents round the tree ♪ ♪ christmas eve >> brian: homeland security is down playing the report that al-qaeda may try and poison the food supply. this a day after 12 men are arrested during a terror raid in britain. these types of threats are becoming commonplace this time of year. just last week you got a car bomb going off in sweden. the bomber had ties to the u.k. >> steve: a year ago the alleged underwear bomber tried to blow up a flight landing in detroit, michigan. so is the united kingdom a common thread for the recent terrorist attacks and should they be doing more to stop it? joining us is national security expert and senior fellow at the heritage foundation, james. good morning to you. >> i'm disappointed. i thought i was going to sing and ronan tynan was going to do the terror. >> brian: we messed up. can you go with the terror for now? >> steve: you need a better agent. let's talk about what's going on. what is going on? >> well, look, we keep counting this, there have been 36 attempted terrorist attack plots against the united states since 9-11 and those are just the ones where somebody was arrested and taken to court. they don't include the ones that were frustrated covertly. so we know these guys have been trying to kill us and there has been an uptick in the last two years, particularly the last year, the number of attempted plots has gone up. >> brian: and you feel as though -- what do you feel is behind this uptick, because we know peter king is getting a whole lot of hoopla around him want to go convene a committee to look at the militarization and the radicalization of american muslims. >> it's clear and easy. the this is a spaghetti at the wall strategy. al-qaeda started with 9-11 and then the answer was, the only thing that would be bigger than 9-11, and they couldn't pull that off because the bush administration pushed back pretty hard, so then they went after the enemy, which is kill them closer to home. they invested everything in iraq, afghanistan, pakistan, places like yemen, going after saudi arabia. that strategy didn't work either. and they got very disaffected because a lot of people said all you're doing is killing other muslims. now they've gone back to the far enemy. but the problem is they don't have the infrastructure they've had that they had on 9-11. now they're trying to get anybody to do anything. so not surprising, for example, that they're based in england. >> steve: what we're worried about, james, is some sort of a christmas surprise. what do you think? >> well, it's always hard -- it's harder to do something on a specific day. we've seen them try things on holidays. we've seen them try things on quiet mornings like september 11. but they're trying all the time. we have to be on our game all the time. here is my problem. last week, the secretary of homeland security said one of the most important things we're working on is global warming. that's not what we should be hearing. i mean, that's not the message they should be sending out. >> brian: i agree. the other problem is if you listen to the words, they seem to be getting america clapper and napolitano getting america ready to absorb a terrorist attack. i'm not willing to do that. are you? >> the good news is a lot of these plots aren't terribly sophisticated. this one we heard about, let's poison the salad bars, that's actually been done before in the 1980s by a cult out west. they actually did contaminate some salad bars with salmonella. but that's kind of a not smart way to do it. they're going to try anything. >> brian: what's next? brunch? >> steve: we got to be vigilant. james, we thank you for joining us today. >> thanks for having me. >> brian: straight ahead, most are limited to adopting one child at a time out of china. but this family says they want all nine brothers and sisters. one senator has stepped up to help those parents and senator amy shares their story next. >> steve: terrific. then the aclu says christmas is trying to -- is trying to kick christmas out of the classroom. they're even threaten to go take that fight to court. >> brian: quick headlines. i'm glad you're up. merry christmas. fourth accident on the set of the new spiderman show. a stunt double fell from 20 feet into the orchestra during the performance. never before has playing a trombone been dangerous. however, the rules would allow wireless companies more freedom in putting limits on access to services. gretchen? >> gretchen: thank you. christmas came early for a group of nine brothers and sisters thanks to a brand-new law. it gives them the opportunity to be adopted together as a family. watch as they learn the fantastic news. >> kids, we have got really good news. the bill was passed today. [ cheering ] >> gretchen: joining me now is senator amy, creator of the international adoption simpleification act. we're also joined by the adoptive parents of those nine siblings, republicanee and tim. good morning to all three of you. >> thank you, gretchen. >> good morning. merry christmas. >> gretchen: senator, when you see that video of these children, you were responsible for getting this bill into law. why was it so important to you? >> well, it was because of families like renee and tim who are waiting for the children. they'll tell the story better than i could, to come to their family to be part of their loving home. the way the law was working is you couldn't adopt kids that were 16, 17, 18 years old. what we did, along with senator jim imhoff, republican of oklahoma, senator session, republican of alabama, and mary landrieu of louisiana, we worked together and got this bill passed. i said, if you adopt a younger sibling, then you can adopt the older siblings. so those older kids aren't left as orphans in another country. and it's helping tens of thousands of children all over the world. so we're very excited about this bill. one other thing, it allows