Starting point begins right now. Well, our starting point, a brutal winter storm battering the northeast and torturing Holiday Travelers all over the country. Here it is on the radar. The system is expected to dump up to two feet of snow on central maine today. Six states are under winter storm warnings, pennsylvania, new york, massachusetts, new hampshire, vermont, and of course maine. Everyone there could see at least a foot of snow. More than 200,000 customers spanning several states are already without power. More than 1700 flights had to be cancelled yesterday, hundreds more have already been taken off the board this morning and that number is expected to climb. Six deaths are being blamed on this system since tuesday, and the threat hasnt passed yet. Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider tracking the storm from the cnn Weather Center in atlanta. But first inez is live in syracuse, new york, where shes been theres a great deal of snow behind you, inez, good morning. Reporter good morning, ali, yeah, its still snowing here and Governor Cuomo has asked new yorkers to avoid nonessential travel and heres why. Poor visibility and the possibility of ice on the streets. You can see these are the streets of downtown syracuse. Plows have been coming by here all morning long, but the snow is still accumulating here. Im show you some of the accumulation. A foot is expected from this storm but also in the past four days syracuse has had 13 inches of snow from other snowstorms. Now, city Officials Say that this area is actually used to snow. However, the amount of snow in such a short period of time is a challenge, of course, for cleanup efforts and its been almost two years since syracuse has had a foot of snow all in one shot, ali. Well keep an eye on this with you through the course of the morning. This powerful storm really rocked the nations heart land. Travel conditions so treacherous the Indiana Pacers had to postpone last nights home game against the chicago bulls. Flying and driving today and the rest of the week will continue to be tough. Lets get to meteorologist Bonnie Schneider whos tracking the system in atlanta. Good morning, bonnie. Good morning, ali. Right now were seeing heavy rain across the new york city metropolitan area and that is impacting travel at this hour. This just in. We have onehour delays at la guardia in queens. Even though the rain isnt as strong in that region, were getting fierce wind. Look at the heavy rain hitting providence and boston and to the north its all snow. Check out the snowfall totals from this storm. Almost two feet in illinois. Many cities shattered records. We had a record in little rock, arkansas, on christmas day. Never in 86 years have they seen so much snow on christmas. The temperatures are brutally cold. Ines in syracuse, new york, it was 20 years. The colder air will filter in and temperatures will plummet down across much of the regions you see here. Wind and rain impacting airports. Likely to see more delays in philadelphia and washington, and heavy accumulation, a foot or more, all the way across new england. So this is going to impact vermont, maine, new hampshire, upstate new york, mixing in with sleet as time as the low pulls this energy up to the east. Youll be watching for heavy snow in the burlington area. Many people might be vacationing and enjoying some skiing at this time in vermont so thats good news. But temperature plummetted in the south. Its only 32 in charlotte and 27 in memphis. So ali, unseasonably cold here in the southeast. This is more like what youd be experiencing in new york than we would here in atlanta. Just above freezing in atlanta and in alabama freezing and lower. Bonnie, well check in with you through the course of the morning. This dangerous storm and its devastating winds have several states in the south picking up pieces this morning in the cold after getting torn up by tornados. Look at this incredible Surveillance Video from cameras at a walgreens drugstore in mobile, alabama. Vehicles getting tossed around like match boxes in the parking lot. Ive never been in a war zone but im sure this is what its looks like. Heres a bunch of tin, a bunch of stuff lifted off the buildings in our parking lot. Tornados also ripped up parts of pearl river county, mississippi. Two dozen homes there were damaged or destroyed and the aleast 25 people were hurt. Now, for those of you getting back into your routine this morning, let me bring you up to date on the fiscal cliff. Were now just five days away from going over the fiscal cliff. Happy new year. Heres what you might have missed. President obama left hawaii early to get back to washington today. The senate is also coming back from christmas vacation today to work on a deal. Now, sources tell us majority leader harry reid will push a scaledback version of the fiscal cliff package that president obama laid out on friday, which moved the tax hike needle to 400,000. No word yet on when the house of representatives might come back, but democrats say the only hope we have of something getting through the house, the senate and the white house may be a very lastminute deal. Cnn radios lisa is following developments on capitol hill right now. The ball is in Senate Majority leader harry reids court it would seem right now, lisa. Thats right. Harry reid and the senate seem to be the only game in town right now with the Senate Returning today. We also know from sources, ali, that over this christmas break there were no conversations between the president and toplevel republicans. Sources from both parties are telling us they are watching the senate, especially the democratic leadership in the senate. We also know yesterday House Republicans came out with a statement saying that he will act only after the u. S. Senate acts. Were not sure what the senate will do, as you say, were expecting that smaller deal. What exactly will they vote on . Perhaps something that will erase tax hikes for most but not all americans. There could be some money in there for Unemployment Benefits. Theyre cobbling all of that together today. All eyes again on the senate, as you say. An lets look at whats going to happen today. 10 00 a. M. , thats when the senate comes into session, 10 00 a. M. 11 30 is when president obama returns from hawaii. So we expect many conversations after the president returns. Then we have those five days, ali, as you say, until we go over the fiscal cliff. Ali, one other number, six days until the markets open after the fiscal cliff and ill throw a second number, one week until the new congress begins, so they are hard up against some big deadlines. The market implication is important because markets have done very, very well this year, lisa, and theres some suggestion if congress doesnt get it together before the new year, markets may force them to do so. Well be talking more about that later in the show. Lisa, thanks so much. Well check in with you later. Piling on the concerns, treasury secretary tim geithner has warned congress hat u. S. Will reach its debt ceiling on monday. That is when the government reaches its legal Borrowing Limit. Now, this could pose a bigger threat to the nations Credit Rating than the fiscal cliff. Treasury can keep the government operating for a few weeks using emergency measures, but Congress Needs to act on this too to avoid a fullblown debt crisis. Alina cho. Joins us with the ret of the top stories. Former president george h. W. Bush remains in intensive care in a houston hospital with an elevated fever. He is on a liquid diet an his condition is listed as guarded. His spokesman quotes him as saying im determined not to be dprumpy with all of this. Toyota has agreed to pay up in a major way, 1. 1 billion to settle a class action suit over sudden acceleration issues. Under the deal toyota will install a brake override system in effective cars. It will also set up a fund of 250 million for former toyota owners who sold their cars from september of 2009 through all of 2010. That money would compensate owners for their cars reduced value because of bad publicity. Also toyotas attorneys say a separate fund of 250 million will be set up to compensate current owners whose cars arent eligible for the brake override system. Late senator Daniel Inouyes successor will be sworn in later today. Hawaii governor kneel abercrombie appointed his Lieutenant Governor, brian schatz to fill the seat. A white house official says hes actually flying to d. C. With president obama. Abercrombie wa widely expected to appoint a congresswoman to take over before he died. Inouye named her as his preferred successor. Supreme Court JusticeSonia Sotomayor refusing to block the contraceptives mandate in president obamas health care law. Let me explain this. Two companies, hobby lobby arts and crafts stoerds and Mardell Christian bookstores argue that requiring their Groups Health care plans to cover contraception violates their religious beliefs. Sotomayor who hears emergency appeals said the companies didnt qualify for an injunction while they challenged the requirement in court. She did not rule on the merits of the companys religiousbased claims just yet. Weve told you about those long delays at the airports thanks to this monumental winter storm. Well, in dallas get a load of this. Cnn affiliate wfaa reports that one American Airlines flight sat stranded at the gate for nearly five hours. One passenger reportedly said the airline told them they could get off, but at the same time warned them they could be leaving at any minute so nobody knew what to do. Now listen to the pilots apology to his passengers. Its beyond reproach. I have no words to tell you how sorry i am for all of this. Decisions are being made way above our heads by people that obviously in my humble opinion dont have a clue what theyre doing. American airlines said operating safely was their focus but after five hours on the tarmac, i probably would have gotten up and started cheering when that pilot said