now. >> you are watching "fox and friends. ." a great way to again your day. >> welcome live to studio e in the heart of downtown manhattan. i've noticed some other cable news outfits in reruns today. we are live. >> alisyn: how do you rerun news? >> steve: and i have a bigger question, why are you watching other cable stations in. >> clayton: i'm not. i am fresh here today. >> alisyn: let's get to the heed lines and tell you what is happening in the news. tell it free caucus chaos. police in des moines, iowa, arresting ten occupy protesters outside romney's office. they ask him to return donations from wells fargo and wells fargo said he didn't make any

donations to his campaign. and they are asking him to release his tax returns. it was a clash between the clergy men at the site where jesus was born. >> oh, my gosh. the monks hurled brooms at each. fighting at the birth of jesus in bethlehem. police were able to break up foul. three christian denominations share space inside the church. that is not in the spirit of the holidays. >> steve: not exactly. >> alisyn: a bombshell revelation about four-star general pay tray us. a biography will reveal he wanted to resign as commander of the afghan war after president obama wanted to draw down the

troops. he ultimately decide not to quit because he thought it would be selfish grandstanding with huge political ramifications. knew this morning north korea has a new supreme leader, kim jong-il. [un. kim jong un will inherit his father's cause. the flag is moved to half staff. it's a move infuriating human rights people. ikim jong-il was known for brute liesing and starving his people. >> in a country with one lightbulb. >> steve: well, the let's are on in iowa because the push toward

tuesday night when everyone is going to gather, both republicans and democrats to cast their votes for the next president of the united states. there's been a shake-up. there's a brand new time magazine poll out that shows that mitt romney, as you can see, and keep in mind he's behind 4% so he and mitt are tied for first place. and rick santorum, suddenly he has rick san-tor-an-tom or something like that. >> alisyn: and nobody has spent more time in iowa going door to door and working with people in 99 counties there. he's avoided a lot of the press. it's been a strategy, at least that's what the wall street journal is putting fourth this morning, sort of avoiding the press. >> steve: i think he wanted press but he didn't get it. >> alisyn: but call it a strategy. >> clayton: a lot of these got a lot of press coverage.

he has been going door to door, retail politics. he relocated his family there and he's going directly of a ron paul. in some speeches yesterday he was saying he's the dennis kusinych of the left wing party and he said we need to watch out. >> alisyn: dick morris has the same theory. it's slow and steady santorum. he has just done all the legwork and now at this late hour he seems to be surging. eats funny he tells the story how he held a meet and greet in i guess november, maybe even more recently, and one person showed up. >> steve: right. and it was his campaign chair. it wasn't a random person, it was the guy working for him. >> alisyn: and now it's changing. he's seeing more and more people show up and getting more attention. the policy are reflecting that. he thinks if he can just beat michele bachmann and rick perry, who have had more attention than he has, that will be considered a win for him it iowa.

>> steve: and we've had rick santorum on this program a number of times and he's said i'm not paying attention to the policy, i just want to get my message out, and eventually, and apparently this strategy has worked, he has risen up. somebody who has stayed down low in the second tier, however, is michele bachmann. she got her state chair in iowa had a heckuva resignation letter to her. he showed up at a ron paul rally last night and endorsed him. and we are talking about a fellow by the same of ken coren son. he's a state senator, and he said it was his duty to endorse paul. bachman not too happy about that, nonetheless here he is. >> the fact of the matter is, we have a two-person race. i do not believe ron paul's campaign is in trouble. i believe we have a real opportunity here and i believe i did the right thing. >> do you believe that bachman's

campaign is in trouble? >> you know, she's going to have to answer for her campaign. but listen, she is not in the top tier. she is not in position to beat mitt romney. we are. >> so what is amazing about this, earlier in the morning he was at a bachman rally. three hours before he goes to the ron paul rally. >> clayton: she says, michele bachmann issued a press release after he showed up where he was me podium there and gave a little bit of a speech. she said he had come to her earlier the day before and said congresswoman, everyone sells out in iowa, why shouldn't i? >> alisyn: right. so she said his motivation was purely money, not that she was part of the flagging complain. she accuse ron paul of paying him. he personally told me he was offered a large sum of money to go work for the paul campaign. and he was with us and went

immediately afterwards to a ron paul campaign. he said everyone sells out with iowa, why shouldn't i and he said he would stay with the ron paul campaign. basically she said the ron paul campaign is sabotaging her campaign because he is slipping in iowa. >> steve: and meanwhile the ron paul campaign says we don't know what she's talking about, we didn't give him a bunch of money and he said it wasn't about money. and rick santorum, meanwhile, said two days ago if i finish dead last in iowa, and by the looks of the policy he won't, he's going to get out. michele bachmann was asked essentially the same question by our own griff jenkins in iowa and here's what she said. >> i'm all in for the presidency. remember, there's only been one state-wide race and only one winner and that's me. again, the american people are making their mind up. as you said, there's almost half of iowans aren't sure at this point. but what we have seen is nothing

short of remarkable. people are making up their minds on the spot. >> steve: true. but there was a graph in the washington post showing what the gop nominating process looks like and it's like this. if you go to the park and gets on the roller coaster, that's what it looks like right now. >> alisyn: this year it seems with the 26% of registered republicans, who have only made up their minds, it leaves almost 75% or more of folks who made up their minds bump there's one candidate, though, in iowa whose organization is second to none. >> alisyn: right. not many people have been talking about and that's president obama's. he has an incredible operation. >> steve: he is running as a republican again? >> alisyn: he's running as a democrat but he's not taking any chances. he has an incredible organization. 8 offices in iowa. >> alisyn: he's got it in in the

bag. >> alisyn: why has his campaign made 350,000 phone calls to iowan voters and staged is 11,280 events to recruit and train volunteers? >> alisyn: he only beat i don't know mccain by fewer than 2,000 votes in 2008. it is a swing state so it is setting up for the general election trying to get that state again. >> steve: and when you look at the statistics from four years ago with the iowa caucuses, he with know that mike huckabee won on the republican side, and we know that barack obama won on the democrat side but do you know what the margin was? i saw this in rich's column this morning. barack obama won with 38% of the vote, which means, according to rich, 62% of the iowa democrats wanted somebody else. >> alisyn: there you know. meanwhile, karl rove has interesting predictions for 2012. this is the time of the year when everybody starts making predicts. karl rove's are of the political nature. he said the republicans will

take the u.s. senate. >> steve: that's big. >> alisyn: it will be huge, but lots of people think the democrats are vulnerable enough that they will lose enough seats. but he also goes on to say something interesting and he these that nancy pelosi and harry reid will both leave leadership positions by year end. >> steve: and senator mitch mcconnell will continue leading the gop and their respective chambers taking over. but a lot of pundits said the gop looks vulnerable in the house right now where they are running the show. and could this all flip-flop? we any ben nelson is leaving in nebraska and that puts that chamber up for grabs. could there be a flip-flop for power in the chambers? >> alisyn: no, according to karl rove. his stim nation, karl rove said the republicans might lose three seats. remember the landslide a year ago. they won seven hundred, eight

hundred seats. >> steve: and they won the chamber in candidates because they won so many seats. >> clayton: what karl is suggesting at least two of the chambers, both chambers of legislation in the united states will be run but the republicans. >> steve: will the democrats still control the white house? he doesn't go out on a limb on that. he does talk about how mr. obama will lose a number of his big demographics, the young people and some others. you've seen him detail that on this program and others. he also said while barack obama's people said we are going to raise a billion dollars. karl rove says he thinks the obama campaign might come up $200 million short on that. >> clayton: that's amazing. if you want to read more about his predictions, read the wall street journal . he wrote this in there. and i find this fascinating, robert right, the former labor secretary under bill clinton, he's an economist. he's come out with a bold prediction about how to switch

you have the ticket. he said he has no insider information, that it will be an obama clinton ticket in 2012 that biden and clinton would swap spots. he said biden, and i didn't realize, has wanted the secretary of state position. it's a position he's coveted for years. >> alisyn: and he also said this would be a way to kind of energize obama's base because hillary clinton is so popular. we see time and again her approval ratings going through the roof. she's considered one of most admired women on earth and it would be exciting to have a woman on the ticket, to have it be hillary clinton. and you sort of infuse some novelty. >> clayton: it goes back to what steve was talking about in iowa. people there were voting, only 36% voted for obama so a huge gap wanted to vote for other democrats. >> steve: and he said the economy right now not good. and robert suggests that next year still not good. this would take the attention away from the fact that the

economy is in the ditch with something new. but, you know, if joe biden is no longer our vice president, who is going to say those crazy things? remember during the campaign, joe biden said you have to really watch out for barack obama. and then joe biden also said i think hillary clinton is a better candidate for me as well. >> alisyn: that will be a loss if we don't have the bidenisms. for journalists it will be a loss. >> let us know what you think about that, an obama-clinton ticket. we will talk more about that coming up. >> alisyn: she's taking shoplift to go a whole new level. how did this woman sneak a case of beer out of the store? >> that's quite the skirt. >> steve: dick morris said we are missing one very important fact. what is that fact? stick around and you will find out.

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>> all of a sudden people are tired of warnings tired of the economy, they are tired of the federal reserve and tired of congress spending a lot of money and they are looking for some change, and i have suggested one significant change, why don't we just follow the constitution. >> alisyn: well, strong comments like those have put ron paul at the top of the policy in iowa. our next guess has a warning. he said ron paul is the most liberal candidate in the field. former advisor to president bill clinton and author of the book "dubbs goes to washington" is

mr. morris. he's a libertarians. >> he's a way over left liberal radical. all of the presidential candidates, counting barack obama, do not want to legalize heroin and cocaine, he does. all the other republican candidates, and barack obama, feel that 9/11 was not our fault. he does. all of them want -- none of them, including barack obama, wants to slash the defense budget dramatically. he does. none of them want to repeal the patriot act. he does. so if you are to the left of the barack obama on these issues, then you are obviously way over left. >> alisyn: can't you also interpret that as saying he just wants big government out of our lives? that libertarians position? >> you can dress it any way you want, but those are very, very radical left wing positions. to legalize heroin and cocaine,

we've become amsterdam. everybody walks around high. you talk about dwi, imagine what that would do. the patriot act. right now if a terrorist use as cell phone we can tap it. repealing the patriot act, we couldn't. we could only tap his home phone. who uses those anymore? and people are focusing on his domestic issues and they are focusing on his aversion to the printing of the currency, which is fine. but when he says go back to the gold standard, it's like saying you are an alcoholic, let's pass pro hi -- prohibition. >> alisyn: how so? >> the -- he's saying go back to the gold standard which is like prohibition. that prolonged the recession by

a decade. what the gold session means, i can't pay you money to work for me unless some guy discovers gold in south africa sufficient to cover the notes i'm giving you. >> alisyn: basically if you are feeling that people haven't looked into his positions deeply enough, that they sound sort of new and flashy and intriguing, but if you look into it they are really quite out there. >> yeah. you don't have to look too hard. when the guy says it's basically okay for iran to develop a nuclear weapon and if they use it against israel, that's israel's problem. that doesn't take too far a look. and the other point about ron paul, p-a-u-l is not the name on the ballot. if you vote for him you are re-electing obama. there's not a political expert in the world that believes he can beat obama. >> alisyn: i'm looking forward to see the e-mails you are about to get from ron paul. and stick around, we want to talk about president obama has

been avoiding the decision for weeks but now time is up, will he give the go ahead for the cross-country oil pipeline? this battle is sure to get ugly. and plus, drop that biscuit, the new york times maybe calling an end to classic southern cooking because fried chicken and potatoes, are they dig anified enough? we will tell you about this story. i habe a cohd. yeah, i toog nyguil bud i'm stild stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't un-stuff your nose. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your stuffy nose. [ deep breath ] thank you!