for the immunizations to take place in our country because a lot of families are really worried about the safety of getting the immunizations in other countries. >> gretchen: what a fabulous christmas present for this family. renee and tim, what was it about the fact that you found in your heart to want to adopt nine children? you already have grown children of your own. >> we do. we have our three biological children and up until 2 1/2 years ago, we really had not even thought about adoption for our family. but it was one day in church, normal sunday morning, may 25, 2008, a young lady from our church who was a teacher down at the children's shelter in the philippines was sharing an update and she was showing pictures of the children and this picture of two little girls came up and i was overwhelmed with emotion when i saw that picture. and tim strongly sensed those are my daughters. and we knew god was calling us at that point to adopt our two daughters who we -- they came into our family a year and a half ago. and then it was after that that we found out about the nine children and we just felt a connection with them and felt like since we were raising children again, we would add more. >> gretchen: and why not add the whole family. thanks to the senator, you can now do that. tim, when i see those beautiful pictures of that family together and how happy they are, my goodness, what does this do to the heart of a father knowing that you are now going to be the father to nine kids all in one family? >> it's an amazing feeling. it's really hard to describe and the joy we had and the kids had when the bill was passed, because up until then, there was a very real possibility that the kids would have to be separated. so they had never been separated since they were little. so now with the bill being approved, they can city together and -- they can all come together and we're overwhelmed with a wonderful gift for christmas. >> gretchen: i know that minnesota, i believe, adopts more children than any other state. but this bill is not just for people in your home state of minnesota. this is for the entire nation. how many families do you think you will impact? >> it actually goes back to 2008, so kids that have been left stranded in the countries who have younger siblings that have been adopted in the u.s. are now going to be able to come over here to join their families. so it really affects tens of thousands of kids. i wanted to mention about renee and tim, not only are they loving parents, they came to washington and we had a few people that we had to kind of convince of how important this was, members of congress. and they actually went to their offices and sat in the lobby. i can tell you, them bringing that picture of the nine children, no one can be more effective than the two of them. >> gretchen: what a wonderful christmas story. we're so glad to share it with our viewers. merry christmas and i hope you get all of those nine children very soon in your home. senator, always good to see you. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> thank you, merry christmas to you. >> gretchen: merry christmas. we need more good news stories like that, don't we? so much for a leisurely bus ride. a bus packed with passengers goes totally up in flames. what went wrong? we'll bring you that story. signature health care bill under attack. her party suffered a major loss, but nancy pelosi says that she has no regrets. acclaimed irish tenor performing live, another great christmas gift for us, more from ronan later this hour. ♪ one christmas eve a child is born ♪ ♪ gift from god above ♪ mary ♪ . >> steve: it's time for your shout of the morning. flash mob takes over at orlando international airport. about 120 people gathered, as you can see, at the common area to sing the hallelujah chorus. it was a joint effort of the united arts of central florida, it enlisted the cooperation of the tsa as well in advance to make it possible. >> brian: beautiful song, great chorus. people led it. it seemed to go so smooth. not the case over in northern california at the roseville gallery i can't. they had a flash mob, then a flash group of firefighters come down and say, get rid of the flash mob, there is too many people. >> gretchen: imagine this, 5,000 people on the first floor, second floor of the food court, and suddenly, they felt the ground shaking, not an earthquake, but so many people there that they were worried that the floor actually could come in and collapse. so they brought everything outside and they sang the hallelujah chorus outside. i say this is a victory for christmas. 5,000 people showed up. they wanted to hear it. it's a victory. >> brian: i don't think the they were built for the flash mob. >> steve: you had them there with people shopping and the floor was shaking. out there, they got to worry about earthquakes. so the management said, we reached capacity, it would be better if you returned. and they did. >> brian: another reason not to shop on-line, you miss all the excitement. >> steve: no kidding. >> brian: 26 minutes before the top of the hour. that was my attempted transition. tell me how it went. she worked with bernie madoff for decades. now this former secretary could find herself behind bars today unless she can come up with $5 million and a $5 million. even offering a to cut her monthly spend to go $15,000 to stay under house arrest at her florida mansion. she's accused of helping madoff cover up his massive ponzi scheme and pocketing $14.5 million for herself. >> steve: new details emerging in the british terror plot. they were plotting to launch a mumbai style attack of shoppers. two of them planned to place them at crowded train stations, shopping locations. >> gretchen: murder of an american tourist in israel may have been an act of terrorism. sources tell fox news the stabbing of christine lukin could have been