that. Good for him. I think it makes all the difference in the world when the crew and the pilot feel like theyre on your side and stuck in the same thing. Theres no excuse for five hours on the tarmac. I get the weather, i get it. Its ridiculous. Great to see you, as always. Coming up ahead on starting point the senate is back to work in washington today to figure out an 11thhour deal on the fiscal cliff, but what about the house, which punted on boehners plan b. House congressman Steve Latourette, by the way someone who has repudiated Grover Norquists pledge joins us next. And Mark Zuckerbergs sister confused about facebooks privacy settings. Well have the details of that ahead. People really love snapshot from progressive, but dont just listen to me. Listen to these happy progressive customers. I plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. With snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. The better i drive, the more i save. I wish our company had something this cool. Youre not filming this, are you . Aw camera shy. Snapshot from progressive. Testdrive snapshot before you switch. Visit progressive. Com today. Time for citi price rewind. Because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. And you really dont want to pay more than you have to. Only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. And if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. Just use your citi card and register your purchase online. Have a super sparkly day ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. Citi price rewind. Start saving at citi. Com pricerewind. Aww man. [ male announcer ] returns are easy with free pickup from the u. S. Postal service. Well even drop off boxes if you need them. Visit usps. Com pay, print, and have it picked up for free. Any time of year. Nice sweater. Thank you. President obama and the Senate Return to washington today after vacation. They only have five days to act to avoid the fiscal cliff. Heres what happens if we go over the fiscal cliff. All the bush tax cuts, all of them will expire with taxes going up an average of 1600 per household. The payroll tax holiday also expires. That means the tax burden will go up an average z700 per household extra. Extended Unemployment Benefits expire so collection shrinks from 93 weeks to 26 weeks. The medicare doc fix expires, that means a 27 cut in physician payments. The alternative minimum tax expands to 27 million more americans and obama care taxes hit, meaning a 0. 9 jump in the medicare payroll tax for those earning 200,000 or more. But what about the house of representatives . They left town after republicans failed to bring a vote on their own plan b last week. Ohio republican congressman Steve Latourette seems kpas rat kpas rated about all of this. Youre on your way out and you repudiated the norquist pledge which you signed back in 1994. Tell me why . Well, i repudiated it because, listen, its not 1994 anymore. The world has moved on. We have the euro, weve had september 11th, a lot of things have happened. And quite frankly, this calls for a big solution. It calls for a solution that nobody yet has proposed seriously and that is everything needs to be on the table. That means revenues, it means spending cuts, it means entitlement reform. Until somebody actually acts on what everybody in this town knows what needs to be done, this is going to be a huge problem. We are dangerously close to the fiscal cliff. Now, in all fairness, not all of it hits on new years day but some of it does. The white house, we have a white house source who has said this. Let me just read this to you. It says we believe very strongly a reasonable package can get majorities in both houses. The only thing that would prevent it is if senator mcconnell and Speaker Boehner dont cooperate. This is from the white house yesterday. Do you believe that to be the case . No, i dont believe that to be the case. Listen, a year ago august when the president was negotiating with the speaker, they were very close to the big deal that needs to be struck. And this isnt a one party or a one house problem. This is leaders of both parties and all branches of the government are not willing to make the deal that they know they have to make, and everybody wants their stuff but doesnt want to give up, you know, what they dont want to give up. You know, were showing pictures right now of john boehner and president obama. John boehner from your state of ohio. There are a lot of people that say if the deal were between these two guys, it would be made. The problem is john boehner cant agree to something with president obama and then take it back to his own party. Well, and vice versa. A year ago august the president couldnt agree to the deal he needed another 400 billion in revenue. Look, if the president and senator reid and john boehner all said to me today its written, lets put simpsonbowles on the floor, i guarantee you given the urgency we could cobble together something to solve this problem but nobody is willing to pull the trigger. Everybody wants to play the blame game. This blame game is about to put us over the edge. The problem, of course, which you dont personally face because you didnt run for this new congress is a poll that we have that was taken very recently that says we asked who would be more responsible if the fiscal cliff occurs. 48 of respondents say the gop in congress. 37 blame would blame president obama and 11 blame both. So theres a political reality to the fact that the gop is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Theyll get blamed if it happens and theyll get blamed if they vote for anything that looks like a tax increase. Listen, the Republican Party gets blamed if its sunny outside. So im not really worried about that and neither should people be. But you bring up the point, this should not be above who suffers in the polls. This should be about fixing the United States of america and, you know what, people need to be willing to take a vote even if it means they dont come back. Yeah, well thats the problem, right . You and i talked about this before. Were in Constant Campaign mode. A compromise would require that both parties, all parties involved actually pay some price, that it costs somebody something. What is the specific problem, though, on the republican side in terms of the lack of compromise . Again, i want to show you the same poll that we did on december 17th and 18th asking about whether the Republican Party is too extreme. 53 say the Republican Party is too extreme. Excuse me, 53 say theyre too extreme. Weve done this poll before. In 2012 it was 36 . In 2004 it was 34 . Back in 2000 only 33 . So whats happened . Is the Republican Party too extreme and governed by its Tea Party Members or is there some other problem thats making americans think thats the case . I think its a combination of all factors. But heres the deal. Republicans and the very conservative republicans that i serve with i think correctly point to the fact that the taxes always go up and the spending reductions never occur. Now thats why this package needs to be put together. I will tell you that if you did the three to one balanced approach that the president of the United States is talking about, you could get 120 republicans in the house to support it, but the president sadly has never put those three to one spending reductions in written form that im aware of. Details are missing on all sides in this one. Congressman latourette, thanks for talking to us again. Ahead on starting point do facebooks privacy settings have you confused . It turns out not even Mark Zuckerbergs sister understands them. That story next. Our starting point team is headed in. Look at them. Big show coming up. Through diet and exercise, alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat. Lets fight fat with alli. I get congested. But now, with zyrtecd®, i have the proven allergy relief of zyrtec®, plus a powerful decongestant. Zyrtecd® lets me breath freer, so i can love the air. [ male announcer ] zyrtecd®. Behind the pharmacy counter. No prescription needed. [ male announcer ] zyrtecd®. Behind the pharmacy counter. [music artist willy moon everybody well dont you know its me now . Yeah whos it, whos it huh . Willys back with a brand new beat now, yeah doin it doin it up heyyy yeah, tryin to bite my style heyyy yeah, how you like me now . Na na na na na na na na and everybody go uh welcome back to starting point. Todays team Ron Brownstein, will cane and Roland Martin, were keeping you an available spot for him. Empty chair. Roland has been dieting. You cant even see him. If youve ever been confused by facebooks privacy settings, you are not alone. Even Mark Zuckerbergs sister might be after a private family photo she posted on facebook went public. She is the former marketing director of facebook and she posted this photo of her family. Thats her. There we go. It includes facebook ceo mark zuckerberg, someone who wasnt supposed to see it saw it because she was friends with someone else who was tagged in it and it was retweeted in the aftermath. An angry response that included this line, its not about privacy settings, its about human decency. Talk about six degrees of separation. You had the chain of events there. Someone who saw someone whose friend saw it who posted it . Welcome to the internet. The increasing reality is youre assuming that anything that can be seen will be seen. Right. And both Company Policy and government policy are way behind what the privacy issues that are being raised. I like randi a lot and i think the stories that she was confused about whether or not that was the right privacy setting. I am too from time to time. Im always confused by how facebook works. I can barely post. Ive got to be honest, i think i might be the youngest at this table. Oh im just saying. I am not well versed in facebook privacy settings. You really know i only want so many people to see this. Its so confusing. I always think that you have to post the photo and then you can see but theres all this tagging going on thats all confusing. How about this. Its a truism that everyone has accepted. You put it on the internet, its not there for everyone. Its a moving target because everyone is living more in public than ever before but yet they have certain expectations about how far that extends. Ron, im not listening to you because i cant believe he said hes the youngest. You point out youre the youngest without evidence . Can i Say Something . Im a truth teller. Im way younger than will cane. Coming up ahead on starting point im 27. Is army teachers in schools the right way to prevent another tragedy like newtown . One state is seriously considering the move this morning. Well tell you about that. And tim tebow firing back, furious about people calling him a bad teammate. Hear what he has to say after being snubbed for the starting quarterback job. Any way you want. Fully customize it for your trading process from thought to trade, on every screen. And all in real time. Which makes it just like having your own trading floor, right at your fingertips. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. Try our easytouse scottrader streaming quotes. Its another reason more investors are saying. [ all ] im with scottrade. Welcome back to starting point. Those are my socks. There you go you know what, those are morning socks. They compete very closely with rolands tie. I dont know if you can zeRoland Martins tie. He has a beautiful tie on and an entire bird in his pocket. Trust me, i personally think Ron Brownstein needs come on, right here, baby. Is that a flower . Am i allergic to this . Wow. This totally changes rons whole look. Weve gone over an entirely new weve got a start point cliff we just went over. You need some color over here. Now were making color jokes about will cain. Before we get to all of that, lets get some news in here. The beautiful alina cho. You expect me to do the news right now . Good morning. Good morning, gentlemen, and lady. Good morning, everyone. Six states from pennsylvania to maine getting slammed by that massive winter storm. Up to two feet of snow in the forecast for central maine. More than 1700 flights had to be cancelled yesterday because of the weather. And if you have Holiday Travel plans today, expect more of the same. Nelson mandela out of the hospital but he will keep getting medical treatment at home. South africas former president had a rough december, a lung infection and gallstone surgery. Mandela is 94 years old. He has not appeared in public in more than two years. So many gifts have poured into newtown, connecticut, that officials are now asking people to stop sending them, at least for now. Newtown has been swamped with toys, cards and flowers ever since the school shootings. Community leaders say theyre grateful for the support and they will soon talk about the best ways to help the town. In the wake of the newtown tragedy, arizonas attorney general is proposing a plan to arm one educator in each school. He told a phoenix tv station its a compromise between two extremes. On the one hand you have people proposing that any teacher wants to bring a gun to school. I think that would create more danger than it would solve and im opposed to that. You have other people who dont want to do anything as far as defense in the schools and i think we could regret that if there were another incident that might have been prevented. Surely a big debate about that. Under the plan each Public School would designate one person to keep the gun in a secure, locked location. It would be a voluntary program. State law would need to be amended before that plan can move forward. Customers at starbucks this morning reacting to ceo Howard Schultzs plan telling workers in the washington, d. C. , stores to write the words come together on coffee cups. Come together. A nice beatles quote there. I think its kind of a cool idea, but i you know, i dont know that the politicians really care. I think it means that people are basically tired that congress cant come to a compromise or actually agree on anything, if were talking about something as huge as sdp thats going to affect taxes that affect everybody else in the United States, its indicative of the kind of deadlock that were at in the system right now. Its all about the fiscal cliff, guys. Schultz says this is a way to, quote, send our elected officials a respectful but potent message. Interesting way to do it. The problem with the starbucks, theyll cut a deal. Lets talk about sports, shall we . Call him a bad quarterback but do not call him a bad teammate. Tim tebow firing back after a report that said he asked to sit out some offensive plays on sunday after being snubbed for the jets starting quarterback job. Espn says tebow was so upset with the perception that he quit on the team that it dampened his christmas. As for tebow, he will likely be out of new york by next year, headed to presumably the jacksonville jaguars, his home team. But you know what this is . Worlds smallest violin. You think i feel sorry for him . Especially with 5 million after being traded from denver. Come on, tim, youre terrible. Oh hes got a lot to say. Back to the dinner topic right now. As we have told you, president obama lands in washington today, back from hawaii to take part in negotiations over the f is cal cliff, but it seems increasingly unlikely that we are going to have a plan that congress can vote on before january 1st. It is just five days away. By the way that budget mess that got us into the fiscal cliff situation in the first place, the debt ceiling, remember that in august of 2010, its back, and treasury secretary tim geithner says were about to hit it monday in fact. Doreen is president of a Brokerage Firm here in new york and a member. New york stock exchange. Doreen, think back, september 30th of 2008. T. A. R. P. Was supposed to be done that day, it didnt get cdone. The dow dropped 770 points. By that friday the deal was done. Markets may be the last place to have influence here. Well, im not sure about that. I think we saw after the election you saw a 1,000point drop in the dow right away and i think that was in anticipation of what we think is going to happen. I think it was fairly obvious then that we were not going to get a deal here out of washington and unfortunately its even more obvious today. So markets are already pricing this in. Come january 1, no surprise youre saying . While you all speak, lets put up a chart of what the s p 500, which is what many of your 401 k s may look like has done this year. In fact just look at that extreme right edge where you see this drop in the last few days. This thing is up 12, almost 13 this year. Not a bad year. No, its not a bad year but its a huge disconnect between reality and whats going on in the market. People use the markets very differently than they used to. There are a lot more a lot more money is going into shortterm throughs like etfs and options. So i think theres a different Market Structure and a different way people are using the markets. Your view is that the market will not be the enforcer of last resort. If the two sides cannot make a deal, we go over the cliff in january, there will not be a dramatic Market Reaction that will force them to reconsider or do you think there will be . Oh, i think there will be, but maybe not as dramatic as you might expect. But congress, though, also operates based upon Public Perception. What happens is when the markets drop all of a sudden theres intense media coverage, people look at their savings and go oh, my god, what happened. Pressure then goes on them. So the Public Perception drives their action as well. Public perception is also that the market is going up so the economy is good. Thats not so. The economy is not good. The underlying fundamentals are not good. People are taking money out of mutual funds and putting them into other places, into housing, into metals, into commodities, all into different places. So the market is being driven by professional traders more so than it is by investors. Can i get some clarity. Would you define for me dramatic. 2500 points for the dow. For the dow i would say is dramatic, 2500 points in the dow. You do not expect that. I do not expect that. Thats catastrophic, thats not dramatic, thats can the strau catastrophic. How big a difference would a deal make . If there is a deal, how much of a boost is that for the economy . Im not sure that its a huge boost. I think it will be a continuing rise and youll see a floor. I dont think youre going to see this huge spike. You might day one but its not going to hold. For all of congress messing us around, were in a very good economy. Because of natural gas, because of oil, because of housing and maybe somewhere along the line we might build some stwra stwrurkt, were in a good place. Im interested in what you think about this bank of America Michelle mier talking about a bungee jump over the cliff. Well go over the cliff and bounce right back because there will be an easier vote on the other side. What do you think about that . I think it depends on the debt ceiling. Thats coming up in february. Theres a bunch of events that could backtoback throw us in one direction in a very bad way. Geithner came out and said we hit the debt ceiling on monday but they can fiddle with things and pay some things and he may be stretching it out. They seem to be fiddling with everything these days. I want to ask you this question. Is it worth pulling your money out, if youre the average investor, pulling your money out of the market now and putting it back after the situation is resolved . You mean today . Yes, correct. Pulling it out today or tomorrow. Well, i think a lot of people did that. I think thats what the 1,000point drop after the election was about. I think weve had a huge were almost back to where we started pre2008 so there are a lot of people that cant afford to have this happen again and they have been slowly taking their money out and trying to reap some of the profits that they were getting back, not that there are profits. So much of our economy is driven by consumer confidence. You take this action and go over the cliff, that directly impacts the confidence that people have in markets, in whats going to happen in the future. Youre making the assumption that we have confidence. We dont have any confidence. Recently our confidence has improved. Recently it has dropped again, though. Recently it has dropped again. But it was higher than it was 12 months ago. Well, yeah. That wasnt hard to do. Im saying thats the whole point. Confidence goes up. Well, yeah, everything goes up from the bottom. Theres nowhere else to go. You can go down now. You can go down. I want to erremind people wh are watching this, if you want to pull your money out and investing it afterwards, there are some tax implications. Capital gains taxes are going up. There you go. Thank you, doreen. Great to see you. Great conversation. Coming up ahead on starting point an app called make me asian is causing a big uproar this morning, despite the fact that will downloaded it. The creator says its all for fun, but is it racist . 