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>> 24 minutes after the top of the hour.

headlines for you. criminal charges of a last months oil charges some several engineers and one supervisors are accused of giving false information to federal regulators about the risk of deep sea drilling. and will they represent the president from making recessed appointments to the labor relations board in without those appointments the they don't have enough people to operate. and president obama is in a pick he will. he has 60 days to sign the payroll tax bill into law, which would approve the keystone pipeline. >> alisyn: but think decision he makes will hurt a portion of his environmental base. what should he do? are his hands tied? will he approve this thing? >> first i want to clarify the payroll tax bill is he makes a decision in 61 days.

he's ultimately going to have to go along with this pipeline. this pipeline will are by 509,000 barrels of oil a day into the united states. >> alisyn: what about the environmentalists? >> would we rather by it from hugo chavez or from canada? >> alisyn: right. >> and if he vetoes it and gas prices go crazy in july and august of twelve. it will be right at his doorstep. the other problem, of course, is that the labor unions want him to sign it. but it's because of that that he delayed the decision because he didn't want to have to choose. now he has to support between his union support and his environmentalist field force and he will probably have to go with the unions. even apart from the political plat, just because of the risk if there's five dollars or six dollars a gallon gas in the summer of twelve, the republicans don't say, see, you should have approved the pipeline. >> and we've heard the

environmentalists are upset because it would go across an automatic which fir or something like that in canada. >> yes, like it hasn't before. >> and you talk about the real reason environmentalists don't like this is because it uses that sand petroleum up in canada and it produce as little more greenhouse gas? >> they say they are worried about the pipeline. what they are really worried about is there is some greenhouse gases when you take oil out of the ground that way from the sands. but what they are really worried about, they don't want us to be using oil so they basically oppose any source of oil. >> alisyn: who occupies a bigger voting block, the environmentalists or the unions? >> probably the environmentalists but he can't side with him on this because drivers are an even larger voter block and 23 we are paying five dollars and six dollars a gallon gas we won't be voluntary rant on that issue. >> and what about hillary clinton and barack obama?

could the prediction come true that we will see a barack clintn 2012 instead of vice president bide anyone what do you think? >> it's very, very hard for a president to dump a vice president unless he wants to be dumped. now there is the attractiveness of what he is saying. i think biden would much rather be secretary of state than vice president. only reason of to be vice president is to run for president and he's probably too old for that by 16. so it is something that i would think obama would look at. >> the odds? >> odds are begins it, but it sure is possible. >> all right. you never know. fasten your seatbelt. dick morris, always a pleasure. >> thank you. >> alisyn: say good-bye to biscuits and gravy and other classic southern cook. >> what? >>. >> alisyn: hold your hat. some are saying it may be too undignified for america. more about that straight ahead. >> and this woman just took

shoplifting to a whole new level. how did she sneak out of the store with a case of beer under her dress? >> alisyn: how could she walk? >> alisyn: attention fraternities. find out how she did it. first happy birthday. mary tyler moore, the tv icon, turns 75 today. what apparatus? >> she has to have some apparatus. ♪ [ female announcer ] everybody loves that cushiony feeling. uh oh. i gotta go. [ female announcer ] and with charmin ultra soft, you can get that same cushiony feeling you love while still using less. charmin ultra so has extra cushions that are soft and more absorbent. so you can use four times less versus the leading value brand.

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get the technology you love, on the network you deserve. and for a limited time, get twice the data for the same low price. verizon. >> steve: time for your shot of the morning on this thursday. the gray lead getting a black eye after mistakingly e-mailing nearly 9 million people. when i say gray lead, i'm talking about the new york times offering a 50% discount to renew their subscriptions. at first they said the e-mail came from spammers, sparking fierce it's data base had been hacked. now they are changing their tune saying they sent the e-mail mistake. but even that might not be the whole story. insiders say a disgrunt he would employee hit the send button on purpose. either way it's not honoring the

discounts to people that they sent out to 8 million subscribers. >> clayton: and on the front page this morning there's a reextraction, a box that said we made that mistake, we didn't mean to cancel your subscriptions. do you imagine if it is a disgrunt he would employee, on the last day, okay, ready? boom! >> alisyn: we have another new york times story to tell you about. they have just done a story where they followed the big farmers in the south. >> steve: south carolina. >> alisyn: south carolina, and they said there's a movement afoot to change the reputation of southern food. they say they don't want to be defined just by cracker barrel and chicken fried steak, they want it to be more sophisticated. >> clayton: there's a group of big farmers down there that get furious about being painted that way. they don't antibiotickics and they are tired of being

portrayed at undigfied, as hay seeds. >> steve: there's a column on fox nation. new york times has declared down-home southern cooking undignified in a story on heaping praise on a new southern chef. the food snobs of the time attacked ms. paula in the second sentence calling her a, quote, so-called queen of southern food who cooks with canned fruit and crisco. well, so what? so what, new york times ? canned fruit and chris coof delicious. >> todd who works here is from the south, and he has a lot of pride about southern cooking. >> southern food is fantastic. >> alisyn: it's delicious. >> steve: have you of had shrimp and grits? >> alisyn: of course, i have.

he loves his southern food and his cracker barrel. he loves his cracker barrel banana pudding. >> clayton: but there's a battle brewing among southern pure efforts on all of this because this sort of fried chicken movement is a fairly new phenomenon. these local pig farmers say we want to get back to the south roots of eloquent dinners and all sorts of things. so i don't know, where do you stand on this? i love the fried chicken. you go to paula dean's restaurant, the line is out the door. >> alisyn: absolutely. i say sugar. >> thank you, ms. sugar. >> alisyn: i love you guys! >> and i think maybe sometimes the new york times is too snobby for your big fat britches. and if you are taking a shot at paula dean, you have quite an opponent. >> alisyn: of course.

she's a force to be reckoned at. >> clayton: and the best chicken in the world is fried in chris co, i can take your sock and fry it in crisco and it would be delicious. >> clayton: i bet you $100 if you fried my sock in chris coyou wouldn't eat it. >> alisyn: i wouldn't eat it? if i fried it in butter i will. >> steve: i'll be with you on that. >> clayton: meanwhile, let's go to commercial right now. while the gop candidates are hitting the road and putting their shoes on to do it, meanwhile president obama vacationing in hawaii. his behavior is not sitting too well with the local press. >> and more on that we go live with peter. >> we know the president and the first lady had a late night out last night. just getting back to their rental house about two hours ago. they were at a restaurant called allen wong's in the president's old neighborhood. it appears he had a party of about ten people, including the

president's sister but we don't know that because the white house did not provide names of the dinner companions that they generally do. and something else they didn't provide, the press access to restaurant arrival and departure coverage. you are looking at some of the most recent video we have that the vacationing family. the person assigned to the press pool, a long time radio reporter for cbs news said the press was deliberately denied that coverage. it's unusual for a press pooler to complaint about coverage or in this case lack of coverage but that's something we had twice yesterday. earlier in the day when the president golfed for about six hours the press was barred and forced to hang out at a strip mall nearby. but earlier in the day the president took care of business. he issued a proclamation marking

january, 2012 senate stalking month. >> steve: thank you very much. it's better they kep the press at the strip mall rather than a strip club. >> clayton: i don't know. it depends on which press you ask. >> alisyn: all right. let's get right to the headlines. we is a lot to tell you about this morning. including this update on a troubling story. the carb long to go a missing motor in arkansas has been found. donna's 1997 teal green ford escort wagon was found burned in a forest not too far from her workplace. she was last seen at a christmas party there on december 21st. police did not tell the public about her disappearance until three days later and family and friends are questioning that delay. dogs searched the area on monday but found no trace of her. the u.s. fleet is firing back after iran threatens to stop ships from moving through the strait of hormuz. they said it would not be

tolerated. there was a decision three weeks ago to tighten sanctions on the strait's crude oil exports. analysts say blocking the ships would create chaos in the world's most important oil route. well, texas governor and republican presidential candidate rick perry questioning the defense department's dedication to the military. he told a crowd about the decision not to hold the parade marking the end of the iraq war. he sad it's nothing but a insult to the troops. >> it disturbs me after nine years of war in iraq this president wouldn't welcome home our heroes with a simple parade in their honor. >> alisyn: we talked about this story yesterday. so many of you weighed in. according to the pentagon no one asked for a parade so nothing was scheduled. talk about skirting the law. watch closely as this woman hides a 24 case of beer under her skirt and walks off with no trouble at all.

>> steve: how? does she have a giant magnet down there? >> alisyn: that stolen case of beer is believe to have weighed about 20 pounds. others say she might have had a basket like device to support the weight using suspenders. >> steve: disturbing, but inventive, perhaps. and let's see where it is snowing, that's the great lakes, and raining in portions of ohio valley. a little more rain continuing in northern portions of california and a little snow out in the cascades. the current temperatures if you head out, if you are in caribou, maine, have somebody else go start your car. it's only 10 there right now. we have a little more than two dozen in new york city and

cleveland. 30s and 40s throughout the central plains and down through the southern plains as well. i read there is scattered frost in portions of georgia whereas you can see right now it's freezing in atlanta and northern portions of florida. and that's never good. meanwhile today's daytime highs, hang on florida, eventually later on in the upper 50s and 60s as well. same thing for the mid-atlantic. caribou, a dozen. 60 in rapid city and also denver, colorado and el paso. if you are out west, 55 in san francisco. that's your fox travel cast for this wednesday. >> alisyn: well, forget scans and surgery, clayton. the new way to detect cancer is a saliva test. our medical a-team is revealing the top medical breakthroughs you can expect in 2012. >> and paperwork problems, newt gingrich is getting help from an unlikely ally, a democrat. the man who is lending gingrich