an initiation into a terrorist organization. the killers were possibly young amateurs who were trying to join a terror group. lukin, a church worker, was attacked while hiking outside jerusalem. her friend survived that attack by playing dead. >> brian: angry bank of america customers in st. louis sending the financial giant a strong message. we bailed you out, now bail us out. some of them tried to get better interest rates on their loans. they were turned down. some chained themselves to the door. six people were arrested. wild. >> steve: meanwhile, the president of the united states was supposed to start his vacation a couple of days ago and, in fact, his family has already taken a plane out to hawaii to start the vacation. the president is back at the oval office and he's working the phones, according to a white house aide. what he's trying to do is whip up support from republicans to vote for the start treaty. they need nine or ten republicans to jump the fence. right now they've got probably seven. >> gretchen: that's the arms reduction treaty going on with russia and here are some of the republicans that he may be speed dialing this morning. richard lugar of indiana. olympia snowe, scott brown -- >> brian: that's big, scott brown. >> gretchen: lisa murkowski and outgoing senator, republican from utah. these are the people who are already on board. now he has to set his speed dial for senator lindsey graham and john mccain because they were initially in favor of this start treaty, but then a couple things started to bug them and maybe now they're not in favor. >> brian: judd greg is still on the fence. and bob corker still on the fence, but he seems to be leaning toward voting for it. this would be a big victory for the president. he said he absolutely wanted this. >> steve: somebody who is really for it is john kerry. somebody really against it is mitch mcconnell. here is a sound from both of them. >> no senator should be forced to make decisions like this so we can tick off another item on someone's political checklist before the end of the year. yet looking back over the past two years, it becomes apparent why the administration who attempt to rush this treaty and it's in this context that we discover another important reason to oppose it. i'm referring to the administration's pattern of rushing to a policy judgment and then subsequently studying the problem that the policy decision was intended to address. >> i would say to my friend from kentucky that just because you say something doesn't make it true. the facts are that this treaty is not being rushed. >> gretchen: we will have to see if the president can get the job done before he heads -- he may want to stay in d.c they have a little snow there, but hawaii will get pummeled with uncharacteristic weather. maybe he wants to stay there. >> brian: can i bring up one point about the debate? >> steve: the kerry part? >> brian: didn't he go to an ivy league school. just because you said it, doesn't mean it's true. i'm rubber, you're glue. >> steve: senator, over to you. nancy pelosi -- you know, frank sinatra regrets he had a few. >> brian: too few to mention. >> steve: nancy pelosi north texas regrets. she is talking in an interview a politico.com, she has no regrets about anything regarding her speakership. in fact, she says that what she -- she liked being speaker. but what was bigger than speaker was passing health care reform and she knew ahead of time that they weren't going to win because they were told that you have unemployment near 10%, there is no chance you can hold a majority. >> gretchen: she was victorious. if you're in her party, that's a victory because she did pass something that she really believed in. here is an interesting side note. when they did not pass the omnibus spending bill, health care is snot funded right now. $1 billion of that spending bill was to fund health care and even now in the temporary funding bill that will take us through march, there is not one dollar for obamacare. so you have to wonder where that is all going to stand when the republicans take over the house in january. >> brian: what's bigger than passing health care? repealing health care. that's what the republicans want to do. we'll see what happens. she wants 30 seats to get back in power. >> steve: the aclu wants christmas banned from the classroom and they're even threatening schools ahead of time with legal action. the aclu defends its case coming up next. >> gretchen: and bad call at the lingerie ball leads to a football brawl. not bra; brawl. why are these ladies fighting? >> gretchen: couple headlines. a brawl breaks out in a football game. a lingerie football game. it happened between two rivals, the tampa breeze and miami caliente. it happens the same day as the super bowl on february 6. a theme on an indiana highway, a bus explodes. all passengers got out safely. but many had to climb through the windows. no one hurt. and all the luggage was even saved. passengers report hearing a loud pop before the bus caught fire. close call there. steve? >> steve: thanks. political correctness may be stripping our schools of christmas entirely. this year the aclu is sending letters to school boards in tennessee reminding them to turn the holiday into a winter solstice celebration. not christmas. winter solstice. so should schools be forced to remove all traces of christmas? joining us to discuss this is robert knight, senior fellow at the american civil rights union. he's down in d.c good morning to you. >> good morning, steve. >> steve: so the aclu in tennessee sent out these letters to all of the superintendents and essentially we're going to post up on the screen what the message was. it said essentially, the letter reminded school officials that holiday celebrations focusing primarily on one religious holiday amount to a school's unconstitutional endorsement of