315 horsepower. Whats that in reindeerpower . [ laughs ] [ pencil scratches ] [ male announcer ] chevys giving more. Get the best offer of the year 0 apr financing for 60 months plus 1,000 Holiday Bonus cash. Plus trade up for an additional 1,000 tradein allowance. Hurry. Bonus cash ends january 2nd. Welcome back to starting point. 44 minutes after the hour. A quick check of your top stories. Rescuers are racing to save a giant and clearly very sick beached whale off breezy point in queens, new york. It is believed to be a female humpback. Experts say the likelihood of it surviving arent good. The whale appears to be very skinny and also very weak. Los angeles Officials Say the citys gun buyback brought in more weapons than last year. The mayor moved the annual event from mothers day to yesterday in the wake of Connecticut School shootings. People exchanged their guns for up to 200 worth of grocery gore gift cards. A new app available for download on google play has some Asian Americans outraged. Take a look at this. Its called make me asian and it lets users change the way they look by reshaping their eyes or adding fu manchu mustaches and rice paddy hats to their picture. Google says its a fun app that can make you look chinese, japanese or korean. But other groups say its racist. Google tells cnn they will pull the app if they determine it violates policies against hate speech. I want to know how that got through in the first place . I did make a comment that will had downloaded the app. Will has nothing to do with this. I was teasing will. Thank you. Thank you. Just to be clear. We were making the reference of you going to the south during the Election Campaign putting on a cowboy hat and will joking with you he thought i might be mocking folks. No, i was just getting into it like i thought that was fun. Will does not want to get baited into this conversation. You know whats interesting you felt that i was mocking people. You wore a Texas Longhorn t shirlt. That was offensive to me as your friend being an aggie. People say its racist and then you say offensive. I think we make a mistake when you go all the way and say its either racist or not racist. It could be offensive to some and fun to others. Thats the mistake that we make whenever these sort of topics come up. You were pointing out, will, its just bad taste. But i think the person with the most perspective on this is alina and you say you did find it offensive or did you say racist . I find it offensive. I mean i find it a bit racist. I think that if i think the bottom line is this, that it plays into stereotypes. You put a rice paddy hat on somebody, i think it plays into stereotyping. So what if the app just changed features . I was going to say that. Still, youre still dealing with the stereotype. I agree. But heres the deal. You have apps that also change your features, say, okay, this is how youre going to look the as an old person. This is if you were 50 pounds heavier or skinnier. I think i would have less of a problem with that. Id have less of a problem with that. There is a make me indian app as well. It makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable, to be honest with you. The assumption is there are certain characteristics that make you look ex. So how about this here. You get the Michael Jackson black or white video not everybody fits that. Michael jackson video black or white where literally there are people who are white and they then went to black. Was that offensive . Thats an interesting conversation. Undecided. The jury will be back on this one later. Coming up ahead on starting point the Devil Wears Prada meets washington, d. C. Alina is all excited. That was great. Were talking about a juicy new novel about a young girl working for a demanding new senator. The authors of capitol hell up next. [ male announcer ] its that time of year again. Time for citi price rewind. Because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. And you really dont want to pay more than you have to. Only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. And if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. Just use your citi card and register your purchase online. Have a super sparkly day ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. Citi price rewind. Start saving at citi. Com pricerewind. Your soups are so awesomely delicious my husband and i cant stop eating em whats. That. On your head . Can curlers tomato basil, potato with bacon. Weve got a lot of empty cans. [ male announcer ] progresso. You gotta taste this soup. Okay so theyre calling it the Devil Wears Prada meets washington d. C. Hello. A young naive girl goes to work for a demanding boss and gets in way over her head, except this time the young girl is working for a newly elected senator who is a rising political star. Thats the story of a new novel dishing about life in d. C. , the authors of capitol hell. Great title. Excellent. Our two former staffers who worked for former republican senator norm coleman of minnesota, alicia long and james jordan join us. Is this will coleman . Its a fictional spin, a senator from minnesota who runs for president. Walter mondale. Ive got a lovely mlk funeral home fans using capitol hell. I didnt hear an absolute for sure no, how much of the book is real about the stuff that you describe is real or at least based on a lot of real isnt it. We like to say a good girl never kisses and tells but we will see we both worked on the hill for a number of years and had tons of friends who did the same so we picked and pulled a bunch of different stories. What is the most important thing you learned about capitol hill that you did not know when you got there . For me number one which i think will come in handy is always wear flats when walking because the high heels get stuck in the sidewalks. The Devil Wears Prada, that place has no fashion whatsoever. Come on seriously it has none, khaki pants, blue blazers. We tried to bring in pink and funky funk color. Alison was the only one on the hill hot. Here is a quote from the book, theres a story where a young staffer alison is on a date and gets an urgent call from the senator shes working for and the senator says, i need you to put my laundry in the dryer before it molds over the weekend ordered the senator, do it tonight and make you use extra dryer sheets. I dont like static cling. Who likes static cling . No one likes static cling. To help you out i know some members of congress, male and female lets say who have terrible reputations, characters barkley, terrible reputations web it comes to using the staff. Does that happen . That kind of stuff i think happens all the time. Youll see staffers walk in, dogs are on the capitol complex. Carrying purses around. I think a lot of people dont realize, we wanted to capitalize on the tasks. Whats the worst, dealing with the spouse, come on, out with it. You get asked interesting requests. Staffers, fellow colleagues might not be there for a reason. We came from a campaign because we believed in minnesota, maybe folks are looking at their reputation versus everything else. That was a potomac twostep like that. You see how she danced around that question. Look i know why people bought the Devil Wears Prada. They got behind the scenes stuff there. Youre saying its not about norm coleman. What percentage of your book is real, what percentage is fiction . I would say its hard to give, to quantify. Some takes pieces of things that are true and some of it is completely made up so i will say this, part of the fun is reading the book and trying to figure out who you think you recognize in the book and what traits do you think you see. The piece of advice that someone who wants to go to work on capitol hill would get out of the book. Do it until youre 30. Were extremely thankful to senator coleman for giving us that opportunity to learn and to serve but do it til youre 30. Have you spoke on it senator coleman since the book . Yes. Has he read it . I dont know if hes read it or not. I know norm coleman, hes a friend of mine. Norm coleman is no wintower. If you know norm coleman tell him to call us and tell us whether youve read the book. We should tell you jane is getting married on new years eve, a fiscal cliff wedding. Yes, new years eve, back stage is my 14yearold future stepdaughter stephanie, counting down, 48 hours. Im in the bridesmaids. Welcome to tarting point the loveboat edition. The fiscal cliff is falling into the hands of the senate after the house walks away with no deal. Can the senate do any better . Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal is with us at the top of the hour plus the Airline Pilot caught on tape ripping his bosses as poll jizs to passengers. Youre going to want to hear this and probably applaud. Now with a fancy coating that gives you a burst of wildberry flavor. Now why make a flavored heartburn pill . Because this is america. And we dont just make things you want, we make things you didnt even know you wanted. Like a spoon fork. Spray cheese. And jeans made out of sweatpants. So grab yourself some new prilosec otc wildberry. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. Zero heartburn. Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. Satisfaction guaranteed meet the 5passenger ford cmax hybrid. When youre carrying a lot of weight, cmax has a nice little trait, you see, cmax helps you load your freight, with its footactivated lift gate. But thats not all youll see, cause cmax also beats prius v, with better mpg. Say hi to the allnew 47 combined mpg cmax hybrid. Boproductivity up, costs down, thtime to market reduced. Those are good things. Upstairs, they will see fantasy. Not fantasy. Logistics. Ups came in, analyzed our supply chain, inventory systems. Ups . Ups. Not fantasy . Who would have thought . I did. We did, bob. We did. Got it. A good morning. Im ali velshi in for soledad. Holiday travel horror. People soaked with snow and winds that will knock you over. The northeast getting the worst of it right now. We are tracking the storm and back to washington with five days to go, president obama returns to d. C. To hammer out a deal with the senate, but there may be another problem, a more threatening problem to deal with before the new year, and hes a mean one, no, not Roland Martin, the grinch. Thats will, else the grinch. That might be, from the new musical. Look at him. Will, go outside and get your costume on. It is thursday, december 27th, starting point begins right now. All right, row manned martin joins us, the host of washington watch. Washington watch with Roland Martin a little hot this morning. Ron brownstein is the editorial director at National Journal will cain in addition to playing the grinch as a conservative holding up the fiscal cliff deal is also an analyst for the blaze. Hes a ball of fire this morning. Our starting point before we get to all of that is torture for Holiday Travelers as a powerful winter storm smothers the northeast. Pennsylvania, new york, massachusetts, new hampshire, vermont and maine are under winter storm warnings. By tomorrow new englanders could be buried under 18 inches of snow or more and over 200,000 customers in alabama and arkansas are already without power as the storms violent winds are sure to leave a lot more people in the dark by the end of the day. Over 1,700 flights had to be canceled yesterday, over 200 have already been taken off the board this morning. Six deaths being blamed on the system since tuesday and the threat is far from over. Ines is live in new york where it continues to come down. Reporter yes, thats right. Its continuing to come down but its lighter than what weve seen in the last couple of hours and im in downtown syracuse. Plows have come through this area and cars have been coming down through this area. You can see some slush on the roadway, and what youre also seeing is accumulation from some previous storms, and the last four days, syracuse has gotten 13 inches of snow, and this snowstorm is expected to leave about a foot of snow, so this is what youre seeing on the ground here. Officials say that syracuse is actually used to getting a lot of snow. There are a lot of snow resorts in the area as well, so they actually welcome this type of weather, but for cleaning the streets, thats a different story because its a lot of snow in a short amount of time. One thing that is helping them is the fact that this is a holiday week, so this is a nightmare for air travelers, and on the streets as well, but the fact is theres no schools open this week and a lot of offices are naturally closed, so thats certainly aleve nates the problem on the streets, ali. Ines, well stay with you, ines ferre in syracuse. In washington were five days from going over the fiscal cliff. President obama left hawaii early to be back in washington today. The senate is also come back from christmas vacation to work on a deal. Sources tell us that majority leader harry reid will push a scaled back version of the fiscal cliff package that president obama laid out late last week and no word yet on when the house might come back. Democrats say the only hope we have of something getting through the house, the senate, and the white house may be a lastminute deal. Cnn radios Lisa Desjardins is on capitol hill. The big question is how a deal gets done. It is possible for a deal to be done before january 1st. It is not easy though for a couple of reasons. One the house has a 72hour rule, legislation needs to be presented to the public for 72 hours before they vote but you know how that works, ali, they can get around that. They have in the past voted around that rule. The senate has filibuster problems potentially, sometimes it can take up to a week to get through the several different votes that are needed to overcome a filibuster, but if theres no filibuster and if the house decides not to deploy that 72hour rule, they still could get a deal done in these next five days. One last time line problem, ali, the house we know has told its members they will have at least 48 hours notice before they come back to washington. Todays thursday, they have not given that notice yet so the soonest that the house could come back to deal with this issue would be saturday. Ali . What happens if we go over the cliff . Theres some logistical issues. This becomes problematic. Lets get down to what people want to know. We are getting close to the cliff and a lot of people in washington think we may go over it. Here is what we know will happen. January 1st, tax rates go up for most every american. Logistically thats a problem for Payroll Companies because they have to decide are they going to change what they withhold from our paychecks january 1st or keep with the old rates. For now it seems like theyll keep with the old rates and medicare a pay cut could go into effect in the middle of january for medicare doctors, unemployment starting december 29th, ali, thats when well see the benefits start to be cut. Most benefits are 26 weeks. There was a federal emergency extension, took it to 79 or 99 weeks, that stops immediately. Lisa desjardins covering this for us in washington. Thanks. Piling on the concerns, treasury secretary tim geithner warned congress the u. S. Will reach its debt ceiling on monday, when the government reaches its legal Borrowing Limit and further payments cannot be made. Treasury can keep the government operating for a few weeks using emergency measures but Congress Needs to act on this, too, to avoid a full blown debt crisis the sort of which we almost saw in august of 2011. In a couple of minutes well talk to connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal about this big mess in d. C. First alina has the rest of todays top stories. Good morning. We have this just in to cnn, getting word of a plane skidding off a runway, happened at Macarthur Airport in islip, new york. News 12 long island southwest flight 4695 headed to tampa, florida. 129 passengers and five crew members on board. No injuries reported. Passengers are being bussed back to the terminal presumably and hopefully getting on another flight soon. Growing concern about the health of former president george h. W. Bush, he was moved into the intensive care unit of his houston hospital on sunday because of an elevated fever and apparently it is not breaking. The nations 41st president is on a liquid diet and his condition is listed as guarded. Toyota has agreed to pay a 1. 1 billion settlement to settle a class action suit over sudden acceleration issues. Under the deal, toyota will install a brake override system in affected cars. It will also set up a fund of 250 million to compensate former owners for their cars reduced value due to all of that bad publicity. Late senator Daniel Inouyes successor will be sworn in later today, Hawaii GovernorNeil Abercrombie appointed Lieutenant Governor schatz. Before he died inouye named her as his successor. Weve been telling you about the brutal weather delays at airports all over the country. It is so bad the pilots are getting fed up including one who was caught on tape throwing his coworkers under the proverbial fuselage in dallas. Cnn affiliate wfaa reports one American Airlines flight stranded at the gate for nearly five hours prompting this unusual apology from the pilot to his passengers. Its beyond reproach. I have no words to tell you how sorry i am for all of this. Decisions are being made way above our heads and by people that obviously, in my humble opinion, dont have a clue what theyre doing. Such honesty. Love it. American airlines by the way saying operating safely is their chief focus, naturally theyre saying that but with all due respect he was throwing not his coworkers but his bosses under the bus which is a very different thing. Potential safety hazard of pulling that plane back to the gate or not, its nonsense when airlines say this. Good on this guy, i hope he gets not an ounce of discipline. If you do, let us know at cnn. Good for him. Tell them how you really feel. They used to waste everybodys time and they put the fines in, it messed nothing up and planes take off on time. Just five days left until we hit the fiscal cliff. What happens to your bottom line if you do . January 1st all the bush tax cuts will expire, all of them with taxes going up an average of 1,600 per household. The payroll tax holiday also expires, that means the tax burden will rise an average of 700 per household. Extended Unemployment Benefits, the ones we were talking about with lisa expire, so collection of Unemployment Benefits will shrink from 79 or 99 weeks back to 26 weeks in six months. The medicare doc fix expires, a 27 cut in physician payments and the alternative minimum tax will expand to 27 million more americans for whom it was not intended. Obama care taxes hit, a 0. 