meanwhile some are saying this is posturing on the part of north korea and some type of extortion. i don t buy the north korean threat. this is part of their pattern. they bluster and take ansome military activity like the shelling of that island but it s intended to set up a return to the negotiating table where we tried to provide them assistance as a form of extortion that from the north korean point of view has worked well. reporter: the official news agency putting out word that the situation on the korean peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war, patti an. patti ann: steve, how much does all of this have to do with the transition of power in north korea? it could be very much linked to the transition transition of power but as you know kim jung-il has been ill, he is handing off power to kim jung-un, he was recently made a 4-star
play ball for the national interest. the second thing in the economy, one of the great challenges the republicans face in the next few months is how they re going to reconcile two promises, which is to cut tax and reduce the decifit, which right now is not something you can t do both of those things and i think we re going to be hearing a lot from the republicans next few months about how they reconcile those two things. i know that seniors care about that a lot. patti ann: simon, rick, and peter, let s stick around, we ll take a quick break and jon will continue with the panel and town hall coming right up. jon: and first, this fox news alert, patti an, the secretary of homeland security, janet napolitano is out with a new list of rules regarding what can be shipped on aircraft. one of the things that the department of homeland security is doing immediately is banning incoming cargo flights from somalia, the country that barely has a functioning government. the fear is that terroris
the fort hood massacre, botched times square bombing and the recent mail plot. jon: he s the democrat who pulled out a big win on election day but that s not stopping the gop from trying to lure him to their side, the battle for west virginia s joe manchin. we are awaiting a life or death decision in connecticut. a jury, now deliberating whether stephen hayes should get the death penalty for the brutal murders of a mother and her two daughters. that decision could come any minute. jon: closing argument necessary the first civilian trial of a guantanamo detainee. thirty-six-year-old ahmed ghailani is accused of helping build the bomb used in the 1998 attacks on two u.s. embassy attacks in after cash ghailani s lawyers called no witnesses. what can we expect from closing argument? david lee miller outside the federal courthouse in new york city, i r i know you re just out of the courtroom. what s the latest david? recovery reporter the closing arguments for the prosecutor was
live from kito, ecuador. hi steve. patti an, so far, this case has been portrayed in the media as a david versus goliath, a giant oil company creates a toxic mess, then leaves, but the real facts of the case might be more complicated. you can find oil everywhere in northern ecuador, across a chunk of the amazon jungle, the size of rhode island. in lakes, in rivers, in roads, under grass. even underneath houses. dig a few inches down there it is. there are globs of oil. wherever you go through this part of jungle, you see this book pools. this is the mud that came up with the production of the oil. you can see when you stick this down, it is about 10 feet deep right where i m standing, and it just doesn t go away. the pool of oil and mud here is from 1974. there is a $27 billion
patti ann: a fox news alert, south korea saying north korea fired heavy artillery off its west coast today t. happened upon the divided peninsula s sea border, the south korean military says the shells landed harmlessly in north korean waters but all this happens as tensions are high over the sinking of a navy ship which south korea blames on the north. former ambassador to the u.n. john bolton is going to weigh on this and other topics later this hour, live. bill: patti an, a whole lot of reaction to president obama s comments on health care and medicare. here s the statement from the president this weekend: we made medicare more solvent by going after waste, fraud and abuse, not by changing seniors guaranteed benefits. in fact, seniors are starting to see that because of health reform, their benefits are getting better all the time. so we are no longer accepting business as usual. we re making tough decisions to meet the challenges of