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fresher less processed foods introducing freshpet recipes so fresh the only preservative we use is the fridge freshpet fresh food for fido >> alisyn: forty-three minutes past the hour. time for headlines. attorney general blaming the use of illegal guns for 13% increase for the number. law enforcement officers in the line of duty this year. he didn't mention the gun running program. one of those weapons may be responsible for the border patrol terry. and the blade was hidden inside a cane and was not noticed until the man stepped outside for a smoke during his connecting flight. steve, don't try that. >> steve: all right. i promise. meanwhile talk about crossing the isle. newt gingrich and rick perry are

still missing from the commonwealth of virginia's ballot. look who is coming to their rescue. a prominent virginia democrat to help the republicans. here to explain why he's fighting for them is richmond attorney and former chairman of the democratic party there, paul. good morning, paul. >> good morning. >> why are you helping the republicans. >> it's not a party specific thing or political specific thing. this is for the public. in virginia we pride on giving people the right to vote, the right to choose their candidate. that's being denied by a process that is inherently unconstitutional, violates state stat statutes and it's an embarrassment to the state of virginia. >> down there larry is at the university of virginia. we had him on the program yesterday. he touched on, and i want you to listen to this, here he is explaining how the virginia

primary ballot protects the people who already have jobs. listen. >> well, this was designed by incumbents, steve. i know this will shock you. they like to reduce competition and keep the ballots clean. by the way, we also have a prohibition on all write-in votes for every primary election, whether it's a state election or presidential election. so we don't like to crowd up the ballots, you know. that interferes with the incumbents' goals. >> steve: paul, perhaps by design, the system you've got there in virginia favors the incumbents. but going forward what would you like to do to help the republicans, as a democrat, get on the ballot in virginia? >> well, i think we can change it this year. i'm surprised ken, who brides himself on being a conservative attorney general, is not joining me and telling them to pass emergency legislation. if we do that we can get

credible candidates on the ballot this year so the people of virginia won't lose their right to choose. i would hope larry would join me, too. but everybody, steve, keeps talking about, well, we will do something the next time. no, let's do it this time. >> steve: this is separate from the problem with newt gingrich, who apparently did not get enough signatures to arrive on the ballot, right? >> that's correct. the truth is the perry campaign and the gingrich campaign were phenomenally incompetent. and, yes, if we can change the law this year, they may benefit, but you have to weigh that against the hundreds of thousands of virginians who basically have been disenfranchised and i want to give them a chance to vote for their favorite candidate this march. >> steve: without getting too technical legally, explain to us who it is about the current law that you find so reprehensible. >> two things. first of all, it creates two

standards. democratic candidates have their pegs to get on the ballot judged by democratic standard created by the democratic party. the republican party has its own standards, actually two different ones. the constitution and the law require one uniform standard so this is just a comedy. number two, you are supposed to make sure you have 10,000 valid signatures but nobody of checks any signatures. in fact, the process forechecking the petitions make it impossible to check any signatures. i mean, it's just ludicrous. >> steve: paul, for people who are looking in and thinking why is that democrat trying to help the republicans, you don't really want to have a republican elected as president of the united states? >> well, that's in the general election and, yes, i'm going to vote for the president. i think he's done a good job. but this again is not about

party, it's not about politics, it's about the right to vote of my people, the people of virginia. i think republicans deserve to have the right in march primary to vote for their favorite candidate. and the only way to do that is to change the law now. we can do that. contrary to what republican leaders and democratic leaders are saying, we can change the law right now. >> steve: well, they probably should have done it before right now because right now people are in a pickle. >> that's correct. >> steve: all right. paul, always a pleasure. thank you very much paul goldman for joining us today from richmond, virginia. >> thank you. >> steve: straight ahead, need an organ? waiting lists are so 2011. soon you may be able to grow a custom organ. not kidding. our medical a-team reveals the top medical brake lose you can expect in the coming here. and then looks like a simple sundress but the first lady's

outfit is more fit for a supermodel. wait until you hear about how much that number costs.

>> six, five, four, three, two, one! >> alisyn: as we countdown to a new year, what can we expect in new medical breakthroughs? like, for instance, growing

custom organs? >> dr. mark siegel is here to break it down. good morning. >> good morning. >> there are really interesting invasion manages the medical field, and i guess maybe at the top of the list is the rise of the medical app, the application? >> this is for you. >> i know. >> there's going to be 500 million smartphone users who are using medical apps by 2015. the problem is who is going to be using them, doctors or patients? because you can't fit a doctor inside this thing. >> not yet. >> not yet. >> on the other hand, you know, it's reached a point where i can put a cat scan, i can download a cat scan on this, an mri, i can bring home my work and put it on the i-phone and on the other hand my patient can monitor their blood sugar or blood pressure. but the problem is the patient might have more information than they know what to do it. >> or self diagnosing. >> i don't want it. i don't want self diagnosing. as long as a doctor is in the

loop, it's really great. because i can see a situation where a patient would check their sugar, e-mail it to me and i would say come on in. >> that's great. >> a lot of people suffer from asthma. now you talk about in the coming year we might see a asthma sensor? >> this is from the university of pittsburgh. as a practicing internist it's important to me. a lot of patients don't know they have an asthma attack until they are ready to go to the emergency room but you can test your breath and use something called a nano tube which is smaller than a human air, invisible. but it can sense the chemical and say you are about to have an asthma attack, call your doctor and get seen right away. >> and another new test, a cancer spit test. how does this work? >> it's basically on something where they analyze the protiens in the spit. they are able to tell you with a pretty good certainty,

810 percent maybe that you might have cancer. this is going to be the star trek wave of the future n a couple of years we won't have to have the invasive tests, they will spit on a slide and they will say you better get a test. >> is it much like the dog that would go through a hospital winning a couple years ago and detect who actually has cancer? >> this is putting it in a scientific sense and this is more scientific. you are talking about oscar and that cat could tell. >> nerve region rags, a lot of people who suffer from nerve damage, there's a chance for them to regenerate the nerves? >> this is nano technology again. they use a nano gel. twelve is all about clayton and medical devices. they take a nano gel and they take it, they are doing the research at northwestern at chicago and they take it and literally are rebuilding spinal cords. they inject stem cells, adult stem cells. they rebuild the structure, the

scaffold, like the outside of the building and then you inject the stem cells and then a person can walk again. they are only about three or four years away from this. >> and grow a custom organ? >> that's a little bit less so. >> i don't want to know. >> instead of waiting on some sort of a list for an organ? >> 110,000 people are waiting on the lists for organs. harvard is doing a study where they are literally taking the organ, wash washing out the offending agents, and get rid of the protiens that would cause rejection, and reinjecting it with your own stem cells so you can receive an organ that you would have rejected previously. >> oh, my gosh, it is a brave, new world with medical breakthroughs. >> we are there, alisyn. >> that's great. >> i will keep you filled in. >> keep texting. and who is working this weekend, he's on on sunday on foxnews.com. >> great to see you.

>> thank you. >> coming up, we told you how the girl scouts are being taught about media bias by a liberal blog. next up the girl scout who blew the whistle on the organization. >> and then a modern day holy war. monks take up brooms, this is for real, in a religious flash at the church of nativity. by alzheimer's. this cruel disease costs americans more than $180 billion a year, and could cripple medicare in the near future. the alzheimer's association is taking action, and has been a part of every major advancement. but we won't rest until we have a cure. you have plans... help the alzheimer's association protect them. act now, go to alz.org.

>> alisyn: good morning, new policy are in and newt gingrich dropped. rick santorum soars and there's a new front runner all together. just five days left and iowa is definitely up for grabs. >> steve: plus michele bachmann iowa's chairman jumps ship. why he just endorsed ron paul hours after one of her events. >> steve: oh, boy, and girl could you tell us could soon get a badge in media bias. how fair is it if a liberal

group is giving the girl scouts the lesson in media bias? meet the young former scout who blew the whistle on all of this. fox and friends on thursday before new year's starts right now. >> i wake up every morning to fox and friends. >> thank you, paula dean. look at the e-mail a lot of you are upset about what the new york times is saying about southern food. you don't like it one grit. >> alisyn: that was good. kiss my grits. we will explain. >> kiss my grits? my grandmother is here on the couch. >> who was the name, flo from the sitcom. >> alisyn: exactly. let's get to the headlines a lot has happened over the night. an afghan soldier has just killed new nato soldier after going rogue on foreign troops.

both are members of the french military and the french president said a they were working with the army when a once loyal soldier turned his gun on them. and earlier the taliban claimed responsibility for that attack. you heard of occupy wallstreet but how about occupy mitt romney? ten protestors made a scene outside ace campaign office. they were expanding he return campaign donations from wells fargo bank. the problem is the bank said they haven't made any donations. they are also demanding mitt romney release his tax returns. so far he is refuse to go do that. jesse jackson is going to join the protesters later today. there was a clash at the site where jesus was born between clergy men.

those are monks who hurled brooms at one another fighting over the territory inside the church of the nativity in bethlehem. it all happened yesterday during the yearly cleaning of the church. the police were able to break up the brawl. similar fights have occurred in the past. three christian organizations share this space inside the church. what would jesus think? take a look at the scene of this crash landing in kergestan. everyone survived but more than 30 people were hurt when the russian-made jet flipped over and caught fire. about 100 people were on board at the time and an investigation is underway now to determine why the plane went down. those are headlines. >> thanks, flo. from flo let's go to iowa, the hawkeye steak, where two weeks ago newt gingrich was in first

place. he's now in fourth place and surging up next and neck with newt is, look at that, rick santorum has caught fire among social conservatives in the great state of my birth, iowa. >> clayton: and mitt romney at the top. statistically they are tied for the third place spot but he was at the back of the pack. if you think about it, he was at the back of the pack. and now really he is the guy who has spent the most time on the ground in iowa, and it seems to be paying awful he's going after ron paul, one of the frontrunners there, trying to paint him as the real social conservative in iowa. >> alisyn: it shows us it's slow and steady can get you somewhere? just all of the footwork that he has put into iowa now seems to be catching fire because we know there are so many iowans have said they are still undecided or were as of the last polls. it's not too late for him. but it feels like for us it's

the 11th hour, but he is surging. he also said if he finishes before michele bachmann and rick perry, he will consider this a victory because he was dead last. >> right. he wants to be considered the most conservative of the people in the top tier. now the poll numbers we just gave you were from a brand new time magazine poll. taking a quick look at the real clear politics average, and they take a look at all the polls and glom them all together for an average, right now in iowa ron paul is still on top, but only by half a percent. he's caved about three, four, five points in the last week or two. and still nationally, newt gingrich is at 2.6%. newt gingrich himself will be live with us exactly one hour from now right here on "fox and friends." >> meanwhile the michele bachmann campaign suffering yet another setback. you look at the poll numbers, she's pretty much dead last right now. now her iowa campaign chairman defected yesterday.

earlier in the morning kent sorenson was at her event, three hours later he pops up and shows up at a ron paul event. >> wait a minute, are you saying he was for her before he was against her? >> right. and now before he voted -- at least we have videotape of him being there. he thinks he did the right thing. take a listen to him. >> the fact of the matter is we have a two-person race. i do not believe ron paul's campaign is in trouble. i believe we have a real opportunity here and i believe i did the right thing. >> you believe that bachman's campaign is in trouble? >> you know, she's going to have to answer for her campaign. but listen, she is not in the top tier. she is not in position to beat mitt romney. we are. >> all right. michele bachmann said he had an entirely different motivation for leaving. she it wasn't because she had a flagging campaign, it was because of money. she said ron paul's campaign offered her campaign chairman money and that he sold out. so let's read what she had to

say about kent sorenson. >> steve: we should point out the paul campaign said it wasn't about money, and the fellow in question, sorenson, who is a state senator, a republican, he said that's not why i left. and there is he is right there. >> clayton: i wonder if he has to shave. there's a report out ron paul supporters are told they have to shave, they have to shower, and they have -- they can't be on social networks, and they can't swear. >> steve: why is that? >> alisyn: why can't they be on social networks? >> alisyn: because they don't want them tweeting something that would get emthis trouble and they want them to look good. he has facial hair. i wonder if he will have to shave now. >> steve: and he would be a contrast to the occupy people

who will show up and try to disrupt campaign red quarters but they will not try to apparently, reportedly, disrupt the actual voting. apparently the republicans are so disturbed by having these occupy people out in eyewash they have decided to do the actual vote tabulation for all of the precincts for the state of iowa in a secret location. i heard one guy yesterday refer to it as a bunker. it's not an actual bunker but they just aren't going to tell the occupy people where they are doing the count. >> alisyn: what does the upset mean for michele bachmann? she says not much because she says she will not bow out of this race, even if she does poorly in iowa. so many people will use that as their litmus test if they will move forward, but she said she is not going to do that. >> i'm all in for the presidency. remember, there's only been one state-wide race and there's only been one winner and that's been me.