9 jump in medicare payroll taxes for those earning 200,000 or more, that is likely to happen regardless of whether or not theres any fix. I bring in senator Richard Blumenthal, a democrat from connecticut. Thanks for joining us. We have five days to go. You think well get a deal. Im hopeful. Theres sufficient time to reach a deal if we use the Common Ground we have and that Common Ground is nobody wants to go over the fiscal cliff. Nobody wants the 98 of americans who will see their taxes rise hugely those people earning less than 250,000, and we can avoid that kind of tax increase if we seek that Common Ground, and come together around the concept, in fact the senate bill that was sent to the house some time ago, all the house has to do is come back to washington as we are doing today and vote on that bill, it coulden done by a bipartisan majority. Thats the big question, can it . We keep talking about the meetings betweenby ma and boehner, one of which hasnt happened in a few days but it really isnt a deal between obama and boehner. Those two guys say what they want, boehner goes back to his caucus and cant get a deal. Thats why a bipartisan majority is absolutely necessary, if the senate bill is brought to a vote on the house floor, it will be passed by a majority of democrats and some republicans, but the speaker wasted last week on a bill that had no prospect of success, in fact never even was brought to a vote and now were down to the last few days. The deal to extend these tax cuts on everyones first 250,000 of income, remember its benefits people who earn more than 250,000 because it extends tax cuts on their first 250,000. So somebody earning 300,000 or 350,000 in connecticut will benefit from it. Senator, Ron Brownstein wants to ask a question. Let me play devils advocate when the tax cuts were passed in 2001 virtually every democrat in the house and senate voted against them. Why do you think its appropriate to permanently extend the bush tax cuts for families under 250,000, in the long run, do you believe at a time when the number of seniors is going to double over the next 30 years with all the budget pressures that implies that the government can be funded making the bush tax cuts permanent on people making 250,000 or less . Key question. The answer is were in an economy now that is fragile, still recovering all too slowly. These tax cuts must be extended for the middle class. We need to protect the middle class from that huge permanently extend them . I would extend them permanently because i think that they will in effect restore the clinton tax levels. Only for people at the top. Only for the top. Restore the clinton tax levels only at the top, right . Youre making permanent the bush tax cuts that virtually all democrats opposed in the first place. And there are other ways that we need to explore that would involve raising revenue, which i think is the other part of your question. Yes. Closing those loopholes, for example, the tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas, closing some of the other tax breaks and credits is again Common Ground that we need to explore in the longer run, but right now, what needs to happen is to extend those tax cuts for households earning less than 250,000 a year or to put it more accurately, to extend those tax cuts on the first 250,000 that everybody makes. So if i could, ron, im clear the president still has a deal sitting out there hes offered that would extend the tax rates for anyone making under 400 and make adjustments for Social Security. Im wondering if the senator is backing away from that as well. Are you and the democrats in the senate suggesting youre not interested in. Youre only interested in the bill that extends tax rates for those under 250,000 . Im not going to speculate on what all the parameters and permutations and other kinds of details might be on a deal that we havent even seen yet. Right now what we know for sure is this fiscal cliff can be avoided. Everybody wants to avoid it, by extending those tax cuts on the first 250,000 that every household makes. Thats the senate bill with a couple additional benefits thats before the house of representatives, john boehner should bring it to the floor for a vote. Senator blumenthal, thank you very much for being with us, senator Richard Blumenthal of connecticut. Ron you make an interesting point. If you project the u. S. Budget out to 2020, the biggest single part of it will be the bush tax cuts so im not sure this business of making it permanent will make sense. Its hard to believe the democrats can fund the government activism they want at the time when seniors go from 40 million to 80 million. Its an extraordinary victory for republicans that that is the framework of debate now whether youre extending it for everybody or just 250 and below when virtually every democrat voted against it a decade ago. We have to give serious thought that taxes are going up for a short time. That part i think the democrats deserve some blame for. You got to get some specifics. All the lowhanging fruit is gone on this. Its going to hurt. Really hard to reduce spending overall when the number of seniors is doubling in the next 30 years. Its a big discussion. If we were left to solve it we probably could. Coming up a day at the office with the oracle of omaha, why Warren Buffett doesnt use email ever and how he takes action when everyone else is in panic mode. Youll want to see this. What . Customers didnt like it. So why do banks do it . Hello . Hello . if your bank doesnt let you talk to a real person 24 7, you need an ally. Hello . Ally bank. The oracle of omaha is one of the best investors of alltime but you wouldnt know that by the looks of Warren Buffetts office. Poppy harlow took a tour of the place. He is a low key fellow. He is in all respects. This was a very neat experience to tour around his office. This is after we had a long interview with him a few weeks ago and what we found and actually what we didnt find might surprise you. Well ive been in this building 50 years, theyve moved me around a little bit. Reporter history on the walls of Warren Buffetts office. I formed my First Partnership in may of 1956 so this was the year end Balance Sheet which i typed myself, probably find a tu few typos and these were my partners, my fatherinlaw, my roommate in college, his mother, aunt alice, my sister doris and her husband, truman and that was the gang. And you. If they kept the 10,000 investment and i liquidated the partnership, reinvested that in berkshire hathaway, they would now have about 500 million. I did very well with small amounts of money back in 1964, and when the panic happens with a really good company i like to buy. Reporter buffetts m. O. For investing, this New York Times article reminds him of an important lesson. We always have lots of money and never borrow a lot of money. First campaign i got really active in was when i was 10 years old in 1940 and wilke was running against roosevelt. My dad thought if roosevelt got elected thered never be another election. Reporter a vocal republican in his earlier years, he now leans left and a big obama supporter. I brought along figures i thought would be of interest to him, that was when i got the president ial medal of freedom. Reporter hes never had political ambitions like his father. Thats my dads Campaign Picture when he was 39 years old running for congress in 1942. This is my dads desk, this sat on his desk when i was a kid, when i was 10 years old. I always admired it. Reporter i love this, the too hard box. Theres a lot of things that belong in there. The real problem is if they belong in there and i dont realize it. Reporter then the model mars rover given to him by opportunities at caltech. That beats getting a t shirt. Reporter and the mock Sports Illustrated cover. Theyll bring me out as water boy. Reporter no email, perhaps the secret to buffetts success. I am convinced no email is the secret to his success. Who is tweeting while youre talking here . The amount of time you save and the lack of distraction but again look at that office, it was a modest office, and very frugal. Yes, he gives a lot of money away. He does. Less than 20 people work in the office. Theres the typical water fountain chatter, i walked by his two major investment guys wearing casual clothes, theres a soda machine, of course it has coke products in it because theyre big investors in cocacola. Few cool things, this 1901 New York Times article, i asked him about it. I said why do you look at that every day. He said this article is about a guy that made a very risky investment, had a margin call and jumped in a hot vat of beer and killed himself so i never take big risks, and then he has this model Wells Fargo Stage coach as well and they own more than 400 million shares in that bank so he says i think ill get a little bit more out of it than a staining coach and he has the baseball jersey, arod jersey. He loves stand museil who got the president ial medal of honor. Arod, lebron, a lot of athletes go to him for advice. Lebron and warren email back and forth and he gives him advice. The secretary tells him the answer. Good story thank you, poppy. Just ahead, a local paper gets a lot of people angry by publishing the names and addresses of registered gun owners. Now one blogger strikes back, he joins us when we come back. Welcome back. We have this just in to cnn, egypts state prosecutor ordered imprisoned former dictator Hosni Mubarek transferred to a military hospital. The 84yearold mubarak has been quite ill for some time. We are following this developing story. Panic sends people running through a sacramento mall after police say a 20person brawl broke out in the food court. Three teens were arrested. No reason why, but stores did go into lockdown just in case. The mall reopened about one hour later. D. C. Prosecutors are being tightlipped about whether they will charge nbcs David Gregory for showing off a high capacity ammunition magazine