religion. okay. so what are they saying there? >> first they're inaccurate. the supreme court in 1984 said that schools could celebrate christmas as long as they had some secular element as well. in other words, they could sing christmas carols, they could have the hallelujah chorus. some of the greatest music in western history, as long as they sang frosty the snowman. the same thing goes for nativity displays, as long as you have a couple reindeer and maybe rudolph the red nosed litigator with it, it's okay. >> steve: okay. that's funny. so what do you make of the fact that the aclu sent these letters out to the superintendents? don't you think they were trying to scare the living daylights out of them like oh, if we have a christmas celebration, we're going to get sued? >> yeah. this is the devil's law firm. you have to remember. normally around the rest of the year, they're the atheists and criminals law unit, but this time of year, they're the anti-christmas unit. and they specialize in threatening school districts and hard pressed school districts worried about funding are not going to get into heavy litigation. so they hope to scare them out of celebrating christmas. they're wrong legally. they're wrong with 95% of people who celebrate christmas. >> steve: robert, i understand shortly after the superintendents in tennessee got this note from the aclu, liberty council based in virginia sent them another note saying, let us set this straight. >> liberty council is a great organization out of lynch burg and they said, look, you don't have to be afraid of the grinch, aclu because the law is on your side. go ahead and celebrate christmas. they haven't quite stamped it out yet. and the alliance defense fund, another christian legal group, has sent letters to that effect around the country saying don't be intimidated by the grinch. >> steve: sure. you mentioned rasmussen. here is a poll, would you prefer stories to show signs saying merry christmas or happy holidays? look at that. 69% prefer merry christmas over happy holidays. before you go, i'm sure there are a -- we've got a lot of teachers watching now and a lot of educators and people who are involved in school programs that might be thinking about a christmas program. what's your message to them about where they go from here? >> they should pick the best music possible and it's some of the best music ever produced. but they really need to throw in a secular carol or two or frosty the snowman or something. >> steve: jingle bells. >> yeah. keep them off their backs. but they shouldn't pretend that christmas isn't the main holiday. >> steve: very good. robert knight, we thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> steve: no war on christmas here on "fox & friends." up next, acclaimed irish tenor ronan tynan is here to perform "silent night." let's check in with martha mccallum for what happens in 12 minutes. >> i thought you were talking about me coming up. we look forward to ronan tynan. tom coburn is here, fighting the battle against government spending. the senator from new york will talk about the 9-11 rescue package for workers and rescue responders on that day. all of that coming up. bill and i join you in "america's newsroom" at the top of the hour. >> gretchen: a great way to get into the christmas spirit is to sing christmas carols or listen to them and lucky for us, we have the acclaimed irish tenner, one of them, right here in our studio. >> hey, gretchen. >> steve: fresh off his christmas tour with the irish tenors and out with a new cd. we are happy to welcome ronan tynan. welcome. >> hi, guys. >> brian: my back was killing me. also an orthopedist. i didn't know that. >> gretchen: you just fixed brian's back in the break. you are a man of many talents. >> you have to be with these ears. >> gretchen: so you have this new cd "all kinds of everything." but you have your "i'll be home for christmas" cd and you'll bless us with a song today y. is it important to sing christmas songs during christmas? >> christmas is traditional. and i think that those of us who have that firm belief of christmas love christmas songs. it's one thing we absolutely love. for the last couple of years, i have always done christmas shows and i just came off christmas tour with the tenors, which we had a ball, an absolute ball. and my pianist does all of the playing, so it's great to have a team. >> steve: how about if this team leaves and you and your team do "silent night." >> we'll give it a go. >> steve: the great ronan tynan. ♪ silent night, holy night ♪ all is calm, all is bright ♪ round yon virgin, mother and child ♪ ♪ holy infant so tender and mild ♪ ♪ sleep in heavenly peace ♪ sleep in heavenly peace ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ silent night, holy night ♪ ♪ shepherds quake at the sight ♪ glories stream from heaven afar ♪ ♪ heavenly glory, alleluia ♪ christ the savior is born ♪ christ the savior is born >> steve: now it's christmas. that's beautiful. very, very nice. >> thanks, steve. >> steve: you want to do some more? >> we can lighten it up a bit. >> brian: we'll do that in two minutes. >> steve: you're watching "fox & friends" with ronan and bill. we'll be right back. >> steve: we showed you this earlier, a flash mob in the orlando airport. this is music right up your alley. >> i think this is fantastic. i really think this is fantastic. >> brian: have you thought about putting a hat on, sitting in a food court and just doing it yourself? >> steve: i've done it at other places -- a number of places. >> gretchen: like the shower? >> the shower is not public. >> gretchen: okay. >> come on, gretchen. >> steve: are you on twitter or any of those things? 'cause you could start a flash mob. >> i'm on twitter, but i don't know how to tweet. how about that? >> brian: you should have a professional tweet

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