again, the american people are making their mind up, and as you said, there's almost half of iowans aren't sure at this point. but what we have seen is nothing short of remarkable. people are making up that are minds on the spot. >> steve: and she's right with regard to the fact that there are still so many people who are either undecided or are persuadable. come tuesday night they could do just that. keep in mind, tuesday night not only will the republicans be caucusing but the democrats will as well. even though it's a slam-dunk president obama will wind up be the democrat's nominee, he has a big presence in iowa. >> clayton: his re-election campaign machine there is probably the best oiled out of all these candidates. listen to this. his office, he has 8 office necessary iowa. that's more than some of the gop candidates have. his contingency have made

350,000 phone calls, they have 1200 volunteers working the phones and doing different things in iowa because, you remember, he won in 2008 there over john mccain. he doesn't want to lose it this time. >> alisyn: sure. let's talk about something newt gingrich has written. it's in the wall street journal. he said he has the recipe for successor should i correct myself and say reagan has the recipe for success and newt gingrich follows it? he lays out all the things that president reagan began did that he would do as well. >> clayton: let's start. he has three ideas. the first one is tax reform to maximize growth. what he says is he would like to have a 12 1/2% business rate, eliminate capital gates and the estate tax, and on top of that he says he's for a 15% flat tax. >> clayton: and he thinks the out of control government spending. he's talked on our show repeatedly about getting rid of the fraud. he said look what happened in 1983 when ronald reagan's poll

numbers were way down and didn't look like he would come back for re-election. from october of '83 to october of '84, 4.4 million jobs were gained in that period under the reagan surge. >> alisyn: and herman cain obviously started that flat tax talk, and 15% flat tax he said would be optional. newt gingrich said you could choose that if you wanted to file your taxes on a postcard because that's all it would take. >> but steve forbes criticized rick perry's version of that which was sort of an optional flat tax. and steve forbes came out and criticized gingrich as well for a similar proposal. he wants a flat tax pure and simple, not an optional one. >> steve: i do think that certain people at the lower end of the economic food chain would be exempt from paying the 15%. he we can talk to newt gingrich. he will be joining us live at 8:00 eastern time right here on

"fox and friends." by the way, remember we were talking yesterday -- all the candidates are coming here. yesterday we were talking to milt romney -- mitt romney that newt gingrich was like lucy at the chocolate factory. newt gingrich actually went to a chocolate store yesterday and making some pictures. >> clayton: they are trying to pressure him on doing a 90 minute debate one-on-one. >> steve: not going to happen. >> alisyn: we will ask him about all of that. meanwhile democrats in the senate on the verge of losing their last remaining majority in congress. if the senate goes republican and president obama holds on to the white house, can he govern effective? we will have a pair and balanced debate about that. >> clayton: coming up, the girl scout that blew the whistle on the controversy about the media badge.

>> welcome back. ben nelson is out and is the senate open for a take over? what happens if the republicans do take over the senate and president obama stays in the white house? can he govern? we have penny on the right side of your screen and the co-host of five and fox news contributor andrea on the left side. andrea let me start with you. how will we be able to govern if there is a republican controlled senate and house with president obama at the helm? >> well, i think he's going to

do what he did in his last -- the last two years of this term, which is act through executive order and circumvent the legislature. we've seen him pass a number of legislations through the epa and he uses that executive pen to do it. it's very emperialist. the base will want him to put points on the board and he won't be able to get things through the house and senate. republicans taking the senate is very likely, lips after the nelson retirement we saw. they only need four seats so this is very, very likely to happen. but he might lose and we might have a republican president and then we can hold all three bodies and that would be great. >> and look at all of this, right now the 33 seats up for grabs and 21 seats held by democrats and two by independents. there's a lot up for grabs. and there's a article in the wall street journal saying your

former boss, senate majority leader harry reid will likely be out of a leadership position. do you buy that? >> no, there's still a long time left to be had. what the american people want to see is in the next year they actually can govern. people want to see it's not a transient no, no, no. mitch mcconnell has perfected the art of just say no. and the american people are saying, look, they have a 9% approval rating, throw everybody out. we want leaders that will govern. the key will be to see whether or not it flips and goes to the democrats or the republicans, whether or not they actually can get together and work with this president to get some things done. >> interesting point. >> that will determine who will win in the senate. >> the reason they haven't been allowed to get a lot of things done is because these democratic senators who are up for re-election in conservative swinging states like missouri, like mccassell, they aren't with harry reid. they are actually blocking the

millionaire's tax and other things like that. this isn't a republican problem. >> when you have someone like mitch mcconnell that blocks nomination after nomination, that blocks vote after vote, sometimes they are going 90 to 0 or 90 to 10. when you have that kind of leader just being a roadblock, of course the president has to do executive orders, of course the president has to do other things. what you did see in the last round with the payroll tax, mitch mcconnell finally said i get what the people are saying, they want this tax cut, and i'm willing to work on it. you know what? it got done. >> to penny's point, and this is one of the criticism of him, he we want to make him a one term president, how can he work with a guy like that? but is there a hope we can return to the ways of the 90s, things actually got done. is there hope that maybe president obama was professing?

>> not as long as president obama is in office. remember he said he was going to bring everybody together and actually yes are seeing the most divided country that we've seen in decades. the president has largely stayed out of a lot of these decisions. remember he told barbara walters i tend to be a little lazy. he doesn't get involved. you hear senators saying where is the president on a lot of these important deals? he's failed to lead. so leadership comes from the top and the president has really dropped the ball. but i do hope they can get things done. the two-month payroll extension is a joke. if the democrats think it will turn around the economy, that's the most laughable thing i've heard all year. >> back to the senate, is there any way for the democrats to hold on? >> sure. there are interesting races out there. i think you will see some surprises in places like north dakota with heidi and massachusetts, that's a republican seat that has to be held but we have a very strong candidate with elizabeth warren. there will be a lot of moving and shaking that will happen

between now and the election. i think we have a good shot of holding the senate. >> you have 23 seats to defend. that's a lot of moving and shaking, penny. i don't think so. >> we have some very, very strong candidates. john hester, and we have very good candidates out there. >> it will be a fascinating road to that election. we will be watching it here. ladies, thank you so much. have a happy new year. >> happy new year. >> coming up, we told you how the girl scouts are getting a lesson in media bias by following a blog. when we come back we will get the comments from the whistle blower on that.

>> steve: welcome back. time for your news by the numbers. first up, 27. that's the number of generals and admiral positions being cut by the u.s. military. it's a plan to reduce the upper ranks by 10% over the next five years. and up next, 1 million, that's the number who visited the 9/11 memorial since it opened in november, making it the most visited tourist acracks. and $2,000, that's the price of that dress wornpy michelle obama. >> and a liberal blog is the place to get the facts strat about media. it started because a sharp girl scout like our next guest noticed the pie as.

>> joining us is former girl scout sidney valansky. good morning. >> thank you for having me. >> you and your family started notices kind of what you would feel is a liberal agenda in the national girl scout organization. when you saw in a book it was suggesting if you really want to know what's going on in the media, go to media matters, which is clearly a lefty blog, you said that's just not going to stand, right? >> yes. my sister and i started a website to help inform families of the more left ward leanings of girl scouts because they promised to be neutral politically and about certain social issues, but when you examine the women that they promote and the websites and books that they refer girls to, there is a clear liberal ideology like with the media

matters site. >> alisyn: and you were a girl scout for eight years, you were a proud girl scout. you say it was a huge part of your life. but because you started seeing these incidents of lack of neutrality you started the website called speaknowgirlscouts.com? what are you trying to accomplish with that? >> we are just trying to spread awareness to families because we were so deceived for the 8 years we were in girl scouts. we didn't realize girl scouts was promoting such a liberal ideology. we really just want to help families to understand girl scouts' real motives and what they are really promoting. >> steve: in particular at the national level, we've got a sound bite from 2004, the woman who runs the girl scouts, kathy, and here she talks about a special relationship between the national girl scouts and planned

parenthood. >> we have relationships with our church communities, with ywcas and with planned parenthood organizations across the country to bring information-based sex education programs to girls. >> steve: one of our producers was told she made a misstatement back then and that there is no relationship between the girl scouts and planned parenthood. do you believe that to be true? >> i don't believe that is true. for one thing that statement has never been formally retracted. so that kind of makes you wonder why she doesn't just say, oh, i made a mistake, let me retract that instead of just having everyone else says it but she never comes out with that. so that's one thing. but also when you look at the site they are promoting, they send girls to abortion advocacy websites which in turn will send them to planned parenthood.

and several years ago they actually had a direct link where they were sending girls directly to planned parenthood in a badge called "on your own." you can find out all the details about these websites and these links on my website speaknowgirlscouts. >> alisyn: and you say because you brought this to the attention of the girl scouts and to parents and other families, it looks like the girl scouts are going to take "media matters" out of their reprinting of the media guide. here is their statement. >> alisyn: you must feel satisfied that you have gotten some progress? >> well, it is good that they have decided to remove this. this is just one of many issues. there are several books in this

series that they have for girls, and there are numerous issues of liberal women and books that they are promoting. this isn't the only issue. and also, we're not sure that this is really resolved because with the help of some friends, we checked girl scout council bookstores in houston, jacksonville, st. louis and cincinnati, and this was just last week, and we check the books that they make this reference to, and it still had the reference in it. so obviously girl scouts is not concerned enough to pull these books off the shelves. >> steve: thank you very much, sidney, for bringing all of this to our attention. we didn't realize about the media bias and we didn't realize about the planned parenthood. turns out girl scouts is more than just of the cookies. thank you very much. thank you for joining us from houston. >> thank you for having me. >> steve: happy new year to you. >> alisyn: check out her website and i will put it out via

twitter. meanwhile the latest iowa policy shows ron paulson the rise. if he wins can we expect them to have moron paul like policies. john stossel is here. >> every second counts. a daring dog rescue that you have got to see. hang on, boy, hang on! help is around the corner! ♪

[ male announcer ] thinking of others this holiday season, travelers.