on meet the press. Gregory used that magazine as a prop during an interview with the head of the nra, Wayne Lapierre but its illegal to show them in public in washington even if theyre not attached to a weapon. D. C. Police says nbc asked if they could use the magazine on the show. They said no, but gregory did it anyway. Interesting. Gotten a lot of attention. Quick show of hands, the newspaper, that published the name of the addresses of people with gun permits. Thumbs up, yes or no . Good idea or bad idea . Bad. On balance bad. You probably heard about this, a lot of outrage. One blogger decided to fight back, you wonder whether thats a good or bad idea as well, when we come back. Nts that pink cast. And you really dont want to pay more than you have to. Only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. And if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. Just use your citi card and register your purchase online. Have a super sparkly day ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. Citi price rewind. Start saving at citi. Com pricerewind. Aww man. [ male announcer ] returns are easy with free pickup from the u. S. Postal service. Well even drop off boxes if you need them. Visit usps. Com pay, print, and have it picked up for free. Any time of year. Nice sweater. Thank you. Every signature is unique, and every fingerprint unrepeatable. At sleep number, weve always recognized the incredible diversity of human beings, and know that up there with your Social Security number and your phone number is another important number. Your sleep number. So we created the extraordinarily comfortable sleep number experience. A collection of innovations designed around a bed with dualair technology that allows you your bodies. It began eight million customers ago, and it continues every time one of our sleep professionals rejects the notion of the massproduced human, and helps another person find their sleep number setting. Exclusively at a sleep number store. Sleep number. Comfort individualized. Save 50 on the final closeout of our silver plus special financing through new years day. Point. Alina cho has a look at todays top stories. Good morning ali and everybody. The outlook not so good, pennsylvania, new york, massachusetts, new hampshire, vermont and maine all under winter storm warnings. Look at that radar there, all of that white across the country, up to 18 inches of snow or more expected to fall on parts of new england today. More than 1,700 flights had to be canceled just yesterday because of the weather, and more than 200 more today have already been canceled. Doctors say two firefighters shot on Christmas Eve are improving and now starting physical therapy. Police say a gunman set fire as a trap, and then ambushed joseph ho hoffstetter and theodore scardino. We spoke to the webster fire marshal earlier this morning and he said its hard to believe what happened. After 9 11, we trained to be alert for secondary devices that were aimed at the first responders, but never, never would anybody have thought that somebody would have been waiting for the firemen as they came around the corner, barely even out of their rig yet. The rig continued moving and crashed into an embankment in front of the scene. Its just something thats been very difficult to come to terms with. The two injured firefighters put out this statement, we are humbled and a bit overwhelmed by the outpouring of well wishes for us and our families. Like so many others, our thoughts and prayers are with the families of Michael Chiapperini and tomasz caczowka and those who lost their homes. Let me explain this, two companies christian themed bookstores argued requiring health plans to cover contraception violates religious beliefs. Sotomayor said the companies didnt qualify for an injunction while they challenged the requirement in court. She did not rule on the companys religious based claims. The fbi considered the occupy wall Street Movement a potential threat so much so they had counterterrorism agents from alaska to florida keeping watch. Newly released documents show the bureau was in touch with police businesses and universities even before all of those demonstrators set up in new yorks Zuccotti Park last year. You had to guess that was happening. I guess theres shades about the fbi investigating groups like that, so i have a different perspective on that historically. We will come back to that. Right now i want to get your perspective on this particular story outrage is growing over this morning, over a newspapers decision to publish a map pinpointing the addresses of people with gun permits. Now this was published by the journal news which is based in white plains, new york, just north of new york city. It shows homes where public records indicate someone living there holds a gun permit. That was part of an article called the gun owner next door. The newspaper says they got the information from public records and it has Readers Online furious, including one blogger who decided to strike back by posting the home addresses of most of the leadership and staff of the newspapers the journalnews. That blogger is christopher fountain, his blog for what its worth can be found at christopherfountain. Wordpress. Com. We reached out to the editors and the publisher and some of the people you named to invite them on to the show. They issued a statement, the publisher janet hassan said one of our roles is to report publicly available information on timely issues, even when unpopular. We knew publication of the database, as well as the accompanying article providing context, would be controversial, but we felt sharing information about gun permits in our area was important in the aftermath of the newton shootings. That is from janet hasson, president of journal news media group. Chris you are a gun owner. I am. What caused you to do this . Why did you publish the names of people from the newspaper . Ive never liked bullies. I thought she was bullying gun owners by conflate iing new yor Westchester County gun owners with a horrible incident in newtown, connecticut, one has nothing to do with the other. I thought i had initially printed, published the publisher, the reporter and the editors home addresses. You ended up publishing the sports editor. I looked them up and fell free, yes. Can i walk through, your objection to them publishing it was an invasion of privacy . That and they initially defended it as for the safety of the children that you would know. Well for heavens sakes, 580 times more children drown in swimming pools. If you felt it was invasion of privacy for them to publish the addresses. Why is the response to do the same thing yourself . Why does the end justify these means . How is it different than what they did . Its a logical fallacy i agree to say you did it, too. On the other hand, frankly, im not a big fan of the media and i felt they were using this to harass gun owners, solely to harass gun owners so i harassed them back. So youre not a big fan of the media, why sit here in the media and talk about it . In the hope that i can provide my side of a gun owners perspective. So you like the media when it benefits you. You invited me, sir. Im asking. If you dont like something then you still do it, the same point ron is making if you dont like the invasion of privacy when it comes to who owns guns but youre publishing. Youre saying one thing but do another. Im a writer, a publisher. My name and photograph are right on my blog. They can contact me, my cell phone number is there. What kind of reaction have you had . About 99 positive but given the readership of my blog. Isnt that kind of where we are . Look at everything thats happening whether its the reaction to the newtown shooting, the fiscal cliff, essentially its not surprising that 99 of your bloggers support. Were sigh lowing into different americas that are increasingly unwilling to make accommodations with each other. What i wonder about this, its part of the general escalation of political combat we see on every front. You dont like what they did, you go back and do it yourself. Does this lead us any closer to having somen could consensus on what to do about guns . The media has been harassing and exposing personal details of people for a long time so i dont believe im escalating. I believe im punching back if you will. You have had comments posted to your blog you wont approve because they suggest retribut n retribution. We saw on another website, a quote they the journalists, should watch when they step outside if they see a red spot on their clothing. Are you worried about . The ones i took why dont you publish the names of their children . Im not going there. I do have some limits. I felt some of the comments were going down my original point in posting this was to just show those particular reporters and the publisher what it feels like. The central question in this entire story is why and to be honest i dont know the question why you would have published the addresses but i certainly dont know why the journalnews would have published the addresses of legal gun permit owners. I just dont know why, when they sat in the editorial meeting id love to know from janet hasson whose statement does not give me an answer why they decided to publish this. Chris suggested he thinks theyre equating legal gun permit holders with the person who perpetrated the tragedy in newtown. They havent said that. They just want you to know theres somebody with a gun in your neighborhood. And published it eight days after the newtown tragedy and hadnt thought of it before. Theres a larger debate about gun control going on in this country which were all glad for, isnt this just part of a larger gun, like why do you think its about specifically equating it to the person who perpetrated the tragedy as opposed to hey, here are all the guns in your neighborhood. Because if they wanted to, they could have said hey, there are 2,454 gun permit owners without publishing the names and