>> steve: welcome back. time for your shot of the morning. watch as firefighters rescue a dog from a freezing cold river in fargo, north dakota. the shot, the video shot via helmet cam. you can see jack, the black lab, clip on to the ice until firefighters pull hem out. he got into the mess after his owner's invisible fence quit working. we are happy to report he's home and doing just fine this morning. >> alisyn: oh, my gosh. i'm cold just thinking about that. here comes another dog to say hi to him. so cute. >> i'm cold just thinking about it. i'm cold because i'm out in it and it's really cold out here. >> it's nice and toasty. >> that must be hard on you. >> you put the weather man out

in the weather and the weather outside is chilly. let's go ahead and, oh, look, turn around here. this is interesting. somebody is having her picture taken as i do the weather. wait. where are you guys from? >> delaware. >> delaware. >> all right. having a nice time? >> beautiful. >> what's your name? >> jane and joe. >> and i'm joe. >> good. and they are going to help me with the weather. >> yes! >> all right. let's go ahead and take a look at the maps. man, look at how cold it is. >> it's 25 trees here in new york. that's -- 25 degrees in new york. that's cold. >> and jane does sound effects. and kansas city, home of the fine of the barbeque in the world i say because i'm from that area. and temperatures in florida down in the 40s. let's go to the next map. if somebody would hit the space bar. joe, look at the high temperatures. 68 in new orleans and 73 in phoenix. let's go now! >> look at caribou, maine. 12! >> that's a bad number. >> that's the high temperature

for you guys. >> that's low. >> that's low. >> are you guys in town for the new year's eve celebration? >> no, we are leaving today. >> really? >> we came for the rockettes. >> really? >> well, you will -- you don't have to be in times square because we will have it on tv. it will be live hosted by bill and megan. >> we love them. >> you will be watching? >> we will watch. >> and bill and i have the sale birthday. >> how would you know that? >> because i watch you guys every day. >> did he write back? >> no, he didn't. >> but i'm not hurt. >> very good. very nice meeting you. thank you very much. >> thank you. thank you, thank you. >> and joe and jane, happy new year. >> happy new year. >> stick around for an hour. you people can be next.

>> alisyn. remember when we did the new year's show you were pregnant with twins and we were hanging offer the 15 story of the marriott in times square. >> and you are using me for ballast. you were clingling to me because i was an anchor in more ways than one. >> you weren't going anywhere and you were about to pop. we're not talking champagne. >> that was heartwarming. i think steve was looking for two knew anchors out there. >> i think so too or he was look for warm bodies to be by him. >> and four-star general turned cia chief, petreas. a biography will show he wanted to withdraw after president obama decided to draw down troops. he decided not to quit because he thought it would be selfish

grandstanding with huge political ramifications. two semi-trucks collide in florida causing an explosion. it happened on. 95 in port orange earlier this morning t closed down the entire interstate. the southbound lanes have been reopened. police say the woods nearby also caught fire. they say at least four cars were involved in the crash and at least one person is dead there this morning. do you remember this frenzy over sneakers? well, chaotic scenes like that one were seen across the country when the latest pair of air jordans hit stores last week. any community leaders in houston are calling on nike and michael jordan to make changes. they say if they were less expensive and more available to customers, there would be far less violence. nike said customer safety is one of their greatest priorities.

still they are not budging on their prices at this time. nascar driver casey khan taking heat from moms. he vented about how disgusting it was to see a woman inside a grocery store nursing her baby. women fought back calling him sexist. eventually removed the post and issued an apology on facebook saying i respect a mother's right to feed her child whenever and wherever she pleases. that's a change of tune. >> definitely a change of tune. good policy there. the ball there soon drop on times square and john stossel is looking back from a libertarian perspective. >> the credit rating agency, standard and poor's have decided to downgrade america's credit rating. >> and we will talk about the war. we will be able to remove 10,000 troops from afghanistan.

>> a seismic shift in egypt. >> does it mean freedom? what will the protests in the united states? all i know, they sure don't like me. >> stossel! i heard you on tv! i know that you lie! >> well, santa claus -- >> man, they hate that guy! they hate john stossel. he is joining us right now. why do they hate you? >> because i say we are going broke and we have to cut stuff, and none of those people want to cut anything. everybody wants free stuff, more forever. >> steve: and we are going broke, aren't we? >> we are. but the remarkable thing is this year the needle moved. seven months ago paul ryan came out with a timid budget cutting plan and people went nuts. and they said it looked like grandma being pushed off a cliff and newt calling it right wing social engineering. half a year later newt is apologizing, other republicans are supporting the plan and ryan himself said now i would go further. >> so is if going to be a

libertarian year ahead? you talked about, you are the one saying we are going broke and nobody wants to hear it. somebody who was saying that for years was congressman ron paul and no one was listening to him. and now suddenly people are listening. but is it going to be a libertarian year going forward? >> well, thomas jefferson said the natural progress of things for government is to grow and that's what has been happening. so i'm a pessimist. but he's been saying it for years, i've been saying it for years, they are listening to ron paul now, at least some people. that's exciting to me. >> and yet you've seen the needle move in terms of libertarian views and yet occupy protestors are trying to move the needle in the other direction. >> yes, they want free education, free everything. but even the tea party folks say don't cut medicare. and it's medicare that's going to bankrupt us faster. >> so it's hard to say if these steps have taken hold. >> yes, eats hard to say.

and obama is passing new regulations all the time. so the progress is always, as jefferson said, for government to grow and liberty to yield. >> as a libertarian, and you are not aligned with the right or the left, you are somewhere in the middle there -- >> we are on the right here, left here. >> all over the place. >> although the plan is out there, which seems more promising to you, those from the right or those from the left? >> those from the right. to me the most important issue is to stop the growth of government. and the republican study group has a plan that wouldn't do it quickly, but even the republican presidential candidates are talking about shrinking government by attrition. why do they say attrition? what's wrong with firing? businesses fire the deadwood. is government so special you have to wait for them to choose to leave? then the best people go and the lazy people stay. >> that's a good point. john stossel who joins us live on the curvey couch.

after watching that video, do you have a food tester? >> i'm not eating anything that guy gave me. why is it called the kirby couch? >> curvey. >> it's a semi circle, not curvey. >> the semi circle couch isn't as catchy. >> that's true. >> you can watch john on fox network. what if rick santorum and michele bachmann joined force necessary evangelicals think that is the ticket to the white house and the reverend behind that plan for a shotgun marriage joins us live from iowa next. >> and if the white house won't hold a parade welcoming our heros home from war, we have someone who will, and he's done it before. is it a good idea? we report, you decide. it's the perfect time to find great deals

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>> welcome back. quick headlines. the 24 hour crackdown in california starts tomorrow to ticket distracted drivers. plain-clothed officers will be on foot at several major intersection necessary sacramento peering into drivers' windows to catch those using cell phones. don't do it. and the real one behind the 1963 "the birds" have been solved. they weren't trying to destroy humanity, they were poisoned by toxic plankton. i know it's a burning question and you have long been looking for an answer. >> it is. >> iowa pastor, kerry gordon,

said he approached michele bachmann and asked her to step aside so she would not split the evangelical vote between herself and rick santorum but bachman said that conversation never happened. here is reverend gordon. pastor, nice to see you this morning. >> good to see you. thank you. >> okay. before we get to the conversation that you had with michele bachmann, you are calling for a shotgun wedding of sorts. will you explain what you are hoping for this week? >> well, that's exactly right. if you have been looking at the polling data over the past several weeks, we've seen a ten-ten-ten split between rick santorum, michele bachmann and governor rick perry and that's troubling to the evangelical voters, people who are concerned about having a strong conservative in the running here as we move out of iowa, into south carolina and new hampshire. we have done some polling and the polling data indicates that there does need to be some kind of a coalition or coalescing of

these campaigns. i think it would be easier for certain campaigns to set their egos aside and do what is best for the country rather than waiting necessarily on thousands of perspective voters to caucus and do it for them. the conversation has been broached between both senator santorum and michele bachmann at some point. and on the sunday after thanksgiving i did have a sit down with her and my wife and we discussed the possibility. what i specifically asked was that she prayer fully consider stepping aside and throwing her weight behind rick santorum and perhaps joining him in some way, you know, talking about a cabinet position. i would like to see both of these people in the white house because they are both champions of all things we hold deer as conservatives. >> michele bachmann said she doesn't remember that part of the conversation or, in fact, that you didn't even have it with her. let's listen to what she told our reporter, griff jenkins, about this. >> there's a report out that two politically active pastors in

iowa are leading an effort to have either you or rick santorum to drop out from splitting the evangelical vote for fear that romney or ron paul would win. have you been approached by any pass stores to do something like that, and if so, what are you going to do? >> well, i haven't. obviously i'm here to run and win. there is no candidate across the state that has a greater level of evangelical support across the state. >> so money has approached you? >> no one has approached me, no. >> she said no one approached her. is there possible she had a different interpretation of your sit-down conversation with her? >> could be. my heart goes out to her. she's campaigning hard over the state of iowa and having tens of thousands of conversations with a lot of people i think if i was in her place i might forget something too. that's okay. >> did you have the same conversation with rick santorum? >> yes. i broached the subject with him earlier on in the campaign and more as a hypothetical, would he

be willing. some of us saw this as a problem long ago. my question for him in a hypothetical situation, if it needs to happen before the caucus, would you be willing to do it, and he respectfully declined, just as michelle has, and said give me the reasons why, i didn't think it was necessary, and i respect that. but i think we've got polling data come out now. >> alisyn: actually just sent it to the fox news in box a few minutes ago, we are filtering through the numbers but there seems to be veracity for what we are saying and seems to be a lot of support with iowa voters. i would hope both campaigns would seriously consider this would be a good move. a lot of people like both of them. they have been great champions of the things we believe in. we would like to see both of them in the white house. they are great people. >> now that both of them have respectfully deline and said they are in it to win it, what do you think is going to happen on january 3rd? >> well, your guess is as good as mine. there's a lot of speculation what is going to happen. i'll tell you this, i have since

then come out and endorsed senator santorum publicly. i think he's an honest man i can trust. he will do a fine job as president and bring honor to the presidency. if i had magic dust i would three it on him and like to see him take first place. >> we are about to talk to newt gingrich. he will join us live momentarily. why don't you support newt gingrich? >> well, there's two reasons. one is obviously the thing brought up in the last fox news debate, by newt himself, there are legitimate concerns among evangelical people and others about marital infidelity. and there's also the issue of i ideology infidelity. before he was supporting abortions for poor women in a lot of situations. that is frightening to a lot of

people. my position is if you are a changed man and a new man, go back and run for a lower office and show us the new newt gingrich so i have the trust and he has the credibility for ask for a promotion to be the most powerful man in the world. >> we will get newt gingrich's reactions to your thoughts coming up as soon as we talk to him. reverend gordon, thanks for coming on and tell us about the conversation you had with michele bachmann and rick santorum. we appreciate it. >> thank you very much. >> the white house has no plans to host a parade for those returning from war but what if someone else stepped up to the plate? that's next. and in 1974 elton john had the number one song with "lucy in the sky with diamonds." ♪

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>> it is an icon, an iconic, that is to say, american image. u.s. soldiers from world war ii honored with a huge ticker tape parade when they came home. i believe that is new york city. there's also a parade marking the end of other wars. joining us right now a vietnam vet who also threw a parade to welcome home gulf war troops, john weekly. he is joins us live from dallas. good morning. >> good morning. >> you were the executive producers for the stars and stripes for troops when they came home from gulf war i, weren't you? >> i was. we had the largest celebration in the country. we had people from all over the southwestern united states, a number of troops involved. we had a number of diplomats who

were from the coalition countries so it was quite a celebration. >> it sounds like it. yesterday on this program we were talking about, the pentagon hasn't asked yet for a parade and it doesn't sound like the white house wants one because nobody wants to take a victory lap. here's rick perry running for president on how he feels that a lack of parade would be disrespectful. >> it really disturbs me that nearly after nine years of war in iraq, that this president wouldn't welcome home our many heros with a simple parade in their honor. >> steve: a simple parade in their honor is what a lot of people would like to see, john. and you say you don't need the okay of the pentagon, you just need somebody to start organizing it, right? explain that. >> these parades are organized on a community basis. if a community wants to have a parade or some other kind of celebration event, they can certainly do that. you do need the cooperation of the pentagon to get things like

color guards and, of course, the military bands which are terribly important and if you want units to march in the parade then you have to have their permission. but basically the pentagon doesn't initiate th y, those around the world that are potentially in harm's way, to their families and allies and to our adversaries who don't like us and in many cases don't like each other, that we aren't hesitant to support our troops and show them we appreciate their service and sacrifice and

that of their families. >> when you returned from vietnam, no parade? >> well, we didn't have a parade, but the city of dallas, which is an extraordinarily patriotic city, did stage a welcome home the troops event at the cotton bowl and we had bob hope in. >> that's nice. >> it was wonderful to be thanked in that way and i thought that was a great thing for the city to do. >> sure. absolutely. but it would be nice to have a national-scale parade. so if somebody is watching right now and wants to organize it and get the ball rolling, let us know. john weekly did just that, and we thank him very much for his service and for joining us today from dallas. thank you, john. >> thank you. >> all right. what do you think? do you want to help? e-mail us. all right, straight ahead with newt gingrich now kicked off the virginia ballot, will he sue to get back on? the former speaker is here live in just a couple of minutes. and drop the biscuit, the new york times is out to end an

american classic. we are talking about southern cooking because fried chicken and potatoes simply aren't dignified for the old gray lady. so who ordered the cereal that can help lower olesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole gin oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios.