addresses of those people. I got calls and comments from abused women who were in hiding from their husband who have now retired new York City Police detective who said, Christmas Eve already received five death threats. Legal permit holders, the newspaper chose to publish their name and home address. What do you hope to come out of this chris, other than the discussion were having . Really thats about it. Did you ever think this would have gotten this much attention . I have a little blog about greenwich real estate and suddenly i have 120,000. People are intrigued by the issue. Chris fountain a blogger from connecticut. Coming up on starting point hes known for being shirtless all the time. Matthew mcconaughey is teaching others to keep fit. Alina chos conversation with him on getting fit. And the grinch from the new musical version joins us live. There is he. Look at that. [ woman ] ring. Ring. Progresso. I just served my motherinlaw your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much. I told her it was homemade. Everyone tells a little white lie now and then. But now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] shes right behind me isnt she . [ male announcer ] progresso. You gotta taste this soup. Its a fact a lot of people dont know but alina and i used to share an office. Thats not me and alina always tried to get me to eat better so that i could look like that but i dont so this is how she rubs it in. Youve seen him shirtless all the time, usually on a beach. Matthew mcconaughey is more than just a stellar pack of abs, alina. Alina is with her series big stars, big giving. Alina, rub it in. I didnt look at him at all like that, it was all about his foundation, a very, attractive man, but lets talk about that, because you know, if you think about it, when you think about charity, there really are a million ways you can help and a lot of stars do give back. What was interesting about Matthew Mcconaughey when it comes to philanthropy he wanted his hands in the clay so a couple of years ago he started his own foundation, helping kids live healthier lives. We sat down recently in los angeles to talk about that and also about the one thing everyones been buzzing about lately, his dramatic weight loss. I go i want something philanthropic or charitable, something i need to follow, build and track. Matthew mcconaughey, movie star. Hi, im benjamin. Amy. Reporter started to think how he could give back. I want to find a place where i can help out where its prevention before you need a cure so that also then obviously led to the kids. 30 more seconds to warm up. Reporter it led him to high schoolers. My freshman year in high school a little odd because youve coming from being the big dog in eighth grade. Reporter let him and his wife to start the j. K. Living foundation. Just keep livin, life is a verb. Reporter it doesnt just provide support to existing programs, it created and funds its own afterschool curriculum in 14 schools with high poverty rates nationwide. Break a sweat. Learn to eat healthy, and say thank you. Thats sort of the three monikers. Reporter the kids meet twice a week, two hours a day, like 16yearold esperanza ortega. We have our monthly goals, i say ill lose five pounds and when i lost five pounds, i felt great. Reporter and jeffrey ginn. Working out its a great stress reliever. It takes off the pain, takes your mind off of a lot of things that happen during the week. If you can get them there and start good habits that maybe they didnt have or get them to maintain the good habits they already had, they have a better chance of carrying them over. Reporter theres the gratitude circle. Im thankful for my best friends ive had for five years. For the opportunity to pursue a college education. Reporter besides the obvious, what is the real value in doing that, do you think . Reciprocity. The things that we show gratitude for, the things that we are thankful for. It creates more things to be thankful for. Reporter like his success as an actor. I think i see a lot of law breakers up in this house. Reporter which leads us to that dramatic weight loss. Im the lightest ive been since i was, i dont know, eight grade or something. Reporter 38 pounds. The new film Dallas Buyers Club he plays an aids patient, a working actor with worldwide fame and a conscience. Ive got things, im one of the haves. There are a lot of have nots. Were giving the proverbial fishing rod instead of a fish to a lot of these kids and thankfully theyre taking it and theyre using it and theyre coming back and customizing it in their own life. That definitely feels good. And for more on matthew mcconmes j. K. Livin foundation, how you can help, go to cnn. Com impact. The 38 pounds he lost told me 90 diet. Ali velshi. Thanks for rubbing that in. Coming up, maybe hes not so mean after all, weve got the grinch here live in the house. O. Im going to dream about that steak. Im going to dream about that tiramisu. What a night, huh . But, um, can the test drive be over now . Head back to the dealership . [ male announcer ] its practically yours. But we still need your signature. Volkswagen sign then drive is back. And its never been easier to get a passat. Thats the power of german engineering. Get 0 down, 0 due at signing, 0 deposit, and 0 first months payment on any new volkswagen. Visit vwdealer. Com today. Share brotherly love. Share one ups. Mom . Mom . The share everything plan. Lets your family share a pool of data across 10 devices with unlimited talk and text. Get a spectrum 2 by lg for 49. 99 [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of all day pain relief. This season, discover aleve. All day pain relief with just two pills. Youre a rotter, mr. Grinch, youre the king of from the 1966 cartoon to a brand new musical the grinchs heart has warmed over the years and spreading Holiday Cheer and helping kids in the process teaming up with the nonprofit garden of dreams foundation which has helped more than 200,000 children and their families since its inception in 2006, including most recently kids hit hard by superstorm sandy. We have the grinch with us, along with 12yearold tyler, you are noel, miles over there, and kennedy. Welcome to all of you. Good to see you all and grinch, good to have you here. Thank you, a pleasure to be here. You talk like that all the time . Oh, yes i do. Excellent. These kids are all local, from around the area. Yes. Youre from . Hooville. Of course you are. Tell me about this foundation and what youve done with it. This foundation is incredible with Madison Square garden, the garden of dreams foundation is working to create experiences and dreams for children facing obstacles in their lives, whether it be a book drive or appearances with celebrities such as yours truly, we create dreams. We appreciate that. Noel, you faced some obstacles in your life. Do you mind if i tell our viewers about some of them . No, i dont mind. You have dealt with rheumatoid arthritis, gau coma and uvitis and turrets syndr e syndrome. This has given me so many opportunities that you only you know like you only think about in your dreams, so its such an amazing opportunity to get all of these exciting things happen in your life. What are some of the exciting things . Well recently, about a month ago, i sang at a knicks game at Madison Square garden. Excellent. How about you, tyler, what are some of the things that you, i know youve been battling Liver Disease as well. Yes. Actually got my liver transplant about a year and a half ago. How is that coming . Great. Excellent, what has this done for you . Theyve done everything for me. I performed at Madison Square garden theater, performed at radio city, myself being a big sports fan ive been to knicks games, ive announced p. A. At ranger games, sat courtside. Wow. They do everything that if, you know, normal people cant do. I met the emcee, ive done all this amazing stuff. You have been on tv before . Obviously with the things youve done youve been on before. Yes, and i love doing it because i love getting the word out there and spreading what they do. Thats excellent. Hey, miles, sorry, i didnt mean to distract you. This is your first time on tv for sure. Youre very interested, very busy. Yes. What do you think about being on tv, you like it . Its okay. Its okay . Youre breaking my heart what do you mean its okay. I worked all my life to do this. Hes not getting paid. But hes not getting paid for it, thats what roland says. What do you get out of this . Well i get out of this bravery, fun and also time to be famous. Time to be famous there you go and kennedy welcome to you. You look like youre having a good time. Are you enjoying it . Youre a little shy . Youre not shy . Tell us what you love about it. I love that i am meeting new people and you look like youre going to give him one. Great to see you all. Thank you all for being here and sharing your experiences with us. We wish you continued good luck and thank you, grinch. Youre much nicer than they say. Thank you. You have warmed up. Absolutely, its christmas, i brought those gifts back. I love it. All right, that is it for us. We thank you, we want to thank will cain, Roland Martin, Ron Brownstein, alina cho, they will all be back with me tomorrow starting at 7 00 a. M. Eastern in the cnn newsroom. Were going to carol costello, good morning. R little word game. I think your friends will understand. Oh no, its actually my geico app. See . I just uh paid my bill. Did you really . From the plane . Yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24 7. Sounds a little too good to be true sir. Ill believe that when pigs fly. Ok, did she seriously just say that . Geico. Just click away with our free mobile app. Its lots of things. All waking up. Connecting to the global phenomenon we call the internet of everything. Its going to be amazing. And exciting. And maybe, most remarkably, not that far away. Were going to wake the world up. And watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. Cisco