>> alisyn: good morning, everyone. today is thursday, december 29. i'm alisyn camerota in for gretchen. new polls out of iowa show a toss-up with less than a week before caucus night. that's good news for the front runners. but they're not who they used to be yesterday. the very latest shakeup. >> steve: meanwhile, he considers himself a conservative, but we just heard why evangelicals in iowa aren't supporting him. so what will newt gingrich do? newt joins us live from iowa in a couple of minutes. >> clayton: plus, put down that biscuit, lose the gravy. according to the "new york times," southerners sort of a little batting heads over undignified versions of southern food. we're going to read your e-mails on that coming up. "fox & friends" hour three

starts right now. >> this is paula deen and y'all are watching "fox & friends," the news machine. >> steve: thank you very much, paula. we were just talking about somebody perhaps hosting nationwide parade for our returning troops. frank suggestsen donald trump. knows a lot of people with a lot of money. >> alisyn: done. done. i mean, we can make that happen. >> steve: we'll talk to him about it next time, maybe on monday or tuesday of next week. >> alisyn: let's get to your headlines. this hour in the news, call it precaucus chaos. police in des moines, iowa arresting ten occupy protesters making a scene outside of mitt romney's campaign office. the protesters demanding romney return campaign donations from wells fargo bank. the issue, though, wells fargo says it has not made any donations to political campaigns. they're also demanding romney release his tax returns. so far romney refused.

the reverend jesse jackson is planning to join protesters later today. a major shakeup for michelle bachmann. one of her most high profile advisors in iowa has left the campaign for ron paul's campaign. iowa state senator kent sorensen spent time at an event at a bachman event, then a couple of hours later appeared with ron paul to issue an endorsement. >> she's going to have to answer for her campaign. but she's not in position to beat mitt romney. we are. >> alisyn: bachman claims sorensen left because he was offered a large sum of money from paul's campaign. sorensen denies those accusations. a bombshell revelation about four star general turned c.i.a. chief david petraeus, an upcoming biography will reveal he wanted to resign as commander of the afghan war after president obama decided to draw down troops. the book claims petraeus decided not to quit because he thought it would be a, quote, selfish

grand standing move with huge political ramifications. talk about excessive taste. michelle obama spending $2,000 on this sun dress which she wore during the first family's $4 million hawaiian vacation. she changed into a $950 skirt just hours later. both outfits from french designers. can they fit a case of beer under them? that's what i'm now looking for in a dress. >> steve: al circumstances referring to an earlier story which we will replay. while the republican candidates are hitting iowa, president obama is, as ali reported, vacations in hawaii. but some of the president's behavior is not sit too long well with the press corp. >> clayton: for more on that, we go to peter doocy live in dc with more. >> good morning. according to yesterday's white house travel reporter, the travel pool was deliberately denied arrival and departure coverage of the president and

first lady's dinner party last night and he says that that is unacceptable. their dinner ran late until the night until four hours ago, at a restaurant called alan wong's in the president's old neighborhood. they dined with a handful of friends and the president's sister. but we know that because the photographer from another network happened o to be eating dinner at the restaurant, gave intel, including that one appetizer being eaten was a sample of three but thers from local dairies. but we don't know positively who else was at the table with the president and the first lady and that's because the white house did not release the names of their dinner companions which they generally do. we also don't have any video of the first family yesterday at all because before they were shut out of the dinner coverage, the press pool was shut out of the golf course coverage, forced to hang out at a industrial mall while the president hit the links for six hours. but he has been getting some work done. yesterday earlier before golf, the president issued a

proclamation that january 2012 will be national stalk awareness month. >> alisyn: three but thers? paula deen would be proud. >> steve: indeed. what is it he expect. >> clayton: he's on vacation. the press corp., what do they expect? nothing is really happening. >> steve: they want to know what he's up to. >> clayton: i guess at a strip mall you can go to a gap. >> alisyn: sounds good to me. >> steve: five minutes after the top of the hour. now live from sioux city, iowa, newt gingrich. good morning to you, mr. speaker. >> good morning. how are you? >> steve: great, thank you very much. listen, a couple of days ago, mitt romney said that you not getting on the ballot in virginia was a little disorganized, much like louisly at the chocolate factory. and then he said on this program yesterday that he was just joking around. but i understand yesterday, mr. speaker, in the city of my birth, algona, iowa, you turned the tables on mitt romney and you actually went to a chocolate

factory. did you feel like lucy? [ laughter ] well, that's a great segment. i can't say it may have dated both of us to refer back to a lucille ball segment. but it's a great shop in algona and wonderful young family that runs it and we had a great time. they allowed us to make some chocolate. calista's mother loves chocolate. we got her chocolate for the new year. happy new year to you guys. i hope you have a great new year's eve. >> steve: thank you. >> i'll bet you having three kinds of butter won't be on your new year's resolutions. >> clayton: getting rid of it would be on my new year's resolution. maybe getting on the virginia ballot might be part of your new year's resolution. >> by the way, you'll notice that governor perry's filed a lawsuit. rick santorum didn't get on the ballot. michelle bachmann and jon huntsman didn't get on the

ballot. >> clayton: you have democrats coming to your aid as well. but i have to ask you about this idea that fraud was involved that, somehow these signatures were turned over, one of these guys may have turned in some false signatures there which you now say. are you going to sue? >> well, i don't know what will happen because frankly we're focused on iowa and then new hampshire. the lawyers are looking at that. i'm not a lawyer. i'm an historian. but let me say that here we're very excited today because we have art laffer, who in many ways was the father of reaganomics. we worked with jack kitchen and developed the economic program that created millions and millions of jobs. he's come to iowa to endorse me. we're very excited to have someone his caliber to verify that the economic plan i have will create millions of new jobs and get the economy moving again. that's really the focus of the closing days here in iowa. we've done three telephone town hall meetings. we've had 32,000 people on the calls. i feel very good about it. our crowds, every yesterday were

very large and the chocolate factory, it was standing room only. it was hard to pass out chocolates. there were so many people standing together. very good crowds and we'll see what happens. i think is totally up in the air and i think that it's a little bit hard to know now, we got four more days of like this before we get to the final vote at the caucus. >> alisyn: right. but speaking of this, the up and down, there is a new poll, new time magazine cnn poll shows you in iowa having slipped to fourth place. now rick santorum surging. what do you make of that? >> well, i think anybody who has eight or $9 million of negative advertising, much of it false thrown at him is going to slide for a while. we now have our ads up starting yesterday. they're very portion they're very direct. they talk about my record. there is a brand-new michael reagan program up in which michael reagan talks about how i worked with his father and why if you're a reagan conservative i'm the right candidate. we have a number of other things

happening, they're all positive. and i'm frankly barn storming iowa making the case that they shouldn't vote for the people who have been running the negative ads. this is a chance for iowans to say, we're sick of consultant driven negative politics. the stakes are too big, the election is too important. let's elect somebody who has big solutions and actually has a track record in washington of getting it done. on the ground we're getting tremendous response, as your own correspondents can tell you. the crowds are large, and a large number of people saying they're going to caucus with me tuesday night. >> steve: you just mentioned michael reagan and i know you worked with his father when you were back in the day. and you've written "wall street journal" editorial today where you talk about reagan had a great recipe for success for america and it led to decades of positivity and good growth here in the united states. and some of the points, tax reform, sound dollar and smarter

regulations. one of the things you suggest is a 15% flat tax. for the people who are -- they were familiar with herman cain's 9-9-9 might not be familiar with your 15% flat tax. explain how that would work. >> well, this is an idea we developed from steve forbes, from hong kong. hong kong for the last generation, you have a choice. you keep all the deductions, or you put down how much you earned, how many dependents you have and pay 15%. one page, very simple. and by giving people -- you eliminate the political fight over taking away deductions and you give people when are better off on a simple, straightforward form who don't want to keep lots of records, don't want to fill out lots of complicated forms. so our 15% flat tax gives people a very vivid, clear choice and enables them to lower their taxes. we also have a zero capital gains tax to bring in hundreds of billions of dollars for new investment, factories and for new businesses. we have a 12 1/2% corporate tax

rate which will bring in $700 billion in locked up profits overseas and let our companies compete world wide. we have 100% expensing, which means if you buy new equipment as a farmer, factory a business, you write it off in one year to make us the most modern country in the world. and we eliminate the death tax permanently so family businesses can focus on job creation. >> clayton: one big question that's come up over the past couple of weeks in iowa and maybe before that is who is the true conservative in iowa? we've heard all of these difference messages out there. moderate mitt and kind of lumping you in with him on that. now there is an evangelical pastor who is calling for a michelle bachmann-rick santorum ticket. take a listen. >> there is legitimate concerns among evangelical people and otherwise about marital infidelity. but more importantly, in addition to that, there is also the issue of ideological infidelity. go back to 1995 and you have comments from newt, according to

the chicago tribune, that he was supporting federally funded abortions for poor women in certain situations. my council has been for his campaign, if you're a changed man, if you're a new man, go back and run for a lower office and show us the new newt gingrich that's different than the old newt gingrich. >> clayton: any plans to run for a lower office? >> look, first of all, there are thousands of people who have opinions. he's one of them. what he said about 1995 is false. i don't know where he got that from. it's not true. i have a consistent record on right 120 life and, in fact, i had a 98.6% voting record with the national right to life committee. i twice helped pass partial birth abortion which president clinton vetoed, finally designed into law by president bush. my record in that area has been consistent all the way through my career. so when you're in the middle of a campaign, different people show up and make different allegations. the fact is i've been a conservative -- i went to a

goldwater organizing meeting in 1964. i worked with ronald reagan from 1974 on. i helped -- i have a 90% american conservative union voting record. it's much harder to be much more consistent than that. >> alisyn: mr. speaker, if you'll stick around, we have more questions for you. yesterday we asked mitt romney how he'd handle iraq today and now it's newt gingrich's turn to tell us what president gingrich would do differently there. >> steve: and bye-bye biscuits and gravy. the "new york times" wants to eliminate classic southern cooking because it just ain't dignified. really? we're going to share your e-mail at the bottom of the hour

>> steve: got quick headlines. brand-new research shows the breakthrough cancer drug avastin really works when it comes to slowing the growth of ovarian cancer. but unfortunately, it does not increase survival rates as originally intended. talk about skirting the law, watch as this woman stealing a 24-pack of beer by hiding it under her skirt. she walked off, no trouble at all. some speculate she may have used a basket tied to suspenders to support the weight. not much else is known about the tape. it went viral on the internet this week. all right. coming up, we will go live to newt gingrich in a moment. but we lost our satellite signal to sioux city and in the meantime, ali has this. >> alisyn: we have a great story. back in 2004, an explosion from an tank mine cost dale beaty both legs. it severely injured his friend,

john, injuring his head and back. both were honored with purple hearts. when the two returned to the states, they created purple heart homes. it's a nonprofit which provides that veterans with homes designed to suit their specific needs. they just recently received $15,000 grant from wal-mart, during the 12 days of giving campaign. they're joining us. thank you for being here. >> thank you, alisyn. great to be here. >> good morning. >> alisyn: great to see you guys. so you both were injured in iraq and i understand, dale, when you got home, it was much harder than you expected because obviously in the hospital, there were elevators, there are ramps. what was life like when you got home? >> well, it's the real world. it's what people with disabilities have to live with every day and i think i was a little bit sheltered from that being in the hospital. when i got home, the challenges were readily apparent. >> alisyn: john what, did you

guys decide to do to sort of pay it forward and help other people in your same straights? >> after seeing what dale went through, it was really -- it opened our eyes that it's not only injuries about iraq and afghanistan veteran, but how about the older veterans and how can we set something up to pay it forward so that at some point in life, we're going to be 60, 70 years old and we'll be a forgotten war and there will be another iraq or afghanistan or wherever it may be. so there is no reason to leave those older vets behind. it was really much about helping them as well. >> alisyn: so dale, what did you guys do? >> we started out and our primary goal was to assist other veterans live comfortably within their homes. we started doing just remodel jobs. now we've added two more programs. we have three programs that really enable us to thank veterans across a huge spectrum of age and injury. so these three programs, we

think, are leading and innovative in the ways that we're taking care of veterans and involving the community and just using foreclosed homes to put veterans in foreclosed homes that we're able to get from the banks. so we have a lot of good folks supporting us and there is a lot of veterans out there that need help. we find more every day. >> alisyn: and what a great project. john, i know that wal-mart's 12 days of giving facebook campaign really helped you guy. >> it did. what an honor to be part of a campaign. a wonderful surprise. on day eight we received a phone call at our office and they told us of the $15,000 grant that we were being awarded. with that, it helps us to make an immediate difference in the life of a veteran in south carolina where they live in a home where their disability prohibits the veteran from being able to work. the wife is a full-time care giver with an 18 month old child. they have no heat in their

house. it allows to us immediately assess their needs, as well, we have another veteran that we have a project starting in january where the funding will assist us in that project and being one of 26 projects that we have planned for next year, it's corporate sponsors as such with wal-mart's campaign that really enable us to make these projects happen. >> alisyn: you guys are terrific. real heros. john and dale, we'll put some information on our web site about purple heart homes. thank you very much for coming in to explain it to us. >> thank you, have a good day. >> alisyn: you, too. speaker newt gingrich is coming up for more with us. yesterday we asked mitt romney how he would handle what's going on in iraq and now it's newt gingrich's turn to explain. what would president gingrich do differently today? we told thought girl scouts are being taught about media bias by a liberal blog. later in this hour, we'll hear from the scout who blew the whistle sweetie i think you need a little extra fiber in your diet.

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>> steve: welcome back. on the heels of the united states withdrawal from iraq, a series of deadly bombings killing dozens of people over the last week in baghdad, along with growing tensions between political factions there. there are fears that iraq is on the brink of civil war. so how would newt gingrich handle the situation over there? >> clayton: it's good thing because we have him here. we're back with the former speaker of the house and presidential candidate newt gingrich joins us. mr. speaker, this question was the number one question from our viewers this morning. how would a president gingrich handle the present state of affairs in iraq as it relates to iran? >> i think that question is exactly the right one. we have two different big challenges in the middle east. we have a challenge of iran which is trying to get nuclear questions and which is an active

fomenter of problems, and we have the problem of the long run challenge of radical islamists which runs from nigeria across the region which led to 120 some people being arrested in the u.s. under the obama administration. so let's separate the two. the right strategy in the gulf is to replace the current iranian regime and the right way to do that is what ronald ronald, pope paul ii did, which is create a strategy not primarily military burks primarily psychological, political, economic, and go right at the regime and make clear to everybody that we want to replace the regime and do everything we can to crumble it and get it replaced. overwhelming plea people under 40 in iran hate the regime and we should be actively helping them get organized to replace it. as long as iran is there, they're going to cause trouble in iraq. they're going to cause trouble between the palestinians and the

israelis and they're working every single day to get nuclear weapons. iranian nuclear weapon is a mortal threat to the united states. anybody who says to you they won't use it is out of touch with reality. if somebody is willing to put on a body bomb and walk into a bus or a mall or a restaurant and blow themselves up in order to kill you, why would you think they wouldn't put on a nuclear weapon with great enthusiasm to blow up lots of people? i think we have a huge interest in not allowing them orgeat a nuclear weapon. >> alisyn: mr. speaker, what about happened in iraq last week? 69 people at least were killed that were just sitting at cafes. they were going to their jobs. they were just shopping. what would president gingrich do about that today? >> well, historians are going to look back and they're going to be amazed at the naivete and lack of knowledge of the obama administration. when obama met with prime minister maliki about a week ago, one of the people in the prime minister's party was the head of an iranian revolutionary guard brigade. a man who has been accused of

killing americans. an american administration that is so lacking in knowledge and so timid about confronting iran that they allowed a member of the iranian revolutionary guard to come to the white house meeting is an administration that has no concept of what's going op over there. maliki, on behalf of the iranians, who are shiite, is actively trying to squeeze out the sunnies, which his vice president is. and you got this three-way fight between the kurds, the sunni arabs and shiite arabs and it's a bitter, long fight. it's one which frankly shouldn't be going on, but is. we don't have the capacity to stop it right now. the iranians are actively fomenting it and supporting it and that's why the real key is go after iran. not to go after iraq. >> steve: what about mr. speaker, with what's going on with iran with regard to the straits hormuz? they're saying, look, if you crack down on us too much with the sanction, world community, we're going to turn off the spigot of oil and you're all going to be paying double for

gas? >> you just gave the best possible argument for an american energy policy. it's why i'm for drilling offshore for oil and gas, developing coal, developing wind and solar, developing nuclear, developing biofuels, including ethanol and soy diesel. we should be using -- and nuclear power. we should be doing everything we can to create a surplus of american energy so that if something happens in the persian gulf, we do not get a depression in the industrial world. once again, the obama administration, which is totally blind to the pressures even though 2011 was the most expensive gasoline on average in american history, this administration doesn't get it. i think that their policies are exactly backwards. >> steve: all right. newt gingrich joining us from breakfast place in sioux city. you were at the chocolate factory yesterday. any chance you're going to go into the kitchen this morning in sioux city? >> i may drop in here, although here this is a little bit more of eggs and bacon. this is a big bacon and ham

state. >> steve: tell me about it. >> i may step in the kitchen for a few minutes. >> alisyn: thanks so much. >> have a happy new year. >> alisyn: you, too. >> clayton: coming up, breaking news, brand-new jobless numbers from the labor department. we'll break those down for you. eric bolling is here to run the numbers. >> alisyn: fried chicken and grits, are they under fire? the "new york times" has an article that says that southern food should be more dignified. >> steve: how northern of them. >> alisyn: what do you think? we're reading your e-mails, bottom of the hour. >> steve: you're steamed f!

>> alisyn: this is a fox business alert. the labor department just releasing the latest weekly jobless numbers. those are 381,000 first-time unemployment claims were filed last week. they were estimating about 375,000 claims, so it's a little bit more than expected. let's bring in eric bolling for more context. what do you think of 381? >> i think it's a great number. not in terms of overall numbers, but the trend. the trend has been over 400 for the best part of two years. the last three or four weeks

now, it dipped under 400. last week it got into 365. great. as that number goes down, that's good for the economy. below 350, almost to the point where you can look to the big number every first friday of the month, which will be a week from tomorrow, the big unemployment number. this will probably bode well for the job creation part of that number, but maybe not the unemployment rate itself. that may still stay elevated at 8.6, 8.7. >> steve: historically, christmas week doors a lot of people go and apply for unemployment insurance? >> this is the one thing, the seasonality happens with the big number, the unemployment number, the situation report that comes in. this is the first time unemployment claims people walking into the office saying, i need help. so it's pretty -- it's not very seasonal. it's really, i need help. it doesn't vary depending on the weather or things like that. it's i need help. and they walk in. it's pretty accurate. >> clayton: are we seeing a

larger trend? we are seeing good numbers yesterday wasn't so great. is this part of a larger, broader trend? can businesses say, now i'm more confident. i can start hiring? >> couple of things you threw in there. do things look better going forward? yeah. we'll talk about in a second. i'm not sure they're ready to hire, though. businesses have found it's a tough resomething. uncertainty going forward with taxes. health care will loom huge next summer where they're going to figure out if the supreme court will look at health care to figure out if obamacare is constitutional or not. so they may wait until they get a ruling because health care is a huge expense. so you may not see the hiring. but the economy is turning around. we've been in this funk, if you want to call it a recession, technical or not for four years now. it's time it was coming around anyway. >> alisyn: let's look at the year ahead. 2012, what are your prognose indications. >> the my first day on fox was

october of 2007. first week in october. we sat down, i was with you the first day. i pulled out a gold coin and i said, stick with gold because gold is probably going to be the only thing that's going to be a safe haven during the upcoming really messy financial situation. that was 07. after that, the financial market fell apart. the housing market fell apart. stocks are still down 14% from that day. home prices are down 25% from that day. but that gold is up 150%. >> alisyn: i really wish i had taken your advice back then. >> there is good news, i think. i think 2012 will be the turn around in that trend. so don't be in gold for 2012 or 13. stay away from that because it's been the safe haven. i think it's time to start looking at stocks. i'll never sell moguled. my son is 13 years old. he'll have to sell moguled when i'm six under. but i think it's time, you can start looking at more speculative stuff in real estate, in stocks. but again, i think the

unemployment number is the one that will be shaky. >> clayton: you said something fascinating. real estate. people are like hands off real estate. this is a turn around? >> real estate is the big ship, it's the mother ship. >> steve: have we hit the bottom yet, though? >> if you try and hit the bottom in anything, i guarantee you'll miss it. the point is, it's been down, it's been four years. the numbers i've been pulling still down 25% since that first day with the gold. still down there. but real estate moves in five, seven-year increments, so if you don't nail the bottom, steve, it goes down a little bit more. i think this is the time. it's great time to be getting into some real estate. >> alisyn: all right. >> steve: the banks have houses to sell you. >> real quickly a great indicator of what the real estate market is the foreclosure market. that's starting to dry up. you're starting to see all those foreclosures work through the system. >> alisyn: happy new year. >> happy new year. >> steve: you're going to host about five shows today.

>> alisyn: we'll be watching. let's get to your news and headlines. we have a fox news alert. there are brand-new reports that an afghan soldier intentionally killed two nato soldiers after going rogue on a foreign troops. this happened east of kabul. both soldiers were members of the french military. the french president says they were working on a support project when a once loyal soldier turned his weapon on them. earlier the taliban claimed responsibility for that attack. u.s. fifth fleet is firing back after iran threatens to stop ships from moving through the strait of hormuz. the fleet says such a move would not be tolerated. iran's navy chief says doing so would be easier than drink ago glass of water. it's in response to the decision three weeks ago by e.u. foreign ministers to tighten sanctions on the strait's crude exports. analysts say the blocking the ships would create chaos in the world's most important oil route. the gray lady getting a black eye after mistakenly

e-mailing nearly 9 million people offering a a 50% discount to renew their subscriptions. at first, the "new york times" said the e-mail came from scammers. it fears its database was hacked. they're changing their tune admitting they sent it by mistake. even that might not be the whole story. insiders say a disgruntled employee hit the send button on purpose. either way, the times is not honoring those discounts it offered in e-mails. that's knot the only controversy involving the "new york times" today. many people not too happy about a recent article that blasted classic southern cooking. the piece says, quote, today purists believe southern cook something too often represented by its worst elements, cheap fried chicken and chains like cracker barrel. the article takes a personal shot at paul will dean and -- paula deen and her ample use of chris co- >> i said sugar! >> steve: we said crisco. >> alisyn: here are some your

e-mails. tim from kentucky says, new york still deli sandwiches, keep them. i'd rather have a fried bologna sandwich with lettuce and tomato. >> steve: there was a from northwest florida says, quote, the last time i saw an issue of the "new york times" was wrapped around a fish that was about to be fried. >> clayton: that's good way to eat your "new york times." >> steve: nobody blasts but ther and gets away with it. >> clayton: send your e-mails and tweets on that, as well as this, because a girl scout quit the organization when she found out the organization embraces some controversial left leaning policies. i don't know if you would call it a policy or n. but within this handout that they were giving out, this media handout that they're giving out to the sixth through eighth graders at the girl scout organization in an effort to help them combat media organization, it teaches them to go to media matters, the web site, to learn more about

it. we had sydney on this morning and she was the one who blew the whistle on all of this. listen to her. >> they promised to be neutral, politically and about certain social issue, but when you examine the women that they promote and the web sites and books that they refer girls to, there is a clear liberal ideology, like with the media matters site. we're just trying to spread awareness to families because we were so deceived for eight years we were in girl scouts and we didn't realize that girl scouts was promoting such a liberal ideology. >> steve: she got out of the scouts a while back and then she's been compiling a list of what looks like the liberal agenda of the national girl scouts and that's when they found the media matters thing. when asked about why is media matters, which is clearly a lefty blog, george soros funded,

left leaning agenda wise blog, supposed to be the arbiter of media items, a spokesperson for the girl scouts of america said, girl scouts constantly reviews our materials based on feedback and suggestions we receive from our members and we update our materials on a regular basis. as a result of the process, upcoming reprints of "journey," the name of the publication, the material also not include links to media matters. however, our young former scout did say that despite the fact that the girl scouts say we're not going to have that, she had friends go out and try to get that book and as it turns out, media matters is still in the book, although the girl scouts promise to do remove it from future publications. >> alisyn: they're going to remove it starting this month. she says if they felt that strongly, they should have pulled it from the store shelves. i said earlier i was going to tweet out her web site. i haven't done that yet. >> clayton: you should learn how it use twitter. >> alisyn: i'm going to send that occupant because her whole argument is she doesn't want the

girl scouts to be a right wing organization. she wants them to be truly neutral as they say they are. >> steve: right. she was upset as well. i think this is what got the ball rolling that, she saw there was a relationship and in fact, the ceo of the girl scouts said back in 2004 there was a relationship between the girl scouts and planned parenthood. >> alisyn: i'm going to tweet now. >> steve: and i'm going to tell but the weather. take a look at new york city and right there is where they're going to have a gigantic party in a couple of days with a million people squashed in there. they'll be kept in pens and if you're not in times square and you would like to watch the festivities, keep it right here on the fox news channel between 11:00 o'clock and midnight 30. the all american new year hosted by bill hemmer and megyn kelly in times square. our current map shows where you it is snowing. a little action around the great lakes. balance of the country is dry. current temperatures as you go out the door today to return

something or go to work or just stay around the yard, it's two dozen right now in new york. it's only 9 in caribou. it's 30 in raleigh. the chilly temperatures right down through northern florida. i understand there were some frost sightings earlier today. things will warm up. >> clayton: thanks. coming up on the show, under the president's health care rules, catholic providers who follow the bible might be breaking the law. is there any way around that? peter johnson, jr. will be here to break that down for us. >> alisyn: for most main stream politicians and pundits laughed off gary johnson's presidential prospects. he made a big announce. our next guest says he's on to something. it could change the whole landscape

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>> alisyn: quick headlines for you. build a bear is recalling 300,000 colorful hearts teddy bear this is morning. the company says the bear's eyecome loose and create a potential choking hazard for kids. unbelievable video of greek and armenian monks using brooms to battle at the birth place of jesus. this happened inside the church of the nativity in bethlehem during the church's yearly cleaning. they were fighting over each other's territory inside the church. clayton? >> clayton: that's my house. under the president's health care law, employer provided insurance must cover contraceptives and other procedure, even though there is an opt out option for religious employers. there is a growing concern that it will not apply to catholic schools, charities. now catholic bishops and noncatholics and jews are crying

foul. peter johnson, jr. is here to talk about that. >> nice to see you. >> clayton: here is a letter written by cardinal wirl, action alert, calling attention to some of these issues and says, quote, the regulations would place many catholic employers in the position of having to choose between violating the law and violating their conscience. issue a fundamental national importance. is he on to something here? >> he's on to something really big and james madison talked about the line of separation between civil authority and religion. that's something that's important and it's embodied in the first amendment of the constitution here in the united states. and so what the catholic leaders are saying and what some protestant sects are staying and orthodox jews are saying is that the carveout that the white house has given for obamacare is not large enough. there is something called a conscience exemption, meaning that a religion can go about its own way and practice it in a

free way without being encumbered by government regulations. so now the government is saying no, you catholic colleges, you protestant colleges, you rescue missions, you other faith-based organizations, you don't have the exemption and so you must provide contraception. you must provide sterilization. you must provide abortion, inducing drugs to people like the morning after people. they say listen, we are a faith-based institution. don't make us choose between our faith and the law. that's an unfair and unconstitutional choice. >> clayton: why wouldn't they be involved in this exemption? it seems like a declaring oversight when you have catholic schools, hospitals or charity, who is left? they have this religious employer exemption, what's left if you take them out of the equation? >> i think your point is a good one. and maybe it's a so-called charitable to say it's an oversight. i don't know if it's an oversight. it seems to be an intentional

act. these folks, the catholic bishops and others, have applied to kathleen sebelius and says this is manifestly unfair and unconstitutional. >> clayton: sit on the supreme court. when this is being taken up in the summer, does this throw a wrench in the works or something on the side that can be fixed? >> this can be fixed at this point by the federal government by president obama today in hawaii saying to the health and human services secretary, change the regulation to forget people of -- protect people of faith in this country. if there is such a compelling interest, then the government can step in and do as it wants. but we have this dramatic tension and protection in this country for religious liberty. so people of all faiths are coming together. i happen to be a roman catholic and i happen to litigated cases on behalf of the church. but all faiths are coming together and saying this is our constitution. this should not stand.

allow us to practice our faith unencumbered by government intrusion. a lot of people are saying that this is one of the great, great problems with obamacare is that all enveloping government interference and now we're seeing it manifest itself on saturday and sunday in our places of faith. >> clayton: we'll see if this is a simple executive decision. >> it absolutely is. >> clayton: grew great to see you. >> great to see you. >> clayton: coming up on the show, it's a 2012 shakeup no one saw coming. our next guest says keep your eye on gary johnson. we talked about him before this morning with john stossel. he could be up to something that could change everything. first, let's check in with gregg jarrett for what's coming up at the top of the hour. >> newt gingrich about to pick up a big endorsement from famed economist art laffer who created the famous laffer curve. he's going to be joining us to talk about it. also a surprising surge in iowa, scant five days before the caucus there. does this really turn things around? and threats from iran being met with stern words from america's

fifth fleet. don't even try closing a key oil waterway. all of that coming up, top of the hour. i'm gregg jarrett along with patty ann brown. we'll see you then

>> alisyn: former governor of new mexico, gary johnson, is ditching the republican party and running for president as a libertarian. >> steve: really? >> today because this is an agenda that i think resonates with most americans and it's an agenda that's not being addressed by either political party. >> steve: political consultant roger stone joins us live right now from miami. good morning to you, roger. >> great to be with you. >> steve: do you think gary johnson, as a libertarian candidate, could actually have a big impact on the 2012?

>> i really do because for the first time he's going to offer the american people a candidacy that is fiscally and defense wise very conservative, but he takes freedom-based positions on issues like a woman's right to choose, gay marriage equality, the legalization of marijuana. the american people have never been offered that. 61% of people tell gallup they wish there was a third choice. i urged donald trump to seek the american's elect nomination for the same reason. i really think people are fed up with the two party system. >> alisyn: so many people have dismissed gary johnson as irrelevant. he just isn't resonating. so why do you think he's going to catch fire now? >> well, it's kind of an unfair question. when you are arbitrarily excluded from the debate, rick santorum was at 1%. jon huntsman was at 1%. gary johnson was at 1%. only fox allowed johnson in their debates. abc, cnn, "new york times,"

bloomberg, "washington post," they all arbitrarily excluded him. it's catch 22. if you're not in the debates, you can't gain in the polls and you can't gain in the polls unless you're in the debates. now johnson could very well be on the ballot in all 50 states and he has a message that is entirely different than the republicans and the democrats. therefore, i think his candidacy could be very interesting. >> steve: let me ask you this, if he were to continue in through 2012, right up to the election, does he help reelect barak obama or where does he get his supporters? >> i don't think he necessarily does. in other words, i think what you'll find is as his agenda, which is a fiscally conservative but socially more moderate to another agenda becomes known, i think he'll draw votes from both republicans and democrats and a large number of independents. we've never had this before. we think of our parties, we think of the republicans as the

conservative party and the democrats as the liberal party, but that's really not true. the republicans sadly have become the big government party and the democrats have become a party of ineffectiveness. >> alisyn: all right. very interesting perspective. roger stone, thanks so much for joining us and we will remember your prediction for 2012. >> steve: we would all rather be down in miami with it so cold here in new york. but until we perfect the teleporter, that's not going to happen. >> alisyn: right, even the teleprompter we have problems with. >> steve: the teleprompter says we'll be back in two minutes. so i believe it. >> alisyn: that's more accurate

>> steve: the name of art laffer, the fellow who came up with the laffer curve has been invoked today and as it turns out, he's supporting newt gingrich for president of the united states. he'll be joining us tomorrow on this program. >> alisyn: we'll have our political panel and jason wright with his political derby rankings. tune in for that. >> clayton: i'll be here tomorrow filling in for